Objection to the admission arrangements of Sutton Grammars

[Giulio]

Like I posted earlier, the result of the adjudication on the objection raised by Mr Cullen was a foregone conclusion....

I see
do you have experience on these matters? What would be your view on an objection about the catchment area for Nonsuch and Wallington girls?

[abr]

I have no experience but I can only see inconsistency. Sep 2009 objection to catchment for girls' grammars in Sutton was not upheld. Not sure why there should be a difference between boys and girls's grammars in this regard.

[abr]

And my view was based on attending the public session in person and finding that the boys' grammars headteachers seriously rallied a lot of support from Sutton comprehensives too, to defeat this particualr objection. If one noticed on the day, when non-parents were called on to comment, all three who stood up and disagreed with the objection were from schools, board of governors etc.

[Giulio]

I have no experience but I can only see inconsistency. Sep 2009 objection to catchment for girls' grammars in Sutton was not upheld. Not sure why there should be a difference between boys and girls's grammars in this regard.

I don't think that was an objection raised to the adjudicator.
That were the school wanting to change the admission criteria (Nonsuch removing the catchment area, Wallington watering it down) and then having to backdown after fierce local opposition.
The indipendent adjudicator was not involved. The schools governing body were, which are probably more favourable to local sentiment, and less indipendent.
Or am I wrong?

[4mykids]

And my view was based on attending the public session in person and finding that the boys' grammars headteachers seriously rallied a lot of support from Sutton comprehensives too, to defeat this particualr objection. If one noticed on the day, when non-parents were called on to comment, all three who stood up and disagreed with the objection were from schools, board of governors etc.

I feel that is rather unfair on the representatives of the other schools, implying that they were just puppets, speaking on behalf of the Grammars and not acknowledging that they had their own valid concerns regarding the impact any changes in the admissions procedure might have on their own establishments.

The audience at the meeting was heavily biased towards those supporting the appeal, due to the fact that it was necessarily arranged at short notice and had only been advertised to Sutton schools and I felt the most powerful comments of the evening came from the “non parents” who had a vested interest in Sutton schools as a whole as opposed to their own children.

[Kukoo]

Having read most of the comments of Sutton parents on the adjudicator decision ( we do appreciate the frustration) , it looks they are under the impression that OOB parents didn't make any representation and it was only the heads of sutton grammar and high schools who defended admission policy. I would like to mention here that although many OOB parents couldn't attend the meeting on Oct 6 but many did send their comment, so did I. I am happy that adjudicator upheld merit. Following mail I sent to Ms. Lisa Short, copied along with her acknowledgement.

"We are all in it together"

"
fromLisa.SHORT@osa.gsi.gov.uk

date13 October 2010 14:48
subjectRE: Objection to the admission arrangements of Sutton Grammars - OOC Parent View Point

hide details 13 Oct (9 days ago)


Thank you for your email. I have forwarded a copy to the adjudicator.

Yours sincerely
Lisa Short
Case Manager

________________________________

Hi Ms Short,

Ref. to objection to the admission arrangements of Sutton Grammar School for Boys, Wallington County Grammar School and Wilson's School for September 2011, as on OOC lower middle calss parent, I would like registered my views as under :

All 3 grammar schools recurit pupils on selective ability purely on merit that is fair scale for every one either living in or out of county.

My son goes to a local state primary school and working really hard to get himself into a grammar school, if he manages to pass 11 plus test for one of these schools "with flying colours", why should he be deprived of a place, it will be really hard for a 10 year old to understand all this politics - " Local School for Local Kids". Otherwise, if he doesn't score enough marks, he and myself will still be happy that someone else who is more brilliant than him got the deserving place, every parent should teach his/her child that hard work and merit is the only way to success rather concessions!
There are many OOC parents like us who are lower or lower middle class and can't offerd independent schools but aspirant to give thier children the best education. However, there are very few grammar schools across London and neigbouring counties ( in fact non in our's county), therefore, selection on merit to these limited centres of excellence makes perfect sense and provides level playing field to everyone.

These schools are best because they intake best pupils on merit, if local parents want a larger share for their kids and force these schools to lower their current criteria for admission, in next 5 to 10 years time , these shcools may not maintain very high standard and reputation that is the sole source of attraction to these " local parents". Everyone of us like our kids to go to Oxford and Camridge universities because of highest standard, would Sutton parent would like the idea that these top universities would start prefering local students instead of selecting on merit ?

These schools are not funded through resources created by local council or local resident rather through tax payers money so every tax payer's kid, irrespective where they live, should have an equal right and opportunity to admission to these schools.

These grammar schools already provide a lot of support to local primary school's pupils in terms of awareness, education, and motivation and some of the sutton local primary schools also focus on 11 plus test preparation that increase their chances to succeed where as we don't have any grammar school in our county/borough neither our local state primary schools make any special efforts with the kids to make them prepare for 11 plus, it is down to individuals own efforts so rather our kids are at disadvantage.

I can go on and on to produce thousands more arguments but don't want to waste your time, all I can say is, top performing shcools in England are the ones who admit kids on slective ability, I am sure, Surrey would not like to lose this pride.

Thanks & Regards"

[abr]

I feel that is rather unfair on the representatives of the other schools, implying that they were just puppets, speaking on behalf of the Grammars and not acknowledging that they had their own valid concerns regarding the impact any changes in the admissions procedure might have on their own establishments.

You may have misunderstood the context in which I said that local grammar's head teachers rallied support. I think their case was strengthened by comprehesives also arguing against the objection - this may have been due to whatever concerns they had. My comment was in the context of the grammars presenting facts to counter each and every item of supporting arguments provided by the main objector. Whereas, the local people were a little disorganised and confusion prevailed as to things like basic definition of "Sutton area". In fact, I thought that the first non-parent to speak, actually made a passionate plea to locals present there and exactly did as he was supposed to as head of a local comprehensive.

In reality, the catchment area issue will not affect local comprehensives as long as the ratio of aspirants to grammar school places is 8-10 aspirants:1 place. Maybe I am missing something here,