The Pates vrs A.N.Other grammar dilemna.
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I guess we all have our own views on the rights and wrongs of 'school policies'. I have made a few comments about teachers and their lack of support for parents who wish to appeal. I do feel justified as I am in the profession and would never wish to disparage teachers.
I would just like to see a level playing field. Either all schools support appeals or none do. I wonder how well subscribed some schools would be if such policies were made obvious to parents in y3?
I would just like to see a level playing field. Either all schools support appeals or none do. I wonder how well subscribed some schools would be if such policies were made obvious to parents in y3?
primary schools
All my 'inside' experience is of secondary schools.
In secondary we see preparing students to porgress to the next stage of their education as one of our important roles. A parent would be rightly furious if we said -
'you want to go to a selective university - oh, we disagree with such an elitist (or whatever) attitude so you child will get little help preparing for university entrance tests, no help with their UCAS application, no reference from us. You want us to offer an opinion after educating them for the last few years about whether they would be suited for Oxbridge? How dare you! We disagree ideologically with such places ....'
We would (subject to resources) expect all secondary schools to prepare students for whatever (different) progression route after school - why do we let primary schools off doing similar prep?
I do not mean helpin some students in the primary class and not others, I mean helping all with what they need. We only offer reading recovery to those needing it and who would benefit from it. Why is it so bad to give the same amount of help in test prep for those aspiring to Grammar Schools?
I would also say that many primary schools do prep for SATS tests. Learning ENg, Mat and ASci is good, of course, but prep for teh SATS tests seems hypocritical. SATS results barely benefit children at all whereas Grammar School entrance tests make a big difference to life chances - especially in areas without outstanding / good comps. After all - there isn't a site like this with parents worrying about Key StTage Two SATs results!
In secondary we see preparing students to porgress to the next stage of their education as one of our important roles. A parent would be rightly furious if we said -
'you want to go to a selective university - oh, we disagree with such an elitist (or whatever) attitude so you child will get little help preparing for university entrance tests, no help with their UCAS application, no reference from us. You want us to offer an opinion after educating them for the last few years about whether they would be suited for Oxbridge? How dare you! We disagree ideologically with such places ....'
We would (subject to resources) expect all secondary schools to prepare students for whatever (different) progression route after school - why do we let primary schools off doing similar prep?
I do not mean helpin some students in the primary class and not others, I mean helping all with what they need. We only offer reading recovery to those needing it and who would benefit from it. Why is it so bad to give the same amount of help in test prep for those aspiring to Grammar Schools?
I would also say that many primary schools do prep for SATS tests. Learning ENg, Mat and ASci is good, of course, but prep for teh SATS tests seems hypocritical. SATS results barely benefit children at all whereas Grammar School entrance tests make a big difference to life chances - especially in areas without outstanding / good comps. After all - there isn't a site like this with parents worrying about Key StTage Two SATs results!