This grammar school programme

[SouthWestmom]

Not being funny but I don't think the teaching and support staff are being shown in a great light.

Not been watching this as whole grammar school thing makes me froth.
May force myself as people I know talking about it.
Interested in why you think what you think though Noef...

Well I'm anti selection at 11 despite living in a Grammar area and having had to choose the best school for my individual children from those choices.

I felt that some of the statements were inflammatory and ill informed - could have been editing etc and obviously out of context. The woman on patrol seemed to enjoy some weird power trip - she was smiling and joking so would have confused the kids being removed for discipline purposes.

She also made a snap decision to remove Chichi when the other staff member was calming the situation and I felt this was mid represented in the subsequent meeting.

Was very surprised at the child with ADHD being in small classes and not managed within the main school body - nothing on what happened to the kids who lobbed a ball at his head .

I don't know. Just didn't come across as great.

Will watch..
Was it both sec modern and grammar staff?

This programme makes me even more pro grammar schools !

Thankfully my two DDs are at grammar school, DS (SEN) in independent school after 'Comprehensive' school failed him.

What the hell is a teacher doing running round the school with a walkie talkie, acting like a 'doorman' at a night club ejecting drunks.

The very fact that that this is regarded as normal tells you all you need to know about discipline around the school.

At least 25% of pupils are saved from this anarchy by grammar schools !

Chichi has a terrible attitude and to think she wants to be a doctor ! No chance Jose..

Correction Dd1 left grammar school last year...

@DinkyDaisy yes think it compares both .

Interesting - as I said I think editing is tricky. Certainly I don't think contradicting a colleague is great on the face of it. Also, that meeting about whether to exclude her was odd.

Just watched this with my son, who,is at a Gs (in a Gs stronghold)

We were both amazed by the number of pupils who got taken out of classrooms each day.

Chi chi is obviously a very bright girl , but needs to realise that she has to abide by school rules.
She obviously comes from a family who value education .
I just think that by comparing Erith to Townley is a bit misleading.
There is a girls catholic school in that area that gets good results

I thought Chi Chi was handled badly too. Not sure it was editing to blame. She was clearly in a state re her work and surely any back to school procedures should have included supporting her to catch up. Not sure why she couldnt have done the detention on another day to escape missing her revision lesson. I also think the other teacher butted in and shouldn't have done.It all did seem very inflammatory.

Not sure why she couldn't be a doctor. There was a doctor in the news recently who had turned herself around after being a problem teen. If she was in a private school it would just be glossed over I'm sure.If she gets good grades( highly likely as clearly bright) and turns her attitude round I dont think there is any readon why she shouldn't.

I agree with the kids being collected though,why should the others lose learning time?

I'm a n ex HOY and that is a lot of the job in many schools. The grammar school hoy was also going and removing children . She didn't have a walkie talkie. To get on in tough schools as a woman you need sometimes to be brusque and no nonsense. I am sure there is a nice side to that lady otherwise she wouldn't be a HOY but editing did not show it. The kids certainly responded to her and the male HOY (who I notice you aren't criticising!) unquestioningly. That said, I don't like this whole going into rooms and the class teacher talking loudly about students' misdemeanours.
She did undermine her colleague but she was getting nowhere with Chi Chi who was being rude and it was obviously going nowhere. I don't think it was all about her exams to Chi Chi : it was obviously she was regularly removed form lessons for a long time previously.And she was excluded for fighting and somehow hitting a teacher, don't forget...
I am not sure what the angle, if any , of this programme is. But it was edited : violin music for the grammar and let's not focus on the sliglthly out of shot smirking girl in the assembly! Some of the girls walking inot school looked a bit - ermmm- underdressed!

I want a therapy dog for my school!

The person who really ground my gears was the head of the grammar school : so smug and boastful. Of course you get the best results : you're a grammar school!

I also thought it unfair to compare a mixed sec mod with a all girls' school...

What was obvious was how scarred Chi Chi was by the whole 'failure' at 11. She had built up resentment because of that. In a comprehensive she probably would have thrived. She, ironicaly, ahs perhaps an inflated Queeen Bee attitude because of selection!

cow it was the revision lesson she wanted to go to and a detention she was trying to escape. I do think she should have been allowed to go to the revision. But we are overlooking the fact that she was flouting rules (bedecking herself with earrings after previously removing them, for example) and was very rude to the HOY across the playground, too. 'I can't change my tone' she said at the end. She will have to learn to, bless her!

In the end she went to neither revision lesson nor revision!

