"A rose will bloom wherever." True? Experiences?

[fircone]

Ds is by all accounts very bright.

He is off to the local comp this September, which is very good, the best in the county even, but obviously not an academic powerhouse.

Please reassure me that even though he won't be doing classics and wearing a blazer and tie he'll do as well as those who do!

I went to a comprehensive school and a state sixth form college. I then went on to Cambridge and got a first class degree in engineering.

Cambridge is very hard work and I would never advise anyone to push their children to go there, state or independently educated. You have to be bright, motivated and able to work independently. You are probably better prepared if you've been to a state school because you may have been less spoon fed. Who knows!

Luckily, Cambridge knows this and only picks people that can cope. It doesn't care how people were educated, just that they are able and bright enough.

I read an article about the famous economist (forget his name) who predicted the credit crunch.

When asked what he considered one of the best investments, he said investing time in your children. He went to a state school and his parents spent time with him.

No one in my year at a reasonable comp even considered applying to Oxbridge. It simply wasn't an option.

This may have something to do with the fact that it was in Scotland (the only Scots I know who went to Oxbridge went from the independent sector.)

There was one boy in the year above me though who tried to get into Oxford.
He was a really nice chap, had 5 or 6 As at Higher, was head boy, and he led a section of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, as well as playing in the National Youth Orchestra of the UK, and played rugby for the region.

He was told to F*ck off.

The sad thing was none of the pupils were suprised as we all thought that Oxbridge was for English Hooray Henrys.

Perhaps that was why I was so impressed that Mr Tufnell went to Cambridge!

What I'm trying to say is that even in my goodish comp the aspirations just were not there.
And I will never forget being sat next to someone in history who punched me for a year, and is now in BarL for double murder.

Don't know about Scotland, but in England things have moved on a lot. Oxbridge do a lot of outreach work with state schools because as someone pointed out earlier, they want the best brains, and aren't interested in whether you went to private school and were captain of the lacrosse team or whatever. They recognise that exceptional ability can be found anywhere.

Sitting next to someone who punched me reminded me of my History lessons at comp where we were taught mixed ability up to age 16, so O level and CSE candidates were in the same classes. Out teacher had a very strict seating plan and I was stuck next to the class bad lad who wasn't even sitting an exam at all! Didn't get punched, but the conversation wasn't sparkling!Oh well, at least it was an incentive to focus on my work and get an A grade! Thank goodness comps set by ability now - those poor teachers must have had a very challenging job!

I do applaud the efforts of unis to do outreach, but if the school and parents do not give pupils the leg up, it is only the very brightest who make it.

The bright kids who went to uni had to fight tooth and nail to rise above the disruption, and the lack support, and the crappy conditions. I have fond memories of the janitors pasting binbags over the windows at exam times because the curtains had not been replaced.

Things have moved on. Oxbridge colleges go out of their way to attract pupils from all walks of life and on here many Oxbridge admissions tutors have posted to reiterate that.

However, pupils do need to know that those opportunities are there. Some state schools are better at showing the way than others and obviously committed, interested parents help enormously.

For the OP a rose will always bloom. She knows the system and she will be able to facilitate the best opportunities for her child.

Pity the bright children with not 'in the know' parents and teachers, they are the ones who won't have the opportunity to bloom. Not doing latin doesn't even come into it!

Happily most schools nowadays do a jolly good job in steering their pupils in the right direction but I still personally worry that some pupils are being 'encouraged' to take the wrong subjects for the most academic of courses at 'top' universities. But probably twas always thus only slightly different!

bit confused about all the indies 'spoon-feeding' - how dare they! . I think you will find the 'comps' put in shed loads of effort for coursework and certainly some of the 'parents' achieve very good grades . one of my form dads was very impressed with his A in Art.

All the module resits and coursework elements provide plenty of shite for the roses.

Absolutely, the sooner 'coursework' is done in school time the better. One comment at my DSs' grammar school was 'mrs x v good at the French coursework (what with her being actually French), not so good in the exam'.

Sorry, have had wine and am tired and crabby.

My sons' Indy school do mostly IGCSEs - they have no coursework element and are widely acknowledged to be more rigourous than GCSEs.

I've never seen my 17 year old son do coursework.

I know one Mum who is currentlty 'helping' her son with his coursework. Not doing it for him, you understand, oh no no, simply 'collating' and 'typing up'.