At a school open evening tonight, Headmaster said

[EvilTwins]

Not to believe what you read about the school on Mumsnet

Yes

Alleyns has been known to do this too.

Ah, not the PGS near me then.

Oh the nsme the school.

error - no. State grammar in the south west.

Headteacher called Tracy? Girls only school?

To think Radio 4 at 6.40 am today lost the plot with their stand alone piece on THERESA MAY's dress? FFSi thought they were above that shite (please note I am not a fan of TM but...).

Oops sorry not directly related but sexist none the less-I'll start another thread!

Oooo I think I went there, is there another PGS nearby?

Oh just looked it up Wikipaedia has a nice list of Grammars.
I thought most things I'd read here had been positive about it?

I would be worried about the lack of teacher enthusiasm. Were they there very unwillingly? I'd try to find out what the feeling was like in the staff room, if I could.

I'd belief mn over ofsted tbh.

anyone can put in a show for scheduled tours etc

harder to "fake it" permanently.

Has the muppet of a head never heard of the "Streisand Effect" ??

He deserves all the ridicule he'll get

The immediate shutting down of any online discussion by K school that I think Rafa is referring to is one of the most off-putting things about it.

Mintyy
I think after the debacle of the bowlderised Queen Etheburga's thread
(which is almost more damaging with the removed posts than the original version - of which I have a copy)
schools might be a tad more wary about jumping in with their size 12's

Sorry, I didn't read the thread properly. I see you'd already posted the school.

I think a number of the K school's threads went missing in the same way the QE threads seem to. neither school is anywhere near me, but the only thing I know about either of them is that they appear to have something to hide. Which is not great as a first impression.

I belive the school in question is over 400 years old and is always in the top 5 state schools in the country.

They don't need to do a selling job unlike EvilTwins . A bit like you don't need to sell a Ferrari , but you do a Fiat.

The school does not to care about the gossip goung on this site. The results and reputation of the school are not influenced by the snide remarks about the teaching standards !.

I am sure the truth is no matter who much EvilTwins or other teachers on here will deny it, Teachers would prefer to work at a school marking top grade work . This is hugely more benefical than spending half their time managing behaviour.

Teachers would prefer to work at a school marking top grade work . This is hugely more benefical than spending half their time managing behaviour.
If you say so.

I personally know lots of teachers who would not want to work in such a school. I know teachers who have turned down being personally offered jobs at top schools.
Some teachers prefer teaching more deprived students or even in the inner city.

Looking at the DFE entries for PGS :
less than 1% of the whole school on FSM,
only 3 in a cohort without English as first language, (4% of pupils in LEA)
only 1 with any sort of SEN (5% of pupils in LEA)
no disadvantaged pupils at all (16.5% of pupils in the LEA)
wow, that must be enthralling to teach

To be fair I think there are several ways to feel rewarded by teaching... One is bringing on disadvantaged kids and giving them opportunities they never knew existed, but there's also teaching a group of true high flyers and getting them to stretch their intellect. This particular school has been very proactive in trying to widen access, including work with local primary schools and changing the nature of the test, but at the end of the day it chooses the top 120 of those who take the test, in pursuit of high academic standards.

The school is, however, by no means an exam factory, it is very relaxed and has an abundance of extracurricular stuff going on.

I wouldn't teach there for all the tea in China. I love the school I teach in - 40% PP, fabulous kids and lots of interest in the subject I teach. At the school in question, the subject I teach no longer figures in KS5 and my GCSE results were better than theirs.

If teachers there think they don't have to make the effort for open evening, then that's a shame. All children deserve to feel that the staff care about them. The children at the school were engaging, articulate and lovely. Perhaps that's more down to parenting than teaching.

The school is, however, by no means an exam factory, it is very relaxed and has an abundance of extracurricular stuff going on.
It can afford to be.
If it has A grade pupils coming in the door, it can coast for 7 years and produce A grades.

To conclude from one open evening that the teachers are coasting strikes me as rather rash... I couldn't be happier with the school, but each to their own

I think the point Talkin makes is that the exam results aren't really that amazing when you consider the starting points of the students. It needn't be an exam factory as the students come in on such a high level. What's more surprising is that there were Ds at GCSE at all. I had 9 A*s at GCSE this year. Two of those came in with 4c at KS2 which equates to 6 levels of progress.

Even a top grammar can only do so much with students who for whatever reason can't/wont put the work in - and grammar school students are only kids after all, with home problems, teenage angst...
What makes the school special is the music, the house events, the brilliant drama productions...