The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

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moseleymum
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The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by moseleymum »

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had read the article in the Sunday Times on 28th July? I read it, gave it to DH to read and then it disappeared (probably into the paper recycling) so it's gone for good, and therefore I can't copy it out here. For those that subscribe, the article is here
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/new ... 292495.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Anyway, the paper's opinion wasn't a surprise, (KEHS and CHB at the top with CHG and KES further down but still in the top ten). However I was discussing the article with a friend and just wanted other opinions on the comment further down in the article. From what I remember, it said that a large proportion of boys per class continue to have external tuition to keep up with work during their time there. Is this true?

I don't have a DS in the school, but my friend's DS will be taking the exam in a few weeks and just wanted the thoughts of others with boys there.

Thanks.
moseleymum
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Re: The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by moseleymum »

There are so many CHB parents on here, there must be someone who can comment on whether the majority of boys (as was the paper's opinion) need constant tuition/external help. I know in KES, boys are told they have to go to extra mentoring classes if they are falling behind, indicating the school is taking responsibility rather than expecting the parents to sort it out.

Can anyone comment? :roll:
Last edited by moseleymum on Wed Aug 14, 2013 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
mike1880
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Re: The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by mike1880 »

There's plenty of extra support available within the school and a very large proportion of boys get support for one or other subject (few people are good at absolutely everything after all, no matter how clever). I'd be very doubtful if "most" are having extra tuition outside school tbh, I would imagine it's a fairly small minority. (And I don't think the S T believes it either; why would a school merit second best in the region if it couldn't even manage to educate the fiercely selective intake CHB gets without outside help?)

Is it only me that would be curious to know which schools were rated better than KES or CHG?

Mike
DIY Mum
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Re: The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by DIY Mum »

mike1880 wrote:There's plenty of extra support available within the school and a very large proportion of boys get support for one or other subject (few people are good at absolutely everything after all, no matter how clever). I'd be very doubtful if "most" are having extra tuition outside school tbh, I would imagine it's a fairly small minority. (And I don't think the S T believes it either; why would a school merit second best in the region if it couldn't even manage to educate the fiercely selective intake CHB gets without outside help?)

Is it only me that would be curious to know which schools were rated better than KES or CHG?
:lol:

Tbh, I was very surprised to read the dp's comment about the 15 boys in a class from CHB receiving external tuition. :shock: Really? My ds starts Y11 in September 13 and hasn't had any form of tuition since he began in Y7. Nor have his friends. Perhaps he's in the wrong year group or class :?:

Whenever I've spoken to my esteemed tutor friend, I know she has taught (and still does teach) students from KES. But she has never mentioned (in all the years that I've known her), taking on anyone from CHB. I could be wrong though, if it's changed that much in the last year or so.
moseleymum
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Re: The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by moseleymum »

mike1880 wrote:There's plenty of extra support available within the school and a very large proportion of boys get support for one or other subject (few people are good at absolutely everything after all, no matter how clever). I'd be very doubtful if "most" are having extra tuition outside school tbh, I would imagine it's a fairly small minority. (And I don't think the S T believes it either; why would a school merit second best in the region if it couldn't even manage to educate the fiercely selective intake CHB gets without outside help?)

Is it only me that would be curious to know which schools were rated better than KES or CHG?

Mike
Other schools in the Midlands, according to them, that are also in the top 10 are Nottingham Girls' High School, Nottingham High School, Concord School (Shrewsbury), Loughborough High School, Wolverhampton Girls' High School and Stratford-upon-Avon Grammar School for Girls.
JaneEyre
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Re: The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by JaneEyre »

Does anyone have the full article and could post it on this thread please?
JaneEyre
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Re: The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by JaneEyre »

Whenever I've spoken to my esteemed tutor friend, I know she has taught (and still does teach) students from KES. [/quote]
Just two ideas which crossed my mind:
- a few parents having DS at KES are very wealthy. As they want the best for their offspring, they might still prefer to pay for external tutors, despite the help provided by the school.
- let's not forget that the intake and KES and KHES is on one hand very bright DC....but also on the other hand some DC who sat the exams as a back up in case they didn't get a place at a grammar. Maybe it is these children who are struggling with the pace of study in these excellent schools?
However, I have to say that I know well a family whose DD failed the 11+ grammars entrance exam (not by lack of intelligence but due to her slow nature), but obtained a place at KHES: she really flourished there and she has overcome her disposition to be slow. KHES was the right school for her... and she never needed external tuition.
moseleymum
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Re: The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by moseleymum »

This wasn't supposed to turn into yet another KES v CHB thread :roll: or even Indie v Grammar :roll: I didnt mention our KES experience in my initial post, I only mentioned KES as no one had answered up to that point....

I was asking for clarification on statistics of tutoring at CHB following an article which I found to be quite surprising. As those on the forum know, I don't have a DS there so didn't know how to answer my friend.
um
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Re: The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by um »

I would love to read this article but am unsure about setting up a monthly sub to the Times just to do so!
Can anyone send me it please? Otherwise I will end up setting up a monthly sub just to find out what it says :shock:

As for external help/tuition, we can presume that many children from middle class/professional backgrounds, whether at Camp Hill or, say, Tudor Grange, receive a pretty significant amount of extra support, whether from parents, relatives, older siblings, or tutors, and will have done so since they were young.

I was talking to a colleague last May who said he'd even got in a twice-weekly counsellor/psychologist to motivate his ds through his GCSE exams as he was concerned about him not putting in enough work! This child was at a good comprehensive, not a Grammar. I also know many parents who have taken holiday from work in revision periods to support their children.

I have to say I have noticed more talk of tuition in my ds2's year than I have in my ds1's year. In some cases it could be that children are very heavily tutored and supported to get into CH and then have to stay heavily tutored to keep up at CH. This would be a minority of boys, though. And it is unlikely that they desperately need the tuition, but may have been so used to being 'top of the class' in Primary/Prep school that their parents have panicked at the thought that they may no longer be at top position. In that sense, the school's insistence, in its regular reports, on labelling children '1', '2' or '3'. (3 being the lowest third) can be quite worrying for parents and could be the cause of a drive among some to find external tuition.
I have felt bad at times that, with ds2 being the 2nd of 5, he has had far less general parental/family supervision and support than most of the other boys seem to have. I'm not sure whether that is a good thing or bad thing :?
There are certainly boys I know at CH who genuinely have no external or even family support, for various reasons, and yet do extremely well.
CH do run additional support groups and classes in some subjects for those who need them.
moseleymum
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Re: The Sunday Times Best Secondary School in the Midlands

Post by moseleymum »

Thank you um for providing balance, as always.

Definitely not worth setting up a subscription. The article was very short and it was only one sentence that shocked me due to the sheer numbers it said were still having tutors.

That's all I needed to clarify. Thanks!
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