Anyone watching the Big School Lottery?

[megapixels]

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I am now! Enjoyed it last night. Thanks for the reminder!

Yup.

Notice how this family don't wear seat belts? Fancy taking all that effort to prep your daughter for a test then killing her on the way! :(

I worry about children who have been preped like this, how will they manage at secondary school without the tutor?

My mum used to teach at a grammar school- the ones who'd been prepped and only just got in really struggles because they just couldn't learn in the way the teachers expected-they needed much more support than the teachers were willing to give.

I love this little boy though, the mum must be worried sick about him getting sucked into the gang culture-he's such an innocent!

11 plus angst - oh it is awful

watching.

I shudder in anticipation, dd will sit the test next year!

I wanted that lad to get in

oh waiting for results for the wee boy who only had grammars down

I'm finding a lot of the parents quite annoying.

There's the ones who will just pay for a private education if their child cannot get into the free state grammar school. I know it is their perogative but I find this blase attitude irritating, just pay and leave the place for someone who cannot afford to go private.

Then the ones who have only listed grammar schools and then will no doubt throw a fit if their child fails the exam.

We have 11 plus here (I am in N Ireland) but we don't have a comprehensive choice for them to go to.

There's no grammar here so I sent ds to a private school.

I'm lucky - the two DS's both passed, and we got the results before they applied to grammars, and because we knew what they'd got, we knew they were 99% guaranteed a grammar

With DD1 last year, it was much more like the system in Birmingham where we didn't really know until she got the letter.

It is nerve wracking, although we were in a lucky position where the local grammar is the best in Northern Ireland according to the Sunday Times, but the other grammar 5 miles away is the sister school to the one the boys went to, and she was almost certain to get in there.

But oh it's awful. The stress.

At least all the kids ended up happy.

Poor Ethan, I really wanted him to get into the school he wanted

I was upset for poor Ethan too. But it looks like he was alright with the school later.

Who was the family without seatbelts? I didn't notice.

I know Ethan and his mum- both lovely, lovely people.

Ds1 is 10. We had him at a tutor for about 8 months but stopped it about 6 weeks ago- far too much pressure and I could see that although he may have passed his 11+, he would have struggled academically throughout secondary school.

We are just about to move into a catchment which has about 4 'good' schools- (one of which Ethan got in the programme), so Ds1 has a good choice.

The man who put just grammar schools down was barking mad.

The boy who wanted to go to the Catholic school reminded me of my DS2- 'in a world of his own' as his mum described him. Bless

I never saw last nights but, did that mum end up taking that earplug out of her ear, did she really have and ipod on? and, did the boy end up having to stay with his granny?

What happened to the girl who's (good looking) dad was teaching her.

I loved Ethan and Im sure he will thrive. What a nice little set up him and his mum have.

I'm in Scotland and we do not have that system.

Is it standard across England and Wales?

Bloody awful.

Im not sure if it is standard or just where some places have outstanding schools.

In my little Northern town you go to your nearest school, as we all have done over the generations.

kittya, that's what we do here.

Must be a density-of-population thing.

I watched it

Kittya, the one with the fit dad got in to the school she wanted. Camp Hill?