Why would anyone consider going to Rugby school better than the mixed local comp?

[Charis2]

I read this article in the standard earleir, and just thought what is this headmaster on? Why is this scholarship presented as such a huge honour for the boy, when in fact it is a way of the school paying to improve its results by taking in some of the best sixth form students without fees.

What "lifechanging" opportunities does he expect he can offer, which Hassenbrook acadamy can't?

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/needs-pic-teenage-footballer-wins-70000-scholarship-to-boarding-school-that-invented-rugby-a2953791.html

Headmaster Peter Green said he hoped Michael and other Arnold Foundation scholars would have a “ripple effect” on their communities when they return home.

He said: “We might be able to be transformative and transform their lives. Then when they go to university, and after, they can start to transform their own local communities. It’s not about parachuting someone out of that. We want to keep their association with where they are from.”

What a snob. Does he think the staff at Hassenbrook only teach poor peoples maths and physics, and the maths at Rugby is somehow a better class of maths? perhaps he thinks the laws of physics perform better there too?

I hope this lad has fun, but I don't think for a moment his life is going to be in any way better because he spent two years mixing with rich snobs rather than normal people.

Charis it is terrible that educational privilege is for sale to such a degree in this country but you are completely deluded to doggedly deny that it is the case.

You look like King Canute sitting there.

bertrand it doesn't matter whether ofsted tell them or not, it doesn't change anything for pupils there, nor does what their higher achievers do or don't get. High achievers are obviously always going to be a minority group, and therefore failing them will never be enough to get a school seriously bollocked.
There's any number of studies backing up the fact able provision across the state system isn't exactly consistently good, even before you get to shitholes like my local one.

OFSTED have almost no powers to affect change in a school.

They simply report.

Which might make prospective patents think twice, but ain't much use to existing pupils.

Ah. So you don't actually have any idea about OFSTED's criteria and the effect a bad report has on a school.

I do wonder why you're not prepared just to check how high attainers do at the school you're talking about-it would take two minutes.

High achievers can do pretty well in the London area in schools like Henrietta Barnet, Watford Grammar and all those inner Londo comps, though.

That is one reason why I am saying if you don't support private schools but are happy with schools which are good if the house prices around them are high etc (which is not morally any better) or think schools in the SE are better so you move there for a good comp there tends to be some choice. No one is forced to live near their mother in Hull or Sunderland next to a sink school.

Henrietta Barnet and Watford Grammar are not comprehensives!

" Henrietta Barnet, Watford Grammar and all those inner Londo comps "

not really sure what the first two would have in common with an 'inner London comp' but there we are.

Umm since when is Watford inner London or a grammar school a comp?

Oh yes, Henrietta Barnett and Watford Grammar- those well known inner city comprehensive schools.......

Sometimes one of theses carefully constructed mumsnet personae makes a tiny step too far. The force field slips and the lizard shows itself for a microsecond.........

I think it was pretty clear that Grazia said:

(HB and WG) + inner City London comps

Two very different categories, but both outperforming the average state school.

I don't, however, go along with the idea that it is reasonable to expect families to move from Hull to inner London to get a good education. Surely, the system should work better for us all no matter where we live.

well many inner london comps are absolutely nothing like HB and WG and I doubt Grazia would allow her little toe into one.

I would still prefer my child to be educated in them than Rugby or NLCS. My dislike of private schools has nothing to do with envy and everything to do with experience and a social conscience.

In London, private education does cause massive segregation in certain areas.

Who said I didn't know? I'm just pointing out what ofsted say makes no odds. As it happens their high achievers do shit. Which means the most able are being truly screwed over because regardless of the school as long as you give them a textbook they'll still get top grades in logic based subjects like maths. So the % of high achievers isn't representative of just how badly they are failed. You also forget that same as a child at the other end of the curve who may never get academic qualifications regardless of teaching, school isn't just about what results you leave with.

I'd like to know if this popular current theory of state education being communist at point of service, so advantage is sacrificed to the greater good, is going to be rolled out across all advantages. Or is it just academic advantage that's deemed a fair sacrifice? Because surely other advantages are just as unfair? Maybe when a dc has the advantage of a larger income they should be duty bound to sacrifice it to the greater good too? Or involved parents should be forced to dedicate their free time to less advantaged children. And dc with sporting ability should be hobbled at secondary age etc. Why should the advantage of ability be a sacrifice people should be happy to make when nothing else is?

in fact no comps are like HB or WG, but I mean many are not even ofsted good

Lurked you are missing the point that it is not just about advantage or disadvantage- it is about segregating whole communities of children and the long term social impact this has on society.

" I would still prefer my child to be educated in them than Rugby or NLCS. "

ahh yes an elite boys' public boarding school compares so well with an academic girls' day school which was set up to offer girls the same education as boys....

Do you not think NlCS is elite?
Mary Buss may have been doing a good thing in the 19th century but the situation is not the same now.

Twisted - what is the long term social impact caused by having private and state schools?

Or whatever Buss her name was!

it might be a bit 'elite' these days but is certainly not in the same league as the old public schools in terms of snob value.
(I went there a long time ago)

Frances Mary Buss

Let's face it some parents have always got irate about NLCS - it used to be about the Jewish intake, now it is about the Asian intake as well.

twisted that was in reply to bertrands point about my local state choice. My second paragraph was a general remark, but I don't miss the point at all. Holding the most able back in state schools is the worst thing for social mobility. If we want a decent representation of people from average income homes in powerful positions to instigate change, it's mainly the high achievers who stand a chance of doing so. As for the social segregation privates cause, if I have to choose between allowing my child to make the most of one of her few advantages, and entering a system that's unfair, then no doubt I'll put my childs needs first. Just like every parent who fills in a preference form for state school does.
Again I think the discrepancy in state provision is a bigger injustice than the minority at private.

I agree with you Lurked.

TBH the criteria that OFSTED use to measure achievement in line with ability leaves me decidedly underwhelmed.

The school I mentioned up thread, the one without Latin or Music, or MFL other than French, the one that insists all pupils take one vocational option at GCSE. The one that offers only double science (even to it's most scientifically promising students) is, according to OFSTED, offering a good service. No concerns vis a vis high ability students were noted.

So excuse me if I don't get too excited about OFSTED and their criteria.

"Miss Buss and Miss Beale
Cupid's darts do not feel.
Miss Beale and Miss Buss
How different from us"