What is a 'leafy comp' 'good/outstanding comp'?

[MovingBack]

I see this term referred to on MN on lots of threads - what is the definition of such a school please? I can grasp the meaning (I think) but I'm not sure if it's metaphorical or there is in fact some objective criteria? Do posters mean they are Ofsted good/outstanding or something else? I've spent a lot of time living away and in my day a comp was the alternative to the grammar school but I'm not sure what they are when most areas don't have a grammar school these days? How will I know if my local schools fall into this leafy comps/good/outstanding category? Is it based on Ofsted or something else?

Apologies in advance if it really is just the Ofsted category they have been placed in rather than something more complex

[BrendaBlackhead]

The local comp is "leafy" in MN terms - middle-class intake, hardly anyone on fsm, very high achieving...

Unfortunately its appearance is far from leafy. It looks like a category 3 prison.

[Elibean]

Poisonwood - Fired Earth, surely

MI, I like the word chimera and the thought of them rustling....you are a poet

[Poisonwoodlife]

Eli True, the problem with some of the schools at our end of the borough is they are a bit IKEA.......

[motherinferior]

[preens]

My daughters' school is improving hand over fist. It is going to be v apparent soon that people stop talking about its urban grot and the housing estate nearby and talk about the posher streets and big leaf-infested gardens also nearby.

Some are born leafy, some attain leafiness and some have leafiness thrust upon them, innit.

[SomewhereIBelong]

Ours is a leafy "academy trust school with a specialist focus on language and technology" seems like any other over-subscribed leafy suburban secondary to me.

[Hakluyt]

A leafy comp is one that people who want to diss state education claim anyone who doesn't want to diss state education sends their children to.

[rabbitstew]

Damn leaves.

I think the term should be reclaimed by those who wish to declare their status as tree huggers. From now on, if your children go to a leafy comprehensive, it is an environmentally sustainable school made out of... leaves.

The code is thus as follows:

1. Bog standard comprehensive - a school built on and surrounded by wet ground.
2. Sink school - a bog standard school which has actually started to sink into the ground.
3. Leafy comprehensive - a school made out of, and comprehensively surrounded by, leaves.
4. Academy school - a witches' school run by Miss Cackle.
5. High school - a school at the top of a tower block.
6. Grammar school - a school where texting is forbidden.
7. Inner city school - a vast school with a city in it.
8. Community school - a school.
9. Private school - a secretive school.

10. Public school - a school which lets everything hang out.
11. Super selective school - a super, spiffing school where language and attitudes must come from no later than the 1950s, with Malory Towers required reading for the girls, and Just William for the boys.
12. Free school - a school which will not let itself be tied down and might not be there tomorrow.

[motherinferior]

That is quite brilliant.

There is also the term 'indie' school which is used by people who don't really want to say 'fee-paying' and prefer to imply they are Free from the Shackles of the State.

[bigTillyMint]

Rabbit, love that!

[TalkinPeace]

rabbitstew wins the prize

[rabbitstew]

Oh, no, I think Indie Schools are for people who fancy Harrison Ford and want to be archaeologists.

[TalkinPeace]

rabbit you just made me spit my tea. Keep up the good work.

[darlingfascistbullyboy]

brilliant rabbitstew!

("indie" is nauseating)

[TheCatAteMyTaxReturn]

Rabbitstew

Love it.

For maximum middle-class angst, I went to a 'Super selective school' - though it only went 'super' selective after it had successfully got rid of me.

I thence went to a leafy comprehensive, which has become considerably more leafy after planting more trees.

Perhaps it's trying to camouflage itself from the wrong kind of parent.

[Hakluyt]

I am making cupcakes while idly speculating whether "Indy" or "Indie" is more repellent...............,,,,,,

[yolofish]

I thnk 'indy' is probably worse because it's even twee-er. also 'indie' has connotations of music industry, thereby giving it at least a veneer of coolth.

'indy' is just so people who use it can feel as if they are in the same club as each other - along the lines of, if you have to ask the price you cant afford it!

[Needmoresleep]

Indie definately sounds like rock chick yummy mummy on the school run, dressed in skinny jeans and an expensive designer T Shirt.

Easy to spot, but so too are the ex-KGB bodyguards and the other groups who can be found outside the school gates at central London private schools.

[motherinferior]

But indie has the ie that is even worse. Just compare - and I am shuddering as I type - 'hubby' with 'hubbie'. The first is nauseating, the second is unspeakable. I feel soiled. And not in an enjoyable way.

[rabbitstew]

I have another one: Faith school - a school which only exists if you believe in it.

So, that brings the list to 14. Anyone got any other school types we need to define more accurately?

[TalkinPeace]

rabbitstew
You owe me a new screen and keyboard - I just spluttered tea everywhere again.
Thank you for making my day

BUT
are faith schools like Tinkerbell, in that if we stop believing in them they will fade away?

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

Secondary Modern - a spare school, devoted to Ezra Pound's manifesto 'make it new'.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Id class my old school as a "leafy comp" - state funded, 96 percent of 5 A-Cs, loads of open space for cricket, hockey and rugby. Smart uniforms. Later finishes. Located in a MC suburb.

[TheCatAteMyTaxReturn]

Middle School - looks down on the bog-standard comprehensive, but worries if its super-selective enough

[rabbitstew]

Oh, yes, those are good. Or, if going a bit more low-brow, how about:

15. Middle school: a school devoted to reducing unhealthy fat around the waist.

16. Secondary Modern: a school which won't tell you its primary aim.

17. Primary school: a school first and foremost - does something else on the side.

18. Infant school: new school.

19. Kindergarten: EU friendly school.

20. Playgroup: Houses of Parliament.

21. Pre-school: what life used to be like.

[catslife]

Free school: school that can run around and is not in a fixed location.