Specialist status in Maths and Computing? Hutton Grammar

[DrLucyVanPelt]

Looking at secondary schools and due to look around Hutton Grammar near Preston tonight.

Can see it has specialist status in Maths and Computing, and very good results overall.

My son is a bright lad, but would not say he has a natural ability in maths or specific interest in computing.

What does specialist status mean in real terms?

My concern is, is he at risk of being left behind if there is a strong focus on maths at the school with very able kids, or is this a good thing as it would promote learning in an area he feels he does less well in?

If anyone has any experiences of Hutton I'd be interested to hear!

Thanks

The 'Speialisms' went in c.2011, although schools may have 'legacy' facilities, e.g. a better than average dance studio / sports hall / language rooms. Schools do tend to leave the designation in their title, though - which has been known to cause people to believe that their DC have to go to School X if they want to.do Science, or French, say, at all (no, I know that isnt you).

I have no knowledge at all of schools in that area, I'm afraid, but they will all teach all the core subjects (and more, of course), and if its not a fully selective school, it's unlikely that they won't have a normal spread of abilities in all of them.
.
Eta, just looked at the website and found

We are the only non-selective, non-fee paying 11-16 school for boys in Lancashire

Tbh, its the As a Church school all we do is underpinned by Scripture that would put me off, though.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Didn't realise specialisms were a defunct thing. Having looked round tonight it definitely seems much broader in it's outlook than just maths and computing.

The church school bit is a consideration I agree!

I'm in the general area but had a girl so no direct knowledge.

Obviously it's not actually a grammar school; the name is historic, it's a non selective CofE. But I think it's a well thought of school in a nice area. I would think it's pretty oversubscribed, I'm sure you've checked the admissions criteria (churchgoing and/or local parishes)

I can think of a couple of boys who went there and I'm pretty sure neither of them was particularly strong at maths and computing.

Xpost since you got back! Unfortunately quite a lot of the schools in the Preston area are church schools of one type or another.

As a pp said, specialisms no longer attract additional government funding. They may be still mentioned on websites if schools feel able to give those subjects some priority, but it will be light-touch priority with limited budget. All state secondary schools in England are judged by Ofsted on provision of a broad and balanced curriculum so if they weren't providing sufficient focus on arts, humanities etc they would be downgraded.

Recruitment of good computer science teachers is extremely difficult, and maths can be difficult to recruit for too, so if they do have a strength in those areas they are doing relatively well compared to many schools.

I'd be put off by the fact that it is single-sex, as well as being a church school. But each to their own!

Hutton Grammar is a bit unusual in the area as it has a (mixed) sixth form. I don't know how that's rated but may be a factor.

This reminds me, there's a good sixth form college in the town, Cardinal Newman (Catholic but in practice I'm not sure that's very relevant, the families I've known use it weren't particularly religious and none were RC). It's recently partnered in some way with Lancaster university to create a sixth form college specialising in maths (also some other STEM subjects inc comp sci) lusom.ac.uk

The effect of this may be that it may attract good maths and science teachers, and also the most able maths pupils who might otherwise have gone to HG sixth form.

Thanks all. So much to think about and consider isn't there?!