Grammar school areas.... thoughts?

[Fleetfox56]

Those who live in grammar school towns/cities, are you glad you do? We do and our DC will sit 11 plus a year in Sept if she chooses to do so. However, I grew up in this town and went to this school. All girls, quite pressurised and thinks a lot of itself. I’m not sure it’s what I want for her....

We do have crazy dreams of moving away but whether we can realise them or not still remains to be seen.

Just wondered what other people’s thoughts were on grammar system, single-sex secondary schools etc...

DC are at Grammars and I went too so I don't know much about Comps to be honest. We were set for Maths and languages (and DS is also set for PE) but other classes were mixed ability. I assumed that other schools would be the same, just with a much broader ability range. Obviously I'm wrong.

Its true what a PP said, they were both glad to say goodbye to the kids that messed about and disrupted primary school. Although Maths and English may be setted at comps most other lessons aren't.

I don't know much about Comps to be honest

Might it have been better to add the caveat that you don't know much about Comps BEFORE making sweeping statements about what they set for?

I would also say that 'messing around in primary school' is not necessarily an indicator of 'will mess around in secondary' - the variable in 'do kids mess around' is NOT necessarily the children or their ability, but IS the school and how they deal with them.

Of course a large factor in IF children will mess around is whether they are children who want to do this. As in primary schools, some children do and some don't. The children who didn't mess around in primary were in the same setting as the others who did mess about. Therefore it couldn't purely be explained in terms of the school approach.

There are potentially disruptive children in all ability groups. The numbers of them can make a real difference to the impact they have. Funnily enough, Grammar schools do have less problems with behaviour and funnily enough, schools with larger percentages of low performing entrants do seem to have bigger behavioural problems.

People often say that if you are in the top sets in a Comp, there is little disruption and great progress is made. Great if you're in the top set and great in the subjects which are setted. What about if you are in the middle or lower sets and for the majority of subjects which don't set? Yes of course schools need to deal with bad behaviour, but pretending it is easy is daft and low level but persistent disruption is cited as the key hinderance to learning.

It's no wonder parents are keen to get their children into schools where this is in little evidence. These schools might well be Grammars because effectively everyone is the higher sets and every subject only includes those children. It might not sound like a PC reason to give for choosing a school, but avoiding certain children and being with certain children is absolutely a factor in people's decision making, whatever they say.

Sorry @cantkeep. I should have been clearer. I don't know much about Comps from personal experience as DC and I all went to Grammars. My DSis is a Geography teacher and her school don't set till Y9. But yours does so there's no hard and fast rule.