Can a grammar school headteacher make such a demand on 11+?

[averageparent]

A friend in another Borough told me that a grammar school headteacher has 'demanded' her to give assurance that her girl has not received any 11+ 'coaching', or the headteacher will not accept her girl into his grammar school even if her girl passes the 11+.

Can anyone tell me if a headteacher could make such a demand?
(So that I can pass on the information to my very stressed friend)

Many thanks.

Tough as A level? The kids could just bypass grammar school and go straight to A levels.

Quite agree Cecily. As hard as A Level! Curious as to the astonishing A Level results that this school must surely then produce I looked them up and see that last summer out of 21 candidates for English Lang and Lit, not one got an A and two achieved an A; out of 20 candidates for English Lit, two achieved an A and six an A.

Then I re-read the article and noticed that it was the 'founder of the S6 Tutoring Academy' who advised the mum on the onerous study programme apparently required for the exam.....

I can't see how a child who was tutored for 20 hours a week to pass the 11+ is going to thrive at grammar school.

Well to be fair to the child he might have passed even had he not had the tutoring, it's not possible to gauge. He'll certainly be worn out, poor little thing.

I personally would take advice from tutoring agencies with a spade load of salt. Some might be giving sage advice but some might well be profiting purely by preying on ill-informed parents' fears. And that's very wrong.

It's also perhaps possible his 'brain' might have been gradually transformed and he might have grown in intellect with all that extra, purposeful practice.

If I put that many hours (and we are talking about a very large amount of time) in with a great piano teacher, for example, I'd likely be able to master all the tricky bits of Chopin that currently elude me. No doubt I'd also be able to give a respectable recital perhaps even drawing gasps of admiration from an audience. 'How brilliant she is' some might say, 'what talent' etc.

I disagree partly, Cortina. Genius is genius. I don't believe that level can be taught.

I reckon everyone has an upper level of ability which they could get to given the right amount of time, teaching and practice. Because most of don't max out on one subject or have access to amazing teaching (which suits our style of learning) I suspect very few of us reach our potential - except where it is our job, maybe. The upper level of ability will differ for everyone in every subject. If you could actually create genius, someone would have bottled it by now.

So, yes, you are right to a degree. However, life gets in the way, and a well rounded education is exactly that and it stops many from becoming the very best they can be in piano, but at least they can hold a job down and earn a living.

Presumably one way to defeat ST Pauls' questioning is to teach them yourself.

kes100 I agree that genius cannot be taught, but can intellect be increased by education? I think it can. Certainly enough ability can be acquired to pass the 11 plus by most average children.

If the school is an academy, the admission criteria are whatever they want it to be.

My DD1 has just got a place at a super-selective Grammar school. She needed VR and Maths for the exam. The exam was based on year 6 level questions but she took the exam is September of year 6 ie before covering the year 6 work. I don't know how she would have passed if I hadn't done the extra maths with her and to some extent the VR.

I was annoyed the Head at open evening said it wasn't necessary to tutor a child and made a poor year 7 child come forward to announce they had got in with any tutoring. I am in the fortunate position of being a former maths teacher so we didn't need to pay for a tutor but I don't think she would have got in otherwise. I have another DD in year 5 so I am having to do this again. Will she get it? I don't know, seems a bit like a lottery really but I will say she will be very well set up for maths at whatever secondary school she ends up in and her confidence at her primary school is high.

I would put both my DDs in the top 20% in academic ability but not the top 5% that normally get into this Grammar school. The rest is our hard work I would say. There is only so much you can do. A weak child cannot be tutored enough to get through one of these papers imho (as a former teacher).

Kez - I agree that a tiny minority might be a true genius - but believe that for most it's all about input - hours of practice if you like.

I also can't agree we have any ability limit. Sure we're not all cut out to be academics but all can continue to incrementally grow and learn IMO.

Fossie - what you say makes sense. Why do you think there's this apparently growing anti tutoring sentiment?

On my behalf of my stressed-out friend, I thank everyone for their input. I've asked her to read all your valuable comments from this thread herself.
Please do understand that she does NOT want to be 'identified' by the headteacher, who may give her more demand, so she cannot thank you all personally.

Good discussion - lots of reasons why a Head might wish not to accept tutored students.

However, not many answers to whether the Head has this right within an admissions procedure and how it could be fairly implemented.

Try starting a new thread and asking prh47bridge or Admission to answer the question.