In praise of comprehensive schools

[FreshHorizons]

It was cheering to see the Sutton Trust announce that 60% of Team GB medalists came from comprehensive schools.

I have finally come off a thread where certain people can't find a good word to say about comprehensive schools. They equate them with mixed ability teaching, poor behaviour and an inability to stretch bright children.

I would like a thread to celebrate the best of comprehensive education.

In my case it allowed my 3 , very different, children to be able to go to the same school without being judged by outsiders. It meant the stability of knowing one school over a long period of time and them knowing our family. It meant that days off and parent evenings didn't clash and that money was saved by handing down uniform. They were able to move up with the bulk from their primary school. They were able to mix with children of different abilities and backgrounds, as you do in adult life. It meant being able to enjoy education for the joy of learning new things, without the stress of an exam that would determine their path in life, aged only 10 or 11yrs.

Those things didn't really matter, although they were helpful.

What really mattered was that they could all blossom at their own rate.
They all got a good education and are now happily established in careers- the careers that they chose.

It wasn't all about the academic side- there were opportunities in sport, music, outdoor activities etc.

It would be nice to have some success stories. Please don't post about crap schools- start another thread for that if you have grievances you want to air.

It is the summer, the sun is out and some happy, optimistic stories would be nice.

Do these towns not have dustbin men, toilet cleaners, etc etc?

"A school is hardly comprehensive if it only contains one part of the population"

A comprehensive where all or almost all of the children are high achieving and from m/c families?

Good luck with finding one.

People seem very unsure of actual facts.
There was an assumption that Steyning Grammar school was a grammar school when a lot of comprehensives have 'Grammar' as part of the name. A minority like the Watford ones may have partial selection but most are like Steyning and true comprehensives.

I will await the results of anyone finding the mythical comprehensive with nearly all high achieving m/c children.

I am glad someone brought up ' Northern Ireland' because it is the same educational system exams albeit the odd year numbering system !

For the purposes of education ( withholding any political differences) Northern Ireland is effectively a big Kent . That is because the whole province uses 'transfer' tests , it used to be a unified '11+ ' exam (put paid to by Sinn Fein. This being rather interesting because the Catholic Grammar schools are the most ardent supporters of selection.

The 'pro' grammar 'mob' have shown two areas Trafford, Wirral and a 'Country ' Northern Ireland where selective education is achieving better dividends than Comprehensive system.

In their arguments the pro Comprehensive supporters argue for instance you can't use Trafford for instance ( due to the influx of 'fairies' in to the area) What is the excuse for Wirral being successful (the press Dept is working on that one )

I guess an excuse for Northern Ireland's successful selective system could be that children instead of playing out and running the risk of being blown up decided to spend three hours a night doing homework instead !

I am glad someone brought up ' Northern Ireland' because it is the same educational system exams albeit the odd year numbering system

Northern Ireland has its own National Curriculum

I think that you did 2StripeySocks at 10:15 this morning.

It does take GCSEs and A levels so there is obviously going to be a huge 'crossover' in what is taught and what the exams are requiring !

Wales also has 'regional' differences such as some schools teaching some subjects in Welsh !.

I went to school in Northern Ireland, and much prefer the comprehensive schools in Yorkshire where I now live. Most of the grammar schools in Belfast have fee-paying prep schools attached, and my old school used to take fee-paying boarders who had failed the 11+. There were really huge levels of class and sectarian segregation within the eduction system.

The school you went to is one of the United kingdom's oldest girls schools (`1859). if It was located in any part of England or Wales it would be a hugely 'expensive' public school.

You were so fortunate to have been educated there, yet you would have preferred to have been educated in the delightful 'Ridings' school in Halifax !

What, the Ridings School that has been closed down for nearly 10 years? That Ridings School?

I don't see how you could miss it 2StripeySocks

A school is hardly comprehensive if it only contains one part of the population i.e. the wealthy a la the SE and other very expensive parts of the country that exclude the less well off
Either you can name one or they are all comprehensive.
You also appear to have the view that anyone in an expensive house can't be in a bottom set- but that is a different matter

I don't think I went to the school you are thinking of, but the local comprehensives seem to send their high-flyers to much more impressive destinations than my old grammar ever did.

The one nice thing about grammar schools that the local schools don't have is that they can function well with fewer pupils, so you can have schools where everyone knows each other. And I do think that there are some pupils, of all levels of academic ability, who are better suited to a small school.

But Given the choice between the schools I went to and the schools my children and their friends go to, I'd take the comprehensives every time.

Another great school:

www.stokenewingtonschool.co.uk/news/gcse-results-day-at-sns

And about as non-leafy as it gets.

And another one, although somewhat more leafy:

www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/103558/results-say-it-all-in-rbwm-grammar-debate.html

Terraced houses in Stoke Newington sell for 1 million plus. I agree that being urban it is not leafy but surely the improvement in results is in part caused by the gentrification of the area and the massive increase in house prices there (plus generous London funding)?

I think that Maidenhead one proves that Maidenhead has no need of another grammar school proposal.

I know a lot of people who bought houses in Stoke Newington 10-15 years when the prices were much more reasonable. Their kids are now finishing school. Since the parents had high levels of education one would expect most of their kids to do well, whichever schools they went to.

News from a school that has made huge improvements and is not leafy.
Charter Academy Portsmouth

Bethnal Green Academy - Tower Hamlets. here

With results like these Bethnal Green Academy what advantage would you gain in creaming off?