11+ being scrapped

[musu]

At one school in Essex here

Interesting development which follows on from Bucks CC overhauling their 11+ and trying to make it tutor proof (although everyone I know in Bucks is still employing tutors).

Hello all

Apologies for all the deletions - we've been visited by a previously banned poster. Do please report them if they re-surface.

Interesting!

Who is Mts organic chicken. Why was she kicked off

Well, obviously she or he is a rather obtuse individual with a personal vendetta or so, who ive seen irritate numerous posters with his or her perplexing inability ever to understand what is actually being said.

I didn't know he or she was banned though!

I wish I could remember what she said now with all those deletions!

I want to know which previously banned poster.
I have read a few of her/his posts on other topics recently and they seemed familiar, but I didn't recognise the name.
I guess there's nothing to stop somebody re registering with a new email and nickname.
I hope it wasn't just because they were controversial or I'll be next

"Well seeker for as long as grammar provision is not nationwide and the norm, and as long as people like you keep on banging on about how incredibly mc all grammars are, the more you'll deter those less well off from applying or wanting to apply. But of course this entrenches the mc whilst allowing the mc to enter their kids for the test whilst at the same time wringing their hands. Brilliant!"

So we pretend it isn't happening? Pretend it's all hunkey dory and level playing fields and the stuff about FSM is a figment of my fevered imagination?

Oh, and it's not hard to spot the "previously banned poster". The names are all very similar.

No we don't ignore it, we address it.

We all know that too few disadvanatged students don't get in to Oxbridge, but I don't hear you calling for them to be abolished!!!!

Absolutely. We address it.How?

I know that your solution is rolling out 10%er super-selectives to the rest of the country.

Mine is abolishing the remaining grammar schools and making sure that they are replaced by rigorously setted comprehensive schools.

You don't agree, obviously, with my suggestion, but it's just as much addressing it as yours is!

Since you have a very poor understanding of what the current situation really looks like, seeker, I wonder why you think posters should take your proposed solution seriously? I cannot be the only poster who doesn't want to waste time discussing ways to address fictional problems.

Bonsoir- please could you explain the 9.6 disparity between children on FSM in grammar schools compared to children in the area where the school is situated?

You are wrong, by the way about grammar schools not having catchment areas. The super selective grammar schools do have different admissions criteria, but other grammar schools admit on the basis of test and proximity.

You are also wrong about comprehensives in Kent. The school you mention is an Academy, and, as far as I am aware, unique. It also has an admissions test. Mascalls calls itself a comprehensive, and for geographical and demographic reasons ( and because it is a very good school which sets rigorously) is closer to a true comprehensive than most Kent non selective schools, but is technically still a secondary modern school.

Seeker - not that similar, surely - the first time he or she was causing a fuss the names were a bit different (but all closely linked that time too). I think I mentioned the original name upthread. Best to just ignore, that's what I always do.

Unmistakable style, though!

Yes. :(

There are many unique state schools in Kent, seeker. That is the point - it is not a GS-SM monolith in a post-war unreconstructed model as you keep depicting it to be. It is a market place.

While I know, having relatives in Kent, that the system is not as monolithic as Seeker paints, I suspect that for most parents - because those 'in the know' are never the majority are they - it does seem to be monolithic. And the geographical and travel logistics challenges offered by Kent-the-county (as opposed to Kent the LEA) probably do mean that for most people the local solution is the only feasible one.

Bonsoir- please explain this market place idea. I presume you're not saying any child in a kent could attend any school? So how does it work?

That isn't true, Russian. Families in Kent often have DCs at different secondary schools because the transport links are excellent and permit choice. Families in Ashford, for example, often prefer their DC to take the bus to Homewood in Tenterden rather than go to school in Ashford. Some DC from Tenterden and around also travel by bus to GS in Ashford every day.

You will always get some families who just don't care but IME of Kent many families think they have a great choice of school adapted to the differing needs of all their DC.

And this "market place", bonsoir?

A market place is one with lots of different competing offers.

Inevitably, there are also some sink schools for DC who for whatever reason are unable to compete. They have to go somewhere. I understand that you are incredibly hurt that your DS ended up in one of them. But don't conclude from your own hurt feelings that the whole system is failing.

seeker - why do you choose to live in a region with an educational market place when most of the country has the socialist educational system you prefer?

Oh, bonsoir- please don't bring my ds into it- we've got rid of my stalker, don't take up her baton! And I'm really bored th saying that my position on selective education has remained consistend since before I had school age children!

I do know what a market place means. I just don't see how it applies to an education system anywhere, let alone in a county where the 11+ applies. For example, the school my dd is at, you have to have passed the 11+ and live within 6.7 miles of the gate. Your particular favourite, Holmwood, for example, is also q catchment school, although it has an admissions test for 20%. That means theschool can choose, not the parent! Hardly a market place!

Spoke too soon.