Is anyone wishing they could swap the pass of the 11 plus for a guarenteed place at a nice comp?

[UnfortunatelyMurderedMe]

I am, shame you cant.

idling - you're absolutely correct. If there are still children being creamed off by grammars, then other schools in the vicinity won't be truly comprehensive. This was true of my situation as a kid when I took, and 'passed' the 11 plus and then went to the comp anyway. I don't think I was particularly aware at the time though later it dawned on me that probably most kids at the school hadn't passed the 11 plus!!
Now, as a parent living in an area with an excellent state comp, I can see that there is a real difference from the school I went to. The teaching and results at my kids' comp is excellent and of course there genuinely is the entire range, so a child in top sets will be with very bright children.
Having said that, it never did me any harm - I went on to University, as did my siblings who had 'failed' the 11 plus, which really shows the system up for the load of bollox it is!!

A year or so ago it was an OFSTED inspector reviewing a school in Salisbury who pointed out that it was a SECONDARY MODERN he was looking, despite the school's claim to be a comprehensive and thus would not be judging it in the same way as a true Comp, seeing as Salisbury creams off the more academic DCs, albeit via a HOST of private preps, to 2 single gender grammar. It would be fair to say that there are a lot of state parents in the area who don't even 'allow' their DC to take the 11+ on the basis the odds are so heartily stacked against them. And you DO have to ask to be entered for the exam.

Personally it surprises me that the bulk of the Salisbury parents don't rise up against this iniquity in their midst, skewing their DCs education, but perhaps they're so middle class they assume their DC will OF COURSE get into the grammars.

Fwiw, I went to the girls grammar in 1973 but believe me, it's a WHOLE different kettle of fish these days!

What's a 'nice' comp? We have a choice of two schools round here - the below average comp or the other below average comp.
DD1 seems to be surviving so far.

Hmm, the nice comps I was referring to were hugh christie and hillview Both achieve no more however than another school I went to that looked awful, run down and grim.
But twice as much as my local comp.
The other schools in the area are church schools or grammar.

(excuse my spelling in the title, I knew it was wrong but I couldnt think how to correct it and ive just finally got round to checking and its guaranteed) sorry

In my area of London we have two single sex grammer schools, two catholic secondaries, 2 private secondaries and 2 comprehensives. Middle class parents who are of Catholic persuasion work hard to oversome the hurdles to get their chldren into the catholic schools, those who aren't Catholic scrape together funds for the private schools and the grammers seem to be predominantly made up of extremely high achievers from mainly asian backgrounds.
Anyone left ends up in the local comp.