Durham University social engineering

[zee]

Abolish grammar schools too.
All children go to their local school.
The schools would thrive, as they would have all the GS kids in their intake, as well as all those supportive parents!

You'd still have good and bad schools you know - unless you did major gerrymandering with catchments.

[Guest55]

You're right Zee. Even in fully comprehensive areas schools have very different catchments and the intake reflects the affluence of the local housing.

[huntlie]

And why not? That's how it is in the US - if you want the best for your kids, you buy a house according to the catchment area of the school. No selection, no fees. The notion of the way we do things, with middle class parents regarded as the enemy merely because they want the best for their kids, is totally alien over there.

[mike1880]

And we should emulate the US education system because it's so successful?

Mike

[yoyo123]

we looked into US high schools when we were weighing up a relocation last year. They vary just as much as schools here..from the good to the bad to the gruesome

[Schoolbaglady]

Communism is beginning to sound better and better.

Not for the poor people who actually had to endure it - look at what happened to the Russian people, even under communism it was the haves and the have even lessers!

I'm all for choice - if you have to pay for it and you can afford it, I say get it (but only once you've explored all other avenues first ).

Yes, but no choice for the politicians. Then we'd see the fun begin! Can you imagine the cash injections into the maintained education system, the NHS, the State Pensions service etc.,etc., that would miraculously appear with startling, almost indecent speed!

Or, perhaps, there would be a sudden rash of political resignations and far fewer potential candidates for future office?

Aaaah,,,dream on

[T.i.p.s.y]

I don't know about the state system in the US but the top private schools are superior, IMO, to the top public schools here.

[yoyo123]

looked into those too, they come with an entirely different set of problems......

[huntlie]

Yes, importing the US system here would be fine by me. My GD would then get the same excellent education as my two nephews in Massachusetts, my three nieces in Seattle, and my two grandsons in New York State. Nephews / nieces all went to Ivy League Unis after an all-state education at their local High Schools, where they mixed both with kids of billionaires and recent, homeless immigrants. I see grandsons going the same way, ie also to Ivy League. No 11+, no selection, no absurd lottery.

[SunlampVexesEel]

Back to the thread...

Details of the process by which a candidate’s background is taken into account in deciding whether to offer them a place (for example, credit being given to those who would be the first in their family to attend university; credit being given to those from schools which do not achieve good A-level grades)

I'm very pro positive discrimination and the other part of the policy is also I think a positive step. ie. being first in a family to go to university is a positive factor. I can think of examples of people who, despite good secondary education, have low aspirations for taking the top university places.

I think its laudable for Durham to do this; indeed I would hope that all university admissions also recognise that candidates from less well achieving or less aspiring backgrounds get the best life chances.

Regards
SVE

PS

Tipsy please update your Ticker; I need more sample data for the thread in the maths section.