Programmes for most able students in high school

[Curlyshabtree]

Does anyone have experience of these? My DS has been offered a place in a smaller class just for the most able students. It says they will be taught by the most experienced teachers and they will be stretched academically.
It’s an inner city deprived area school.

Congratulations.

But rubbish that the most able kids get the most experienced teachers.

I wouldn’t imagine this class would have the monopoly on the most experienced teachers. The school’s ethos seems to very much about raising standards for all (as I imagine all schools are).
Just never heard of anything like this before. Not sure if he will be joining or not as it depends on his Sats .....

It sounds like some sort of grammar stream? Streaming is a bad idea because pupils are generally not uniformly able across the board.

It does sound like a grammar stream. One of our local secondary modern schools has a grammar stream. They also do rank order assessments on a regular basis.

“I wouldn’t imagine this class would have the monopoly on the most experienced teachers.“

You said in your first post they would.......

I would expect that the most experienced teachers teach more than one class.

It sounds as if the school are making a feature of supporting ‘accelarated’ Or ‘extension ‘ classes as they are called in comps round us, to attract / reassure parents of high attaining kids .

Just take care that you are happy with the offer for kids of all ability levels (which should be strong in a good comp) in case your Ds goes up and down sets, as many do during their KS3 and 4 years.

“Streaming is a bad idea because pupils are generally not uniformly able across the board.”

But do happen to suit strong all rounders which the OP’s Ds may be.

I agree it isn’t the best way to run a comprehensive school but that may not in itself be bad for the OP’s Ds.

One of my Dc went to a streamed comp but beyond Yr 8 they combined it with setting and their was quite a bit of flexibility with mid stream kids being in top set classes and vice versa. And where the ‘streams’ are broad within s big school and encompasses several classes they set within the stream.

“I wouldn’t imagine this class would have the monopoly on the most experienced teachers.“

You said in your first post they would.......

Nowhere does she say the experienced teachers only teach this top class.

Thanks for the feedback, we will see how we get on. I think the set-up will be more like what hotpotlawyer mentioned.
It does seem like a good opportunity as we can’t afford to move to an area with better schools and he is a very bright lad.
And no, I never said the more experienced teachers would exclusively teach this class, just to clear that up.