Anyone else disappointed with their state choices?

[DrTinkle]

It's all so bloody average around here. Schools seem to move from satisfactory to good, grades are average, bullying and low aspiration a problem. High performing kids do less well than they would at independents. No grammar schools in the area and the church school creams off most of the advantaged kids with parents who can commit to 7 years church or synagogue attendance. Everything is so oversubscribed and competitive around here, it's basically overpopulated.
We're utterly stuck living here for work and childcare reasons. I don't want DD who is bright and very capable to have the poor choices I had so faced with paying for 6 years of schooling which won't be easy.
Just a bit sad looking at Facebook friends kids going to grammars or well performing comps and thinking it just ain't fair. Anyone else care to vent?

taxguru Granted your area still has a very relaxed attitude to getting into Grammar schools. However, in every single area this attitude is changing and the competition for places is increasing. This is evident from reading through posts on this web site:

www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/index.php

That's how it always used to be and how it should be now. It's the minority of super-selectives in certain areas that seem to give the entire country's grammar system a bad name. An example of one such school is this:

www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=42996&sid=48c69d2400d75d7133b6551f695318b5

www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=37182

On attending a meeting which was attended by the parent of a QE hopeful, my DH was shocked when the parent announced that they were currently doing 3 hours maths homework every night with their DS then asked what more should they be doing.

What people often don't realise is how widely Grammar schools vary:

The 11 plus test content varies from area to area.
The cohort varies from area to area.
The number of a academic places allocated varies from area to area.
The size of catchment varies from area to area.
Where your DC needs to be academically in relation to the tested cohort varies from area to area (some schools you need to be in the top 5% of the tested cohort, other schools you need to be in the top 30%, then it is down to distance).

In our area, it's the way it should be, grammars sit alongside church and comp schools and people can make a real choice about which school to choose according to what they offer and their children's preferences.

Unfortunately, as schools are becoming increasingly more oversubscribed, competition for places, especially in grammar areas, is growing too. The relaxed approach is diminishing. Where distance cut offs are shrinking preventing access to preferred schools, music, academic, sports, technology or faith are alternative routes in. You yourself dropped one selective route and chose another (not criticising btw).

The number of areas where there is actually a "choice" of school are becoming more outnumbered.

WhoreGasm If grammar schools were mainly filled with average pupils who had just been well prepped for the 11+, then their GCSE and A Level results would be pretty average.

I think this very much depends on the school. I do know of schools which put a lot of pressure on children to change their GCSE options after moc results, arguably justifiably so in some cases. The shuffle around for 6th form entry gives a very distorted view of how the children who entered via the 11 plus route actually went on to performed in A levels.

WhoreGasm And, as the vast majority of tutors are qualified teachers, most still working, they only have a few hours a week to offer for tutoring.

What source did you use to determine that the vast majority of tutors are qualified teachers as I am sure I read, granted some while ago, that is not the case.