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Original poster

How many of you have used tutors to help get your child into a grammar school?

94 replies

Blossomhill · 02/09/2007 12:47

Just wondering really how common it is? Ds has just started his and it is not cheap! Am I wasting my money or is it worth it for a year?
Thanks

OP posts:
Hurlyburly · 04/09/2007 17:00

Isn't that argument essentially saying

"Lets abolish the good and successful(grammar) schools, because then they won't make the poor and unsuccessful (comprehensive) schools look bad"

Mercy · 04/09/2007 17:02

Blimey, it's all really changed since I was at school

Judy1234 · 04/09/2007 17:03

There are no grammars in most parts of the UK. They abolished them where I am from before I was 11 in the late 1960s. So all this talk about grammars is completely irrelevant to most parents. I suppose you'd only achieve fairness by a Brighton solution - random allocation, not by where you live (so it's not selection by house price).

Hurlyburly · 04/09/2007 17:05

I think the Brighton solution is a marvellous idea.

On the subject of houseprices, has there been any analysis of the prices of houses around a good grammar school. I bet they are stacks more expensive but I'd like to see some research.

diplodocus · 04/09/2007 17:06

No - I don't think it is. I think the argument is "let's all invest (government, teachers and parents) in a system that's better for everyone, not just a few". And lets be honest - we're talking about a very small percentage of the population that will ever got to grammar school, partly because there aren't many left.

Freckle · 04/09/2007 17:07

I don't think that house prices around grammars are necessarily higher than anywhere else simply because grammars have a far wider catchment area (if they have one at all) than high schools. It is the house prices around good high schools which are likely to be affected by parents wanting to get their children into the best schools.

E.g., our nearest high school has a catchment area of a few hundred metres (as they can fill their places from this area) whereas the nearest grammar takes children from miles away.

diplodocus · 04/09/2007 17:08

My post was a response to Hurley's - took too long typing! Also xpost with Xenia

Judy1234 · 04/09/2007 17:09

More money doesn't mean better education by any means. Labour has poured money in to all kinds of stupid things, specialist schools in music where the average musical ability is much worse than any normal private schools I know, specialist language where only a tiny % are any good at languages. It's all form without substance, huge waste of our taxes. No wonder more and more parents are paying fees instead.

Hurlyburly · 04/09/2007 17:16

I'm with Xenia here.

You are contradicting yourself Diplodocus. On the one hand you are saying that so few children go to grammar schools that they have not a lot of relevance.

On the other hand they should be abolished because they are undermining the system. How? Why exactly? If so few people use them, then why bother abolishing them.

You say "Parents shouldn't have to feel that their children need to jump through hoops to get a good education."

But they do. I do. My local comp is a jungle. Over a thousand pupils. Over 50 of them with ASBOs. Scares ME stiff. What it'd do to my DCs I don't know.

WendyWeber · 04/09/2007 17:20

We didn't use tutors for any of ours but their school always did practice papers with all the entrants so we felt they were well enough prepared to manage alone (or not, obv ).

Not sure what we would have done otherwise...practice papers at home, definitely, but probably not tutoring.

Lilymaid · 04/09/2007 17:24

"The problem is not the parents trying to get their children in - it's the disparities between schools". I would suggest that it is more the disparities between the aims and aspirations of the pupils and their families. Although the majority of parents and families want their children to do as well as they possibly can in school and will back up the schools, there remains a significant minority to whom the whole school system is irrelevant to their fairly aimless and disoragnised lives.

ElenyaTuesday · 04/09/2007 17:29

It's so funny to see so many people here from my area! Ds1 will be sitting the Wa test in 11 days time but it will probably be a disaster as he refuses to do any practice papers. At least the result will be out early and I can decide not to put him in for Wi's test!

southeastastra · 04/09/2007 17:46

xenia

'Labour has poured money in to all kinds of tupid things, specialist schools in music where the average musical ability is much worse than any normal private schools I know, specialist language where only a tiny % are any good at languages'

exactly how do you know this?

lily:

there remains a significant minority to whom the whole school system is irrelevant to their fairly aimless and disoragnised lives.

what do you suggest we do with these parents then? shoot them?

snobtastic thread

ladymuck · 04/09/2007 17:52

Personally I think that the travesty is that the primary schools deliberately teach to the SATs but not to the 11+. But of course it is all down to what is measured gets done. If local league tables were produced on the number of pupils passing the 11+ (rather than or as well as SAT results) you may well see the pupils of less-educationaly-aware backgrounds getting in.

Judy1234 · 04/09/2007 19:23

I think it's because they give it a stupid name like specialise music school and then they're only allowed to recruit something like 15% of pupils with any aptitude to that. It's like some ridiculous experiment. Make it a music school and then test them and let those with grade 5 and very musical get in but make that 100% of the input not these very strange percentages. They do it with academic stuff too say something like 20% of your intake can be chosen by IQ test or whatever. It's bizarre.

Or they say we wan 10% of children who get 80% in the entrance test, 10% who get 60 - 80 so a child may try to do slightly worse as they won't get into the over 80% range and are trying to fall into the next band down. You couldn't make it up could you?

Original poster
Blossomhill · 04/09/2007 20:22

The purpose of this thread was not to seek approval from people. I am quite happy with what I am doing. If my ds was struggling would people still have same opinions if I got him a tutor?

OP posts:
deaconblue · 04/09/2007 20:32

I taught in a grammar school for 4 years and it was very rare to see a child who hadn't had some tutoring. Also the test was weighted in favour of younger children so that we taught kids with May, June, july birthdays mostly

MrsScavo · 04/09/2007 20:33

Blossom hill, I think this thread has confirimed you are not wasting your money, especially if your child won't sit down with you to do the practice papers. My sons tutor also covers essay writing, which, as he's missed a large amount of school, I hope will be very usefull to him.

Can I ask how much you're paying? I'm paying £28 ph.

Original poster
Blossomhill · 04/09/2007 21:08

sbue ~ oh my ds is a January birthday!

Ms ~ I am paying £22 and the tutor comes to my house

OP posts:
WendyWeber · 04/09/2007 21:19

At our grammar school there is some age-weighting, but even so the majority of kids have Sept-Feb birthdays.

Mercy · 04/09/2007 21:34

I'm obviously rather naive on this subject (having got into grammar school via the 11+ in the 70s) but the way i read it is that grammar schools have become a free alternative to the high achieving independent schools. Is that right?

So what happens to those children who are tutored and don't get in to the grammar schools?

seeker · 04/09/2007 23:18

The point I'm trying to make, Freckle, is that these days your father wouldn't have a hope in hell of passing the 11+ because all the places are taken up by children like my dd who is the product of 5 generations (count 'em!) of professional, university educated folk. I am arguing that the grammar schools, where they exist, should provide a stepping stone for people like your father like they once did. That is the only justification for their existence. But they don't.

babyboo1and2 · 04/09/2007 23:38

a neighbour of mine had her daughter tutored at a cost of £10 ph as there are 4 pupils altogether at the tutors house

her girl passed and my neighbour said the tutor was tutoring 15 children and 13 passed - i have put my son down with this tutor and he starts next week (he starts year 5 tomorrow) but now am worried her fees are too cheap and i should be looking for one to one tution

opinions?

seeker · 04/09/2007 23:39

Why do you think he needs tutoring?

babyboo1and2 · 04/09/2007 23:44

he is at a state primary school and is a very bright boy within his class but we feel he would be competing for a place against a lot if other very bright boys and that he would be at a disadvantage to all the others because it appears to us virtually everyone who attempts to get into grammar schools goes along the route of tutoring