Another wanky Guardian article - the 'anguish' of finding a good school ....

[disgustedbythehypocricy]

This is the most BOAK-inducing thing i've read in a while.. it's so bad i honestly don't know where to start!

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/04/andrew-penman-schools-education

[ZephirineDrouhin]

(That was to Xenia, obviously)

[MissM]

Precisely BecauseImWorthIt, which is exactly why I hope this thread doesn't turn into a state v. private slagging match.

[southlondondad]

I would be interested to hear from those who sent their kids to the local comprehensive where they actually live.... not their post code of course :) I would have no qualms sending my kids to the local state secondary school if I lived in an area which has good schools...

[Xenia]

Just for the record I didn't go to the boys' fee paying school Manchester Grammar and as far as I know I'm female.

Most parents try to find good schools for their chidlren whether by house price selection or moving a very long way away from poor areas. There's nothing wrong with that. it's the same as ensuring the children are well fed and loved. Education isn't a special category.

It's only a difficult issue for socialists.

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Rutlish is our local school - our nearest comprehensive. It's in Merton Park, SW20. We live about 3/4 mile away in SW19.

[ZephirineDrouhin]

"It's only a difficult issue for socialists."

What on earth does that mean?

[DandyDan]

"I would be interested to hear from those who sent their kids to the local comprehensive where they actually live...."

We've done this. We would have done it if OH's job had kept him where we were living previously, even though the local school there was something like 17% pass rate. I went to the local comprehensive when I was at school. We believe in sending our kids to the local school no matter what: we would hope they would work hard and we would support them as much as we can (and support the school too). If all parents did this the schools across the country would be slightly more comprehensive than they are with all this "choice". In this current situation, choice is iniquitous and socially divisive and more iniquitous than no-choice, like-it-or-lump-it local schools.

[Xenia]

Z, some people wrestle with the moral issue of whether they should advantage their child over other children in the area of schooling. Most parents don't and over 50% pf parents would pay fees if they could afford it but it tends to be those who are left wing who want children in state schools.

[said]

Manchester Grammar was a proper grammar school until 1976. Which doesn't matter any more on this thread but there you go.

[said]

I do love these XeniaFacts about "over 50% of parents" would pay

[said]

I suspect there are too many poor people in Manchester

[Xenia]

Manchester was very South for me.... presumably that school went privaet when the then Government abolished what was called "direct grant" schools - state grammars with central funding in the 70s. I remember the save our direct grant schools campaign. Quite a few notable state grammars went totally private then.

It is difficult for all parents to find the right school. The good schools you don't choose. If you ahve 5 applicants per place as many even in the recession do in the private sector the school chooses you and most children fail to get in. Those are the schools we want - the ones it is hard to get into rather the ones who will take all comers. Thus in a sense parents seek those it will be difficult for their children to get into because like most things if it's fairly easy to do or become that then the quality is lower.

[thelastresort]

The trouble is some people actually find it morally wrong have schools that are only available to children who have parents in jobs other than wishy washy ones like journalism with the money to pay, thus giving their already advantaged children an even bigger advanatage regardless of their natural intelligence or whatever.

Some people think it would be fairer to have excellent schools at which everyone is entitled to study, not only those with parents with the cash to pay.

However, not everyone agrees with that point of view and many people just think Life Isnt Fair and so what????

[ZephirineDrouhin]

Morally wrong, lastresort? Tsk, don't you know that The Market has long since absolved us all of moral responsibility. A citizen's only responsibility is to make as much money and pay as little tax as legally possible, as I'm sure Xenia will tell you.

[thelastresort]

:)

I know. Marvellous isn't it?

[cory]

DandyDan Wed 15-Sep-10 22:53:10
"I would be interested to hear from those who sent their kids to the local comprehensive where they actually live...."

We have- except that dd had to go to the next school along from her catchment secondary as the catchment school was not wheelchair adapted.

When dh and I married we bought a house in what was then a cheap (but perfectly pleasant) area of the town, because that was what we could afford. We have become slightly more affluent since, but not enough to move e.g. to the leafy suburbs where my (better paid) academic colleagues live. We don't worry much about it. Dd is well read and well spoken and as far as I can judge has an excellent chance of doing well in her exams. She may not have access to all the facilities that the independent schools can offer but she has enough to keep her busy and happy.

[MissM]

My DD has only just started primary school, but I have every intention of sending her to one of the local comps. Don't know where else she'd go really (or DS for that matter). Teenagers next door go to the supposed 'rough' secondary in town and the nicest, politest, friendliest, most confident teenagers I've met for a very long time. And the 15 year-old has just got good grades in the four GCSEs she took a year early.

[StreathamHillary]

"I would be interested to hear from those who sent their kids to the local comprehensive where they actually live...."

I think SLD meant 'where do those of you who use the nearest comp actually live"

DC go to nearest state school. I would be happy with the second nearest, too.

Guess where I live?

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Gosh. No idea, StreathamHillary. Give me a clue?

[MissM]

Tooting?