11 Plus Exams Forum

An interesting article in the Guardian: "How to get poor pupils into the best state schools? Smash the glass floor" (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... te-schools)

Glass floor: "The ferocious resistance of successful professional parents to their children falling below their own level of achievement – even if, whisper it, their kids aren’t very bright."

I suppose, though, that this is not a new phenomenon. Thoughts?

Nothing new in that article, it's the same old same old. In fact, I wonder how much interest the writer actually took. It states the new head changed the carchment area. Really? As a state school does he have the authority to do that? I would have thought it took quite a while and lots of consultation for that to happen and he wouldn't be the one making the decision, surely?

Article seems to have been written just for the sake of writing some thing. I am all in favour of giving priority to local children. It does not necessarily mean smashing the glass barriers. Also every parent will do whatever it takes to enhance the standard of their children. Why it should be treated with disdain?

It made me think of a conversation with my aunt recently who was telling me about her grandchildren. 3 boys - all privately educated - 1 is now a barrister and another a doctor- parents and grandma very proud of the 2 high achievers. The 3rd is regarded as less academic but went to university and did accountancy and hated it. He has eventually found his niche as an intensive care nurse, is in charge of the department and is loving it - yet to his parents and grandma there is a sense of he has acheived less than his brothers because he earns less- I thought it was quite sad really.

These days Nurse Consultants or Consultant Midwives earn as much as the consultant Doctors. Some of them even become Head of Operations or General Managers and rule over even the Senior Doctors, much to their annoyance.

tiffinboys wrote:These days Nurse Consultants or Consultant Midwives earn as much as the consultant Doctors. Some of them even become Head of Operations or Grnersl Msnagers and rule over even the Senior Doctirs, much to their annoyance.

lol. Can someone tell my husband that! I wish they did! But yes, a nurse consultant can earn a lot, but with no access to private work or the sort of pay rises consultants have commanded, there's no way a nurse consultant can be on the same league, pay wise, at the moment, although I understnad this is the way it's planned that it should be, but without private work (I worked with oncologists on 6 figure sums).

However, completely agree that finding your niche as a nurse, especially one so specialist (dh came through intensive care route) is as fantastic and successful as any lawyer or doctor and it's entirely wrong to regard it as somehow 'less'. I suspect though, that as grandparents, age means that they still have a slight tendency to see nurses as adoring handmaidens to the doctors, rather than highly achieving professionals in their own right.

I also think it's a real shame when wonderful nurses become managers and we lose their amazingly skilled clinical input. But if it suits the individual comcerned.......

FYI, consultant doctors (physicians or surgeons), consultant nurse and consultant midwives have same pay grade. Not all nhs doctors have private practice.

tiffinboys wrote:FYI, consultant doctors (physicians or surgeons), consultant nurse and consultant midwives have same pay grade. Not all nhs doctors have private practice.

The consultant midwife payscale (8a-8c - on agenda for change) is definitely not the same as Consultants on the specialist register (ie doctors).
Most doctors don't do private practice - it is really only relevant in certain fields and is becoming financially harder to get into these days.

I'm the daughter of a consultant and he didn't do private practice either, I'm not slamming consultants, but a lot of hospital docs still do. Not so easy in general practice of course, but if you are a gastro, a gynae or an oncologist in particular, private practice is very lucrative.

And yes, the nhs pay scale is different for all nurse grades vs consultants. My husband works now on the senior registrar rota but does not go on the same pay scale.