John Bercow article about Bucks grammars

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Deb70
Posts: 340
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2018 5:00 pm

John Bercow article about Bucks grammars

Post by Deb70 »

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... ls-must-go" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting. I don't agree that all grammars encourage their pupils to feel superior. But the amount of tuition that many pupils now have really does make the system unfair for those children whose parents can't provide that for them.
Glos18
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Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2018 4:57 pm

Re: John Bercow article about Bucks grammars

Post by Glos18 »

I'm not in your area. An interesting read. There are many advantages of a non-selective system but 2 things annoy me about the article. One is that there is the suggestion that the poor quality of some of the non-selective schools (a 3rd less than good in Bucks) is because of the grammar schools. Schools are not rated on raw results, but teaching standards, value added, management etc. It smacks of laziness to blame badly run non-selective schools on grammars.

The second thing is when people go on about how amazing comps are when they are lucky to live near an amazing comp. There are indeed some amazing comps but many of us don't have the luxury of accessing them. Plus they often come with a matching property price tag which is even more unobtainable than the cost of tuition.
Deb70
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Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2018 5:00 pm

Re: John Bercow article about Bucks grammars

Post by Deb70 »

The problem is that there are too few good schools and too much competition to get into them.
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: John Bercow article about Bucks grammars

Post by Guest55 »

Glos18 wrote:. Schools are not rated on raw results, but teaching standards, value added, management etc. It smacks of laziness to blame badly run non-selective schools on grammars.
That's not why some are 'requires improvement' - many of the Grammars have not been inspected under the 2012 framework because they were rated 'Outstanding' many years ago.

The 2012 Framework focused on progress and that is far more difficult to show if your students are mostly 'old' level 3/4 on entry. It's easy to get an 'old' level 5 to a grade B at GCSE in comparison -
Nella
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Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:56 am

Re: John Bercow article about Bucks grammars

Post by Nella »

It was interesting to read the stats about the children in receipt of free school meals. Shockingly low. At least the Birmingham grammars have gone some way to address the imbalance (minimum of 25% pp children at each school- and more if in catchment and qualify). Also with setting the priority score at a reasonable level it should mean that children have a good chance of getting a place without ridiculous amount of tutoring/ years of preparation.
Champa
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 7:08 pm

Re: John Bercow article about Bucks grammars

Post by Champa »

Glos18 wrote:I'm not in your area. An interesting read. There are many advantages of a non-selective system but 2 things annoy me about the article. One is that there is the suggestion that the poor quality of some of the non-selective schools (a 3rd less than good in Bucks) is because of the grammar schools. Schools are not rated on raw results, but teaching standards, value added, management etc. It smacks of laziness to blame badly run non-selective schools on grammars.

The second thing is when people go on about how amazing comps are when they are lucky to live near an amazing comp. There are indeed some amazing comps but many of us don't have the luxury of accessing them. Plus they often come with a matching property price tag which is even more unobtainable than the cost of tuition.
spot on Glos18 on both points.
kronenborg
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Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2017 2:44 pm

Re: John Bercow article about Bucks grammars

Post by kronenborg »

Holland Park School, also known as "the socialist Eton"!

Average property price of a catchment property >£2 million.

We should all be so lucky to have such a school on our doorsteps.

So for those of us in Bucks, we should send our academically able children to the non-selective, poorly performing schools, in order for them to improve the school's general performance? Cart before horse?

I don't think so.
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