Anyway **** that bollox. The reason I've bothered to come on this **** thread is to talk about grammar schools.
It's so frustrating watching the news and seeing the central argument by politicians and news reporters being completely missed! Back in the day, grammar schools' aims was to pluck the most able from deprived backgrounds and give them a fair crack at an education reserved usually for public schools.
Grammar schools DON'T do this anymore. If you are a child from a deprived background today you have pretty much **** all chance of getting into grammar school. Because middle-claas and upper class families have realised it's cheaper to pay £3000 per year for 3 years tutoring their child from age 7/8 to pass a grammar school entry test at age 10, than it is to pay £10k a year for 5 years (from age 11-15) sending them to public school!
Grammar schools are crammed with children who weren't necessarily gifted, but instead have parents who could afford to tutor them from age 7 to 10, to get them through the entry test.
Secondly, the grammar schools of the past were institutions with high standards of teaching. Now they are anything but!! The reason they top the tables now is that they cherry pick the children of the rich who tutored their children and will continue to do so to help them succeed. When you have children working at that level, with middle-class parents willing to put in the ground work to finance it, ifcourse their results will be high.
So the idea that allowing secondary schools in deprived areas to become grammar schools is somehow going to affect social mobility is complete bollox. Because changing the name above the school gates to "grammar schools" isnt going to miraculously change the teaching and learning inside, but ONLY the ability of the children entering them. And that won't include the deprived children that live there!
All the rest of the bollox being reported about May's plans is a complete side issue. The central point is completely being missed... and that is the entry system into grammar schools is completely flawed, to work against the very children it was designed for. Until THAT gets addressed, it's stupid to consider increasing grammar schools.
It's so frustrating watching the news and seeing the central argument by politicians and news reporters being completely missed! Back in the day, grammar schools' aims was to pluck the most able from deprived backgrounds and give them a fair crack at an education reserved usually for public schools.
Grammar schools DON'T do this anymore. If you are a child from a deprived background today you have pretty much **** all chance of getting into grammar school. Because middle-claas and upper class families have realised it's cheaper to pay £3000 per year for 3 years tutoring their child from age 7/8 to pass a grammar school entry test at age 10, than it is to pay £10k a year for 5 years (from age 11-15) sending them to public school!
Grammar schools are crammed with children who weren't necessarily gifted, but instead have parents who could afford to tutor them from age 7 to 10, to get them through the entry test.
Secondly, the grammar schools of the past were institutions with high standards of teaching. Now they are anything but!! The reason they top the tables now is that they cherry pick the children of the rich who tutored their children and will continue to do so to help them succeed. When you have children working at that level, with middle-class parents willing to put in the ground work to finance it, ifcourse their results will be high.
So the idea that allowing secondary schools in deprived areas to become grammar schools is somehow going to affect social mobility is complete bollox. Because changing the name above the school gates to "grammar schools" isnt going to miraculously change the teaching and learning inside, but ONLY the ability of the children entering them. And that won't include the deprived children that live there!

All the rest of the bollox being reported about May's plans is a complete side issue. The central point is completely being missed... and that is the entry system into grammar schools is completely flawed, to work against the very children it was designed for. Until THAT gets addressed, it's stupid to consider increasing grammar schools.
"To quote Rust Cohle". Fuxake.