Ilford County High School is being destroyed from within

[user1494882005]

My son is studying at Ilford County High School in Redbridge. It is an excellent boys grammar school with amazing results. This year roughly

28 students have been offered places to study medicine
40 students have been offered places to study engineering
10 students have been offered places to study computer science
30 students have been offered places to study economics

I could go on, but you get the picture.

Alas, good things are not meant to last and I'm afraid this may be true of Ilford County as well.

The current head teacher actually wants to restrict the number of students who can study maths and science at A-level. She actually wants to increase the intake of students who want to study music and other such soft subjects.

Which is all well and good. However, it still begs the question: how many students currently study music at A level at this school?

Well, the answer is zero. Yep, a big fat zero.

Yet, the school is investing money to build up facilities for music while the maths department has to do without work sheets due to lack of funds.

Any suggestions as to what could be done to rectify this situation are welcome.

In fact, I would love it if this thread became popular resulting in close attention being brought to bear at the goings on in this school.

And I say this out of genuine concern for a fine institution serving the area. My son finishes his year 13 on Friday.

God music isn't a soft subject at all, it's bloody difficult. And it actually complements maths very well.

Apologies if what I say next is controversial but I'm going to say it anyway - I grew up round there and it's a very Asian area. Asian parents typically want their children to study maths, science etc - they view literature, art, music et al as "soft" options. One of my best friends at sixth form (very near ilford county) studied maths, physics and biology at A-level. She wanted to do English, Art and Drama. It was very sad.

I know the same sort of thing goes on now and it's a shame. The arts are just as valuable as the sciences.

Not offering music A Level will put dome very bright students off applying as unlike drama for example, it's pretty necessary to have done music A Level in order to go onto an academic music degree at a Russell group or similar uni. The A level contains academic content not easily covetable in private instrumental/theory lessons that would make it hard to pick up at degree level without the A level grounding.

Drama isn't like that as the performance skills can be gained outside school & the other skills in subjects like English lit or history.

I think that you seem to have a very narrow view of what children "should" be interested in and study.

Just because a child is good at maths doesn't mean that they can't also be good at English, or Music, or Art. A well rounded education means that children should be encouraged to explore all subjects, rather than just being shoved into a pidgeon hole. Universities like to see applicants who cover a range of subjects, so rather than Maths, Further Math, Physics, Biology choose a student with Maths, Biology, English, Physics, particularly for subjects like medicine. It shows that the student is more flexible and has a wider range of transferable skills.

By the by, there is a very strong link between talent in maths and talent at music, anecdotally every person of my 8 strong Further Maths A Level class also had Grade 8 on at least one instrument.

If the number of maths and science teachers is remaining the same, how is the head restricting numbers?

Surely all she is doing is extending the curriculum and pupil numbers resulting in more funding for the school.

I can't comment on music as I have not a musical bone in my body but you make no mention of children with offers to study English, History, geography, politics, modern languages. That would concern me far more and I would be asking serious questions about schools who don't put equal weight on those subjects and I would be extremely concerned that the A level focus is far too narrow

To compete with the privates for the best children, the grammars must have more selling points to bring free

The best children hmmm!

Can you recommend any good tutors in Redbridge?