Tories want to abolish school catchment areas

[peanutbutterkid]

They say .

Am I the only one who thinks this is mostly looney? Schools will have to have lotteries about who gets in, so you could live next door but be stuffed and have to travel miles to get your child(ren) into any school.

School run madness and traffic will only get worse. What happend to the Tories' new green image??

It ignores the reality that "good" schools are usually only so "good" because of the social advantages of the people living in the surrounding area (middle class kids do better in school than poor kids, separate from what the schools are like). Getting poor kids into "good" schools will only bring the test scores of schools in good/bad areas closer together, not especially help the poor kids.

Rich Tory supporters won't care about this policy because they don't mind about state schools where they live, they send their kids private, anyway.

I live in catchment of average schools when I could have afforded catchemnt of excellent schools, btw, in case you just think I'm protecting my own interests.

Does everyone else like Tory idea, or think more like me?

link not working

could help me with my state v private decision

at first I was going to post that this is a looney idea.but then again it would be good if the bad schools were better even if it did mean the good schools were worse imo. education now is probably the least equal it has been in generations. I will have to think about this.

it would be bloody annoying though if you had to cart your kids accross town just because you lost the lottery.

Not sure either - I do believe the middle classes of this country will always find a way of getting their kids into the best schools. I like the idea of a lottery system though, as long as kids get to go to school fairly locally. May turn into chaos, but from my point of view the system is shit as it is.

link again.
www.inthenews.co.uk/news/news/education/tories-want-end-school-catchment-areas-$458451.htm

Our local schools don't have strict catchments anyway.

The link isn't working but I get the point - I think th etories are just putting the final nails in a coffin that 'nu labour' built - I have school catchment hell to look forward to and all this 'parent choice' bollox to look forward too with my lo's and it stresses my head intensely. I still don't understand why people would prefer having to pretend they are catholic/move house/pretend to be renting in a particular area' too just being able to send they child to the nearest school in reasonable confidence that their child will be educate to a good standard. The richest will always be able to buy the best education no reform of the system will change that. The poorest will always get screwed. I truly envisage that the two tier 11+ system is edging back in where kids will be sorted into two groups educable and 'factory fodder' at an early age.

I had the nightmare of moving across the country at 15 in the middle of my GCSE's from a very good school in Leeds to a rubbish one in Essex and I was only able to do well in certain subjects by answering different exam questions to my classmates based on my former schools syllabus. So I know a good school is important but I am totally opposed to creating false choices for parents a stae school system should be predicated on creating a standard for all schools not creating a 'market'.

or should I change my name to bloody hippy??

probably Harriet Harman, Diane Abbott, oh and Tony Blair 'won't care about this policy because they don't mind about state schools where they live, they send their kids private, anyway'

oh, and they'd be Socialists.

(yes, I know the Blair's school isn't private, London Oratory, but it's outside catchment)

as it goes though, it was the tories who created the current inequality by introducing "parent choice" (except for those who didn't get a choice) in the first place.

sorry, you're right Jools2, only put in the "Tory" part with "Rich" people because Tories have to come up with some policies their core supporters will support (I think Cameon keeps coming up with policies that the core supporters struggle with).

present gov ar also thinking about abolishing catchment areas here

It will really piss off people who spent lots of money to be near the best local school. Their houses will surely lose in value no? Oh, well.

Oh wow, eastend, I didn't think of that. Maybe I'll switch to supporting this policy if it means prices go down in posh areas & I can then afford my dream home (and home-ed the sprogs).

I shall be contraversial. I think the catchment rule should definitely not be abolished and indeed should be the only one adhered to. I believe that because of the placement system, school performance becomes more polarised so that the good ones become so popular, parents are prepared to do almost anything to get their kids in and the bad ones are just left with the worst. The school run becomes a joke as parents drive up from miles around, kids then form friendships with kids from miles away thus keeping up friendships after school hours becomes more problematic; teachers will only want to teach at the 'good' schools leaving the worse schools with the worst teachers. The pupils at the 'bad' schools will have no decent pupils to follow by example ....

I think Labour have well and truly made sure that parental choice triumphs and the whole idea of catchment has been a sham (certaily in England) for years now. You can't blame the tories.

I don't agree with parental choice so no, I don;t agree with abolishing catchment.

I doubt this will affect Scotlnd.

Voluptua (where di you get that name), I agree. Perfect sense.

It was given to me by my pals for some reason. We all had alter egos for our pub outings - very Bond girl don't you think?

Very Bond. Very subtle

I think this would be a great idea!
I cant afford to move to the area where i would like my children to go to school

Are you in Scotland Pointy?

voluptua - that is exactly what did happen in the 90s though. and I do blame the tories - that kind of policy is much easier to introduce than to revoke.

Yup - they introduced a lot of things that have really **cked up the dynamics of the country IMO

I don't buy that argument, that policies cannot be turned back once put in place. I think that is a big political lie. Labour have taken it all much, much further. There was never any desire to change back, never mind ability.

maybe not, but it would be difficult to turn back. it could only be done year by year for a start, so the effects would be very slow to show.

But I do agree that pure catchement would probably be the best way forward, provided that catchement areas were carefully drawn up to distribute deprived areas fairly among schools.

I think there would be chaos, and parents would be even more stressed out. And yes the increased school runs will cause even more traffic jams & as well as add to climate change! The best schools should be your local schools, with good links to local businesses and communities, and local kids knowing other local kids. Think the tories have not really thought about this properly.

I think a few policies do need to be revoked to give this country a good kick up the arse. Too many have forgotten what the important things are in life and it's not fecking designer handbags and LCD TVs