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Grammar allowed to discriminate against private schools

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 8:37 pm
by resmum
Saw this in the telegraph today and checked the date to make sure it wasnt April 1st.

Grammar schools 'to give state school pupils priority'
Two grammar schools are to give state school pupils priority in admissions.


The move, by Parkstone Grammar for girls and Poole Grammar for boys, both in Poole, Dorset, has prompted claims of discrimination against the middle classes.

The schools told private primary schools that their pupils would be sent to the bottom of the list if places were oversubscribed.

Poole council said it supported the plan and that it was "in line" with the Government's admissions code.

Iain Robertson, the head teacher of Buckholme Towers School, a private school in Poole, told The Times: "It is as if they are saying that our pupils have an advantage over pupils from deprived areas.

"If so, then what about the pupils at state schools who have the means to pay for extra tuition specifically to help them gain a place at the local grammar school - they surely have an unfair advantage over their classmates?"

At present, children must pass an entrance test to gain a place at the schools. If the school is oversubscribed, priority is given first to children in care and then to those educated in state or private schools within Poole. Children from outside Poole are then allocated places in rank order of their entrance test scores.

Under the new plans, private pupils from within Poole will join those from outside the borough at the bottom of the list.

Lynn King, a parent whose daughter, Abbie-Gayle, 10, attends Buckholme Towers, told the newspaper she had hoped to send her daughter to Parkstone Grammar.

"Now we are going to be discriminated against because they have said they are going to give places to children from state schools first," she said.


This is the link to the article

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/ed ... ority.html

Resmum

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:53 pm
by melinda
i can't see how this can be allowed? I thought the government was cracking down on schools which had unfair admission policies and this seems blatantly unfair to me.
It will certainly not help some of the prep schools who may be finding life tough with the economic situation as it is. It may make parents reconsider their plans.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 10:50 pm
by shana Lewis
I suggest you read the other thread re Grammar school intake for more a measured debate!

grammar admissions and private schools

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 10:59 pm
by resmum
Links to another article in the Times seem to suggest that it is something to do with feeder schools linked to the grammar (within Poole itself) getting priority and private schools in Poole no longer being regarded as feeder schools even if they are in the boundary.

Looks like parents of children in private schools who want to send their child to the grammar will have to take them out at the end of year 5 and put them into one of the feeder schools (if they can get a place).

Sounds like children who are home schooled will also be pushed to the end of the queue under this code.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:11 pm
by huntlie
Heaven forfend! Discriminate in favour of kids who were not privately educated and therefore not intensively tutored for the 11+?

Whatever next? Oh poor 'Abbie - Gayle!' Maybe she won't be guaranteed that Grammar place after all! The heart bleeds. Not.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:16 pm
by shana Lewis
My sentiments exactly. The last people I feel sorry for in this 'economic climate' are prep schools and their subscribers- my local 'woolworths' staff get my vote of sympathy.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:18 pm
by T.i.p.s.y
You are so measured Huntlie. :roll:

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:31 pm
by shana Lewis
'The move, by Parkstone Grammar for girls and Poole Grammar for boys, both in Poole, Dorset, has prompted claims of discrimination against the middle classes.'

I think you will find most middle classes send their children to state schools. If, as is the popular definition, middle classes are educated to degree level, have a professional /high skilled job/ car owners.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:42 pm
by KES Parent
huntlie wrote: Whatever next? Oh poor 'Abbie - Gayle!' Maybe she won't be guaranteed that Grammar place after all! The heart bleeds. Not.
It's clearly not a class issue, anyway. :wink:

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:43 pm
by resmum
Huntlie,

Are you going to do lie detector tests on all the parents from state schools to make sure they haven't intensively tutored?

"No, ma'am. We didn't do no tutoring, honest. Whad are ya doin with that dial ???? AARGGGHHHH... Okay I admit it - but it was just a few NFER papers, nothing else... AAARGGGHHH.... Okay, okay and the Bond Papers ...AARGH and the CDs.. The maths one, ....and the VR..Please, I'll sign a confession, I'll name names ... Tipsy, Patricia, Forumadmin, all those guys at Elevenplusexams.co.uk ....they made me do it - please just make the pain stOPPPPPPP"