Should our grammars have catchment areas?

[last year mum]

It would be interesting to see figures for out of county children at Glos Grammars. As a Pate's parent I'm not aware of many children travelling large distances to get to school. I tend to put it into the box marked Pate's Myths, along with open evenings full of posh prep school uniforms, school car park overflowing with 4 x 4's, hyper competitive parents, hot housing and over tutoring ! Not a picture recognised by people who actually have children at the school.

[stroudydad]

Thanks for all the replies, perhaps I should add that my personal gripe in this system is the fact that many people pass one grammar to attend another. And proud mum I have no problem with how far you travel, if it's to your nearest grammar. The comps work in that way, why shouldn't grammars? The same students would get places, they would just be distributed differently. Surely that would make a huge amount of sense? And maybe help our environment;-)

[aargh]

I would agree stroudydad, except that the same things that might make you choose one comp over another may make you choose one grammar over another.

My DD chose Pates rather than the closer SHS for a variety of reasons including to start with that it is co-ed when none of the others are.
It does Mandarin on the language options, she liked the ethos and feel of it, she likes the way they structure the learning. We were also impressed by some departments for subjects DD favours.

DD dislikes the uniform, but do you choose a school based on that?

[stroudydad]

Aargh I do see your point however there will never be a ' one school fits all'. Our view is though that our children should have A decent amount of time away from school aswell, and being honest, if our children were to travel to pates it would stop them from doing a lot of other activities..which to us is what helps to create a rounded adult.
That isn't a dig at anyone by the way, just a personal opinion.

[Guest55]

You do not have to attend your nearest GS in Bucks - my DC doesn't. Also children from outside Bucks can and do attend Bucks GS.

[proud mum x2]

Stroudydad, I see your point, for some that could be an issue, our travelling takes 20 mins (or 25 if the traffic is bad) We also come back into Cheltenham four times a week as our daughter has training sessions outside of school to help make her into that "rounded person"

She has absolutely no problem with the issue of travelling and our cars know the way by themselves now anyway

[Rob Clark]

My DD chose Pates rather than the closer SHS for a variety of reasons including to start with that it is co-ed when none of the others are.

I’m not in Gloucestershire, but I definitely think this is a valid reason for choosing one school over another. As the parent of 2 DCs, one of whom loves being in a single-gender school and the other who would hate it, this was a big factor for us too.

That said, I don’t think long journeys to and from school are particularly healthy – 20-25 minutes isn’t a problem at all, proud mum. I’d be concerned if it was upwards of an hour…

[last year mum]

This is where it gets difficult though, if we have catchment areas based on living in county or on distance to school.
In theory, out of county people like proud mum could easily have much shorter journeys than Gloucestershire people. How do you differentiate and which is the fairer system ?

[stroudydad]

Good isn't it how everyone has such different ideas, even the coed thing, because for me the marling/shs thing seems great..single sex classes but plenty of interaction at other times..having been a rich's boy many years ago, that was the only thing wrong with the school..no females.

[cheltdad]

We live in charlton kings and the bus takes longer than 20"minutes if the DC has to rely on public transport then things unfortunately can look a lot different.