Grammar school or local comprehensive for a bright Year 2 child?

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Just wondering about Grammar schools. My son has just finished year 2 and without effort it seems (his school do no homework etc at this age and he missed a lot of school due to an operation and much illness prior) has got greater depth/exceeding expectations at everything (core subjects like maths, science, Spag etc and including all additional subjects like Geography/PE/RE) with the only exeption writing where he is expected.

Thinking very early about secondary schools and whether it's worth it to try for grammar schools which seem to be so highly competative these days or just go with our local comps. Not sure what the best way forward might be. His teachers say he is naturally bright and he apparently at 7 has the reading age of a 10.5 year old, but is naturally bright enough for grammer school or do you need lots of tutoring for years prior to get the scores to pass the exams?

We want him to be fulfilled and happy and don't want to pressure him with extra study/tutoring too much, as want him just to enjoy his childhood, but at the same time, don't want to regret it when he gets to that age if we haven't prepared him and he wants to go down that route.

He naturally loves to learn but also don't want to put him off either! We have a good comp near us though it's very large. Grammar schools are accessible via train. So just some thoughts really for and against on pro grammar schools and pro comps and how what to do for the rest of primary really! And indeed is yr 2 pretty easy to get those higher scores for anyway? Thanks 🙂

Sounds like it's worth considering as an option. It probably depends on which school you actually like, including what your local non selective are like, and you wont be looking at them for a couple of years.

He has four years to go it's too soon to be thinking about secondary school. . Schools can change in four years and children certainly do

I love on the border or a grammar and good, well performing comp area and 2 of my kids went to each option - 2 to grammar, 2 to comp.

I would say that the work done and level of stretch (we were in higher sets in comp) was very similar in each. I would say the comp is probably more innovative and exciting and in our case the grammar more nurturing (it was smaller).

I don't think it's a huge deal providing it's a good quality comp, tbh.

At that age it makes a huge difference when they were born. September to December babies will score highly. My September born son was exceeding at that age but he is by no means grammar school material.

I’m not totally convinced. DC1 is extremely bright (4 x Astar at A-Level, a 1st from Imperial College). I would say that there was one teacher at primary who may have realised. However, the secondary school realised at the start of y7 due to the testing they did - DC1 scored the highest in the year group in maths despite not appearing to be that good at it in primary. They also scored among the highest on the other tests. One of their y7 teachers is now a friend of mine and she says she did actually realise very quickly that DC1 was something special because DC1 told her about the book they were reading and it was something very advanced and they had some very insightful comments about it.

DC1 was the youngest in the primary class. I wonder if their relative immaturity had something to do with not being ‘spotted’?

We are in a comprehensive area with grammar schools nearby. As explained in my PP, DC1 is exceptionally bright yet did not manage to pass the 11+. They went to the nearest comp, were very happy and did very well. It was a big advantage being at the nearest school especially in y11 when they had revision classes every day after school. It also made it a lot more feasible to do after school clubs.

Dc1 was offered a place in a super-selective grammar for 6th form but decided to stay in their comprehensive because the grammar had classes of 30 for A-Levels whereas the comp had classes of 12 or fewer (2 in the case of physics!).

With a good comprehensive nearby, I do not think it is worth making a journey to a grammar, especially if it is more than an hour, involves a lot of expense or a complex journey. Commuting is exhausting for adults. For my DCs, it was 10 minutes to the local very good comprehensive. The nearest grammar, which was super selective and therefore very hard to get into was a 45 minute journey. The other grammars would have been more than an hour each way and would have cost me a fortune in train or coach fares.

Having come out the other end I have changed my view. Teachers at primary said D, was v bright, he always got the ‘gtr depth’ or whatever it was. He went comp, his peers went grammar in another area. This was largely driven by my values and having gone comp/ top uni myself.

He did v well at secondary until year 10 then became a bit disengaged. Mixed ability classes didn’t work for him and he drifted. Lovely friends but all lacking drive, like him. Came out with reasonably good GCSEs 6/7 but was predicted higher, much higher in some.

For him, a bright but not massively studious boy, a grammar would have given him higher grades I believe. Not transformed them, but I think they would have been better. He is doing A levels now but especially in subjects which build on gcses he has a long way to go and also didn’t build the study skills. There are other examples of children who smash it in a comp, but I think many more egs of DC like my son who drop off a bit.

So who knows what would have happened, but if I went again I would probs try for grammar.

I understand your point, but I kind of disagree. I went to a comprehensive in a very heavy grammar school area, 10 or so of my peers from primary went to grammar, I was probably one of 3 or so brightest in my class at secondary.

My son is probably more intelligent than me, he was in a two form entry primary where 3 people went to grammar. He is a bright one in his 12 form entry secondary, but he's one of a good number in his class and more in is year group. That is comprehensive.

I have experience of BVGS in Sutton. DS left a couple of years ago. Suits sporty and / or musical boys. OK with ADHD, dyslexia and high functioning ASD. Music is outstanding. Worth doing the open evening in Y4 for a first look then Y5 for real. It's quite early in the term from memory.

We did get a tutor for DS, mostly so he knew what sort of questions he would be facing. Whilst I don't hold with tutoring to scrape through, I think even the brightest kids should at least know what's going to happen in the tests and tutoring does that.

Where we live comps are awful so grammars are the only real option. I’d not want to push a child too much for grammar if local comps were decent as they risk being bottom of the bottom set for 7 years, but where we are it’s a harder judgement, i guess similar considerations are needed for to.

Where we live comps are awful so grammars are the only real option

”where we live, where the grammar schools skim off all the bright kids and the families who will strain every sinew to keep their kids out of the secondary moderns, by entire coincidence, the non-selective schools aren’t great” 🤣

I know not everyone has this option but this is exactly why I’d do, and did do, my damndest not to live in an 11+ area

Assessments are done for writing, reading and maths but there are no standardised assessments done for everything else. That would at best be a teacher opinion but moderation isn’t done for those subjects either.
as I said, you need to visit schools and see whether they fit your son and his interests. What he likes now will change as he gets older. He might be sporty or more arty, or into music and that should be what leads you.

Wait till year 4 to think. I would always recommend a grammar over a comprehensive

I would try for grammar with a tutoring in year 5 if not super selective or start thinking about preparing soon if super selective. I was bright and coasted at comp feeling happy socially but not very motivated; moved house and went to grammar and did much better with higher expectations and being surrounded by clever peers aiming high. Have a child starting grammar in a couple of weeks who was greater depth all though primary and can't wait to go to her grammar school even though friends are going to comps or different grammars. We also got offers of large bursaries for a couple of private schools including one big name one but chose grammar. I'm not against comprehensives and think our good local one might be a good fit for our youngest but not for our oldest.

Seriously he’s a baby