The Politics of Grammar Schools

[GiftedPhoenix]

I thought some mumsnet readers would be interested in my latest post, which is about grammar schools, especially their record in admitting high-attaining children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

giftedphoenix.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/the-politics-of-selection-grammar-schools-and-disadvantage/

The selection issue has been bubbling away in the media and this looks set to continue next week, as the Conservatives come under increased pressure from within their own party to include a commitment to new grammar schools in the Tory Election manifesto.

I wanted to explore what progress our remaining 163 grammar schools are making towards 'fair access', so providing a benchmark against which to judge political claims that they might be engines of social mobility. I'm not concerned with research on their historical record in this respect, but with evidence of recent reform.

portico
at a macro level, I do not particularly care. That is down to government to sort that out.
In that case I hope you vote Labour and support massive tax rises -
because the current Government are slashing and burning support for families and social care as if the post war Social Safety net never existed.

Personally I do not support a return to tax and spend
so therefore believe that those who CAN understand and afford to make a macro difference SHOULD
(the libertarian argument)

portico, if you are/were a governor, then how on earth did you not know what high/middle/low achievers in the data you looked at were?

Please do answer the question - you seem to be very good at avoiding questions.

It bothers me enormously that people like you are "community" governors when you clearly don't have the first clue about schools. Also that you were a governor in a state comprehensive and were shocked at the GCSE headline figures you were quoting last night. It also bothers me that you, as a governor, say that you "don't particularly care" about policy. Are you simply going along and listening to the children read in order to satisfy some urge to "give back to the community"? In which case, please stop. Schools need governors who DO care, and who ARE knowledgeable, are not snobs who turn their noses up at figures of 82% A-C and 55% A-C inc English & Maths. Schools do not need governors who neither know nor care about the children in the school.

Evil

I was on the sub-curriculum committee. I had an idea on how to improve reading levels and it worked. I took new practices that I had gleaned from other countries and applied them at the school. Some worked and some did not.

In relation to mascalls school, i compared it to the other schools and decided the best option would be to go elsewhere.

I am not bothered about cva; I only look at the headline figures. Yesterday, I analysed the numbers at mascalls correctly.

One thing. my time as governor, did reinforce for me was that, in the absence of a very good independent school a super selective grammar education beats a comprehensive by a very long mile.

As we speak dc2, is knee deep in solid vocab learning. He. has undertaken I must go now, as I need to review what DC 2 is doing. He is preparing for next year's 11+.

Bye.

Your child is learning vocab at 9pm?

Poor thing

Not being bothered about cva or anything other than headline figures should, IMO, preclude you from being a governor. Please avoid in future. Schools can do without your sort.

No. My child was learning: IQ Maths, Missing Word Cloze, Inferential Comprehension and Antonyms.

In between that a great deal of time was spent on playing the PS4 and family time. Now, as a treat, it's off to watch the Snowman and Father Christmas.

It's after 9pm! My children (same age) are in bed...

Sleep is important for brain development, you know.

"I had an idea on how to improve reading levels and it worked"

I am involved in an initiative to do the same at my ds's school- please could you share your idea?

I realise you want Portico's idea, Hak (I'd be interested too...) but in case you want other ideas too, my school uses Accelerated Reader which has had a huge amount of success in developing reading skills across the age and ability ranges.

Hak, unless you are taking the p###, here goes

1. I built up word repetition by starting and taking the children through the Ladybird Peter and Jane Books. Books 1, 1b, 1c, 2 a, 2b, 2c...etc up to 12c. Books "c" are cloze based, and require the child to demonstrate understanding. I was sworn at by some of the children when we tried to broach these books at them. Very quickly the results improved. Kids moved onto Horrid Henry, and the simple Dahl books. Dead Poets Society it wasn't.

1. In reading to comprehend, I worked with the literacy governor and a Y7 teacher to work with children to identify difficult words and find their meanings. They also looked out for important words and meanings.

