Grammar GCSE results

[MrPickles73]

DS2 is in yr 8 at grammar school. Overall the teaching seems very good and he's getting on well. There is lots of homework (1.5hrs a night). It's all boys and outside of SE England so perhaps not as competitive to get into as some grammars.

We were late to the grammar school idea so did 5 months tutoring to get in. Some of the kids in his tutoring group had 3 years X twice a week tutoring. It's quite middle class and only 5% FSMs.

DS2 is bright but by no means a genius. He did well enough to get in but by no means aced it as some of his class mates did. I would expect he will get 7-9s for GCSEs.

According to the year WhatsApp group a few of the parents have already bought the GCSE revision guides.. I was amazed.

So given all this what surprises me is the average GCSE results is not that amazing and some kids are getting 5s. How is this? Parents go berserk to get their kid in and then stop pedaling? kids pushed to hard too young and give up? They are all sitting on computer games? Something else?

It really isn’t. I think you need to broaden your knowledge of exam specs if you’re arguing that it’s academic.

On what basis are you arguing that it isn’t academic?
Im familiar with a number of exam specs.

I’m still quite young and went to grammar school in the 2010s.
The poor kids had parents like the cranks mentioned in this thread. Tutors, GCSE coaching from year 8, all sorts. It’s so tight, all for the sake of them getting an A* instead of a B, when Bs would be fine to get into uni anyway.
I overachieved because I’m fairly intelligent but also test really well so outperformed a lot of the coached kids, never had any tutoring etc and came from the local council estate so all the parents hated me lol

I'd just say that the gov are updating a lot of the curriculum (will be axing Computer Science for eg for Computing to take over as it's too hard apparently!) so no point in buying up revision guides for your year.

I live in a grammar area and most of the kids who got in were tutored for at least a year. This just means they are primed to take tests but often lowers the overall school results - our grammars are the lowest in the area of England we are in - because the teachers are used to teaching competitive kids while the parents think their job is done. Most parents seem to still be paying for tutoring to keep their kids in the top sets and they still can't get the schools to achieve as well as other grammar schools, which suggests they are just full of not very bright tutored kids to me. Ours have 2% FSM so clearly able to afford tutors! What annoys me is how it demolishes all of the other non-selective schools in the area, who have all of the behaviour issues and SEN to deal with. All of these are under the national average. Our area would do a lot better without the 11+ in my opinion.

When did you last look at the admissions policies for the Gloucestershire grammars schools?

They may not have defined catchment areas, but several of them already have oversubscription criteria other than 'first x applicants, in score order', and e.g. Ribston and Pates have just consulted on introducing changes to their admissions policies to prioritise local applicants wef September 2027 entry.

Thanks @MarchingFrogs I had heard they are consulting on prioritising some post codes. Denmark Road have already introduced this I believe but it is a funny shape, includes down to Stroud but not towards Cheltenham or Tewkesbury. Just using them as an example as no good for ds! I've not read the admissions policies though or viewed the schools yet. Got all this to look forward to come Sept.

DS2 is in Year 7 in a grammar school, one of the top ones nationally.
Hardly any kid ever gets a 5, there are a few 6s in English language and languages type thing most years. A 6 is a good enough grade really, even some top unis only insists on a 6 in Maths and English at GCSE as a benchmark.

GCSEs if you are doing 10 or sometimes even more, and get an average of a 7 across all is pretty good by national standards.
I would say in DCs London grammar they just do not keep those on who have a low average point score and not at least a 6 in Maths and both English GCSEs. That is probably how the top grammar schools stay in the top 5 nationally.

DC has Seneca through school and they are encouraged to be educated as widely as possible from year 7. Not sure how this compares to revision guides. Doing well in GCSEs is a combo of learning the required knowledge and applying it exactly like the exam board wants you to. Learning good scientific techniques is more important in the lower years and lots of science general knowledge. That is if you want to do Science at A level. Most bright children can do well in their Science GCSEs by just learning and applying but the more important question is the after GCSEs.

In a county wide system like Bucks, quite a few are over tutored and then don’t do so well at our 13 grammars. Most do very well though and there aren’t many grade 5s. Some will occur when dc like, for example, stem subjects but switch off with English! Certainly many dc aren’t gifted and plenty are not all rounders. We also have some terrific non grammars where dc do better than they might at grammar. Choice of subjects and pace of teaching helps dc achieve very well and plenty fo to university. Many of these schools have 25-33% high achievers so why would they not achieve well. Many parents support these schools and destination universities certainly overlap with the grammar destinations. Having a happy child matters to many parents and struggling, doing a lot of homework every night and not doing well is not what many parents want so are happy with the non selective secondaries.