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.

I went to a fantastic comp. Lived in Bucks and knew I'd never pass the 12 plus so went over the county border. I met my privately educated DH at uni. Now we are faced with a grammar system for DCs in a few years and dreading it. Would much prefer a good comp and nice straight forward transition.

I was around in 1960s and know for sure that there was a lot of anger about 11+ system! There will be even more today when people realise that their child will swap a comp for a sec mod- and that people are using money to make sure their child passes.

If grammar school is supposed to be to prepare a child for university why would you place one who intends going in a sec mod?

I had beyond grade 5 piano and it really doesn't count unless you want a related degree.

"Music qualifications from grade 5 count on applications to uni. No suggesting the banning of reading to toddlers but simply pointing out that railing against tutoring is kind of hypocritical,we all give our chosen advantages to our children. If parents want to tutor all power to them imvho."
In what way do they count? And I agree. If you have a selective system that requires tutoring, then of course people tutor.

It's not the parents I'm railing at, it's the system and the people who either refuse to accept that the system is unfair or who see that it is unfair and who don't care.

Some universities and some courses ask for points. Most don't - they just want grades.

"It helps, with 2 similar candidates somebody with a grade 8 is going to have a bigger chance than somebody without."

Honestly, they aren't. Can't you see how completely unfair it would be if they did? Ditto Duke of Edinburgh and all the other things people think make a difference?

Well for a start less than 40% should go to University if we want them to be anything other than a 'MONEY PIT' !

Nope.

Hang on, I'll find you chapter and verse.

If you think for 30 seconds, you'll realize why they can't.

HPFA Parliament Hill is an excellent school and any accusation of leafiness would be misplaced. Well there are lots of leaves on Hampstead Heath, but the school is well over half FSM and it's in an area where many go private or somehow manoeuvre their way into nearby Camden Girls.
As Poppy Noor writes - it's an excellent school. In part, I think, because it's one of the few schools in this part of the world that actually reflects the community.

Personal statements count for very little.

As I said- can you not see why expensive accomplishments like music exams couldn't possibly count for much?

Actually, maybe you can't.

And when personal statements do count, it's not about a list of accomplishments- it's about how they are relevant to the course you want to take, the career you want to follow, or to demonstrate the sort of person you are and what you can bring to the course.

Of course.

But a list of accomplishments will, I promise you, count for nothing.

DS's sixth form told them to keep extra curricular stuff to a bare minimum in his personal statement. What they should write about must be subject relevant and super curricular. I've what books they've read around the subject, what relevant to the subject work experience they have done etc. My DS could write about the maths challenge, being chosen by his school to attend a maths master class programme in Y9, then volunteering as a helper at the same set of master classes in Y12, having read Fermat's last theorem, etc.

Nobody cared that he had DofE silver, or that he volunteered in scouts as a young leader for 2 years.

TBH, his first choice, Warwick, say they don't care about PS at all, he just needed the grades. Maybe for a more vocational, or less competitive course the PS may be looked at.

i.e. not I've!

So student A got two As and a B while working in a crowded house bringing up her three younger siblings and supporting her disabled mother.

Student B got three As while attending a private school has grade 8 trumpet and her DofE.

Hmmmmm who worked harder???