I think it's time on TV we saw teachers being tough. Too many 'Educating' programmes suggest schools are for people to be all nicey nicey to fairly obnoxious young people and that teachers have all the time in the world to solve the world's ills. Often we are in a hurry!!

Chi Chi did win me over when she said how much she looked up to her science teacher because she was successful. You don't often hear young people say that about teachers these days!

She'll do OK in the end : I think we are disproportionately worrying about her (or the programme was) . She's a tough cookie.

The other girl, In the GS, may be the one who underachieves.

The thing is that time of year is stressful if you're academic. The boy with ADHD got all manner of support. What did Chi Chi get to get her through a really stressful time? I suspect very little because she's bright and achieving. I know it was a SM but this was exactly what happened at my comp too and one of the reasons I sent my dc to grammars. I don't know what the answer is. The comp system just doesn't work imvho(Lord knows they've been around long enough to be sorted out),I think ss with no catchment is better than the Kent system and maybe the best option but then many won't have access to one.....

Quick question on Grammar schools. I live in Ireland where our education system is completely different. Are Grammar schools fee paying schools? or state schools? If they are state schools is it through assessment kids get in? How do they differ from your Academy schools? (sorry for all the questions just trying to understand the system)

Cow. More like 40% or so of pupils should have access to a grammar school. Maybe Chichi might have behaved better an be a more rounded person if surrounded by a rump of 'brighter' pupils.
Perhaps she would have been very similar to the black girl featured from Townley grammar.

Commenting on a smirking girl in an assembly well didn't you struggle to keep a straight face in assembly...

I believe in grammar schools. I just think one of the reasons we have this debate is a 25% system leaves a small percentage of pupils unaccounted for so.

What is this show called and what channel is this on please?

Grammar schools are state schools that came out of the 1944 Butler act . The principle was to have a Tripartite system of academic . The Grammar, Technical and Secondary Modern. One of the problems was the technical schools were very thin on the ground . Therefore a chasm of opportunity was missed for pupils who had technical abilities This also meant a cliff edge opened up for a pupil that failed their 11+ and went to a secondary modern school.

Many 1960s/7Os Secondary Modern schools of the 1960s which did not offer O levels. That would have been fine if those pupils had the opportunity to shine though technical or vocational education.

Currently only England and Northern Ireland have Grammar schools . In England there are 163 grammar schools in the country located in 10/12 counties!
Northern Ireland is selective all though , interestingly enough regularly produces the best academic results in the United Kingdom.

However, I believe more than ever a selective system is needed today This being due to behavioural issues and academic potential not being achieved.

The problem is the children near the pass rate for selection...

I believe a Secondary Modern school (properly resourced ) could cater adequately for 60% of children. These children don't need triple Science MFL E.T.C .

It did seem insane to prevent a child who wanted to go to a revision lesson from attending, particularly given the pressure on schools to achieve good exam results. Surely it would have been more of a punishment to make Chichi serve the detention in her free time.

I can't see that her behaviour in any way disqualifies her from being a doctor: if anything, she may well have more empathy for troubled teenagers, and she's clearly very bright and has had the sense to realise it's in her interests to get her head down and do the work. The daughter of friends is currently completing her medical degree and is going on to do a year in psychiatry: one reason why she'll make an excellent doctor is that she had a fairly troubled secondary school career and came close to exclusion at one point, but matured beyond all that.

It did irritate me when the Townley head was going on about how his school received less funding than others. That would be because children who attract pupil premium and SEN funding get selected out. You can't have your cake and eat it.

yes, you are right. Scotland does not have grammar schools and does better in PISA tests...

letstalk I see you have just popped from one thread to another to be a grammar school apologist. But I d get fed up oft his equation of able=well behaved. My DH teaches in a mixed selective private school and they do not all behave respectfully and well by any means. My new all girls top set is the only class I have shouted at so far.

I got annoyed last night because Chi Chis was told she should behave BECAUSE she was in the A Band. What do they say to less able children then about behaviour expectations? Where does that leave them??

FWIW the best behaved students I teach are at the bottom end of the ability spectrum.

This is the Telly Addicts section... could we maybe confine conversation to how the programme was filmed and edited and whether we enjoyed it? Otherwise it will become another bunfight.

I have no grammar school near me. I think DS1 would have narrowly failed a test given his NV problems. And certainly if one lived in a grammar school area this would make parents concerned. And I don't think that is helpful.

The editing for example lingered on girls really enjoying a PE lesson. This was only very briefly shown in Erith . I also noticed that when the male HOY went in to extract a student, they fell silent, which shows good discipline , and that the students stand when teachers enter the room : an old school tradition!!

Anyone? I have some free time to watch something interesting!

BBC2 last night 9pm foo