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Original poster

Grammar Schools - Good or Bad?

15 replies

2ManyPimms · 28/03/2006 12:14

Personally, I like the idea of Grammar Schools. Teach the academically inclined in an environment which will nurture them and then send them out to University.

Your thoughts?

OP posts:

Normsnockers · 28/03/2006 12:24

More importantly I like the idea of a properly funded grammar school system. The majority of the population who don't form the top 10% of accademically inclined 11 year olds need a properly funded network of secondary moderns where the much less able can opt into a practical education curriculum to give the skills with which to earn a living when they leave at 16 and hopefully there would be less chance of them becoming disaffected by the prospect of French and Science lessons and opting out of education altogether at an early age.

The average bulk of the population would in theory have the option to follow practical courses or accademic courses but pitched at the right level for them.

, its a lovely idea

Original poster

2ManyPimms · 28/03/2006 12:38

Normsnockers for PM!!!!!!!!

OP posts:

GDG · 28/03/2006 12:40

Agree wholeheartedly with NS

purpleturtle · 28/03/2006 12:42

Me too. Having benefited greatly from a state grammar school education, I would love a system a bit like the German one, and as NS describes.

snailspace · 28/03/2006 12:43

Nice idea - lots of drawbacks in practise.

bossykate · 28/03/2006 12:44

apparently social mobility was much better under the grammar/sec. modern system than it has been since comprehensive education was introduced.

Normsnockers · 28/03/2006 12:45

Ooops, factual error - I believe it is the accademically inclined top 20% who are selected for grammar schools in regions where they still exist. It still leaves 80% in need of a good education pitched at the right level though.

Perhaps we could convert all those new "universities" into lovely secondary moderns so as not to have them standing empty if we went back to university being for the accademic elite rather than for everyone. Degree in golf course studies anyone ?

Kathy1972 · 28/03/2006 12:58

Grammar schools good, as long as (as was said below) everyone else gets a decent education too. In the old days of grammar schools they were better funded than secondary moderns, which is indefensible.
NS - the proportion selected varies from region to region - I'm sure where I went to school (Essex) it was less than 20% that went to grammar schools when I was there.

snailspace · 28/03/2006 13:02

The main problem is that 11 is too young to decide categorically which 'track' many children should be on. For some it's obvious, but the system fails the others.

Kathy1972 · 28/03/2006 13:12

Agree ss - that is one of the biggest issues. However, the nat curric ought to make it easier to move children around later on. It would not be impossible to design a system that makes it fairly straightforward.

Normsnockers · 28/03/2006 13:15

Kids did transfer into my gramar school from secondary moderns presumably when it became apparent that the 11 plus exam hadn't highlighted their accademic potential or they were late developers accademically.

Unsurprisingly however no-one struggling to keep up ever seemed to leave the grammar school they just languished at the bottom of the S form.
I understand parents just didn't want to move their kids the other way once they had got into grammar school

milward · 28/03/2006 13:15

What about those kids who should go but don't.

The head teacher can make recommendations & say that kids who actually pass may not benefit from the grammar school so they don't go.

bossykate · 28/03/2006 23:08

can't believe there is a thread about grammar schools which hasn't kicked off!

Clary · 29/03/2006 00:15

I know too many people who went to the sec mod and should have been at the grammar but never got there - and were forced to double-enter the exams (this was many many years ago ) and generally pull themselves up bytheir bootstraps.
Also too many who were totally wasting their fancy high school place as they had no intention of learning Latin and would have been better if they had been able to do more practical learning.
I approve of setting and streaming - just not for good and all at age 11.

thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat · 29/03/2006 00:23

My area proves my instincts wrong on grammar schools. My hypothetical worry would be the siphoning off of the cleverer/middle class ones, meaning that they don;t rub off, as it were, on the lower achievers; also that the sec moderns would be relegated to a lower status. However Kingston - with its grammar schools - proves me wrong on this - overall it is one of the best ranking boroughs in the country. Its worst school scores the national average.

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