SPGS develop poor essay writing skills?

[dancingbyriviera]

Bute House or Latymer prep 7+ www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/4999555-bute-house-or-latymer-prep-7

On a primary education thread, someone claiming to be teaching at Oxford claims that their students from SPGS have poor essay writing skills, don't do well with open ended projects and need constant reassurance. Whereas those from Latymer Upper thrive there.

Would love to get your thoughts..

That was an interesting thread, thanks!

I believe the poster, that she observed this, and that she teaches in Oxford

But beyond that, this is just anecdote, on a very small sample size (she acknowledges this too) and would be silly to draw any conclusion on the general characteristics of all SPGS students.

(I don't have DC in either school)

Maybe slightly related, there are studies though that show Cambridge undergraduates from state sector schools do better academically than their independent sector peers.

How on earth has this tutor had so much experience of Latymer Upper alumni? They send typically less than ten students a year to Oxford.

Among those on average 10 Oxford students LU sent every year, seems like there is a continuation on 1-2 subjects. So I guess it is possible for the poster to make some judgement over the years. Although I have stated that I find the claim slightly dubious.

some of this might be residual from covid years?
equally how quickly do they pick up the change of expectation, how well do they take the feedback and move forward?
it's unrealistic to take a hs aged/educated student and expect them to be performing doctorate level work. that's why university is called "further education".

I love the timing of this post, a couple of days before 11+ results come out. Someone more sceptical than me might think the poster had some sort of axe to grind, or perhaps a personal stake in the process. And the "Oxford uni teacher" who claims to have detailed info on so many private school students that they can make claims about their relative performance is just too funny.

The Oxbridge poster buried her comment in a primary school thread that was not very relevant to the OP's title. Then another poster forwarded it to a secondary school thread and asked for thoughts. I don’t really know who had an ulterior motive, but either way it just shows that some posters are really obsessed with a certain outcome and try to do whatever they can to achieve.