Nonsuch proposing an English Comprehension Test

[la boume]

Hi KC, can't see why are you so worried about other girls to be tutored, especially if your DD is happy and thriving. That's really not our business. Yes, I know that the huge amount of my DC's primary school children have tutors starting from year 1, but it does not concern me one bit. The parents are doing what they think the best for their DC.

[KeepCool]

Hi KC, can't see why are you so worried about other girls to be tutored, especially if your DD is happy and thriving. That's really not our business. Yes, I know that the huge amount of my DC's primary school children have tutors starting from year 1, but it does not concern me one bit. The parents are doing what they think the best for their DC.

Of course! I agree with you. Each to their own. My point is that the girls get the results due to tutoring and the school gets the credit in the league tables.

[catcool]

To be fair they did not" ditch" the sibling rule all grammars had to because of the changes to the School Admissions Code .
I too have a daughter , in year 13. Yes there is presssure but I would not say it is any more pressurised than Tiffin Girls. I think if you choose to send your child down the grammar route them you have to expect they will be pushed .

[onthego]

Just my opinion, but this may benefit children who attend prep. schools, where they seem to be much more rigorous in respect of written work, particularly with the independent exams looming at about the same time as the 11+ exams. Equally a child who attends a school in a socially challenged area may have even greater difficulty succeeding.

[mad?]

Just my opinion, but this may benefit children who attend prep. school, where they seem to be much more rigorous in respect of written work, particularly with the independent exams looming at about the same time as the 11+ exams. Equally a child who attends a school in a socially challenged area may have even greater difficulty succeeding.

I fear you are absolutely right here. Testing the children on something the prep schools have spent years preparing for, but which (IMO) is largely ignored in its most formal sense by the state sector. Hmmm.

[KeepCool]

and yes, grammar and spelling are important
init?

[KeepCool]

Interesting re the English test.... I do really think that good use of english (grammar and spelling) is important and often overlooked.

I appreciate that children whose first language is not english may feel discriminated against but actually the official language of England is English so they have to be able to speak and write well in it. If I took my kids to Germany or Italy, I would not dream of expecting schools to make allowance in admitting them for their lack of language, I would work on the language first.

re Nonsuch - I am afraid I don't know the school, have just had a look at the BBC tables and it comes well up the table for A level - just below Ermysted's GS, where the entrance exam is NVR and VR, out of school tutoring is minimal and it the overqualification criteria is distance not score.

I totally agree with you - and that's coming from someone who could not speak much English on her first day at school, aged 5 nearly 50 years ago