1. I also introduced exercises where children were supplied with a jumbled sentences from a paragraph. There was also a superfluous sentence. The idea was to divine the correct flow of a paragraph, and to be able to identify the redundant sentence.

1. In tandem vocab exercises were undertaken. Hadyn Richards 1000 vocab words, and 1000 harder word exercises were used.

1. One a week comprehension book exercises were used to sustain intensive reading levels.

Yes, we are having great success with Accelerated Reader too- particularly now we're building up a solid core of volunteer readers to read with individual students on a weekly basis alongside the work the specially trained TAs are doing. I'm looking forward to taking Portico's idea to the next meeting, though- we're always looking for new ideas.

Me finally giving in and letting DS read game of thrones was what finally kicked his reading to an acceptable level. I realise that won't work for every child. ]

I forgot to say this. Aesops Fables are a great way to engage reluctant readers. Short stories and a great spread of unfamiliar words.

Me too Hak - I bet our Head of English will be well up for a bit of Peter and Jane. We might hit some SMSC targets too - particularly in the realm of looking at gender

Our 6th formers do toe by toe with Yr 7s who need it - that's worked well. KS3 do 30 mins of AR every day within the curriculum. It's lovely spending half an hour reading with them - though it only falls in my lesson once per week. It's made such a difference not just to reading ages but to the level of engagement. Everyone does it, even those with reading ages well above their chronological age.

I'm mesmerised at how you could be a community governor portico and yet not care about the wider issues and also at how you seem so utterly absorbed by your own DC that you have to have an interregnum while your DC preps for the 11 plus .

Evil

Easy to mock. Comp had one lower middle class catchment and two socially disadvantaged catchments. My work helped the remedial students. We did not use Peter and Jane isolation. Other work, as indicated above, was undertaken.

Granted Peter and Jane are based on an 1950s idyll, however, the words and sentences encourage decoding and comprehension for those Y7s who possessed a lower primary reading age.

Our volunteer readers are very popular- although the SMT were a bit wary at first. A lot of our poorer readers are also kids who don't get a lot of positive one to one adult attention for various reasons-40 minutes a week of reading and a game and a chat has lots of benefits. And a blind eye is turned to the occasional chocolate.........

Portico I don't give two hoots about the demographic of the intake. Peter and Jane is a ridiculous choice - no wonder you were sworn at! There is a wealth of appropriate literature for all ages and abilities.

Which you would know if you weren't so busy not caring.

Portico- I hesitate to look as if I'm advertising, but www.barringtonstoke.co.uk have lots of books at a similar level to Peter and Jane, which are more age appropriate and don't have the associated issues and won't get you sworn at. More flies with honey than vinegar, as thy say.

Molio

I have not been a community governor since 2012. DC1's grammar prep then took priority. Now it is the turn of DC2.

Like I said, I will revert back to the fold in 2015. Until then DC2 is my priority.

Also, Portico, you'd have been much better off looking at modern books which use phonics.

I expect you thought you were doing a service to the poor remedial children though and left with a warm glow. Well done.

Hak = the swearing was a natural reaction by the kids who felt an ego bruise at using such books. But, we had to start somewhere, and it did work.

Of course they swore. They were being patronised. No matter what a child's reading ability, they deserve age-appropriate reading material.

Perhaps, in 2015, you could volunteer at your DS's school rather than with children who you clearly feel are so far beneath you.

portico I seriously can't believe that 'prepping' for grammar is so exhausting that it precludes being a functioning governor. Some governors at our school hold full time positions on national bodies, have kids and outside interests, and still make a major contribution. Your justification for an extended sabbatical is ridiculous. Along with Peter and Jane.

"Hak = the swearing was a natural reaction by the kids who felt an ego bruise at using such books. But, we had to start somewhere, and it did work."

So you think bruising an already bruised ego is a good idea? I have never been sworn at. Well, not over the choice of books, anyway! Do have a look at the books in the link I posted- it might save you being sworn at again.

we had to start somewhere I'm intrigued as to how the decision was made to start with Peter and Jane. What made you think that was the best form of intervention to use?