Should our grammars have catchment areas?

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aargh
Posts: 406
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2011 7:00 pm

Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by aargh »

DD is definitely a co-ed girl but we suspect DS may do better at Marling (if he gets in - sitting 2013)

DD's bus trip is likely to be 40 mins. On 2 days a week she will be stepping off the bus into my filmmaking group.
The journey is our biggest concern and how she will fit in extra curricular clubs and other interests. But it has been very much driven by DD and it is her life.
turtleglos
Posts: 455
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:04 pm

Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by turtleglos »

We drive past Marling every day to drop ds1 at the bus stop in Stroud and at least once a term(month) :D I say "If you went here you would just be getting out of bed now" Ds1 just shrugs his shoulders and says he likes Pate's and feels he has made the right choice. He has started back clubs out of school and thoroughly enjoys the lunchtime/evening clubs at school. I may not like the time I spend on the motorway quite as much but thats the commitment that I made to him. :roll: I also have the view that when I was in school although it was 10minute car journey to school, the bus took 45 minutes and this was to my nearest comp, Ds1s journey is not much longer from home.
He chose Pate's for a number of reasons, it is a science school and he loves science, it is co-ed, he wanted to meet new people, it gets great results and the dcs want to do well, and probably the most important-it has a climbing wall.
I think that the Marling/SHS site was a little to big for him as he liked the smaller feel to Pates.
Of course, had we had catchment areas we wouldn't have had to make a choice and we would have been able to sleep better at night. :lol:
Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will think it is stupid.
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by Amber »

Guest55 wrote:You do not have to attend your nearest GS in Bucks - my DC doesn't. Also children from outside Bucks can and do attend Bucks GS.
In Bucks around 30% of children go to GS, I think? Here it is around 4-5% - they are superselective (what a dreadful term) and we have an opt-in rather than an opt-out entrance test. Personally I am against selective schooling so it's hard to answer this, but I think your system has to be better than ours. In theory children in neighbouring counties with no grammars ought to have access to a decent comprehensive - this must be the case or certain counties' students would be consistently getting worse results at GCSE and A level and this would be correlated with GS distribution, which as far as I am aware it isn't. So one could argue that if your county doesn't have selective schools, the ones it does have are providing adequately for all abilities. That parents obviously don't feel this though is clear or they wouldn't be prepared to travel across county boundaries, though of course if you live on one, you might be nearer to our hallowed seats of learning than say someone in Bourton or Stow or the Forest, which are still in Gloucestershire. I have to say it can be a little galling to hear of a family relocating from a far-flung corner of the country to get a child into a school here - but then unless we build a whole load more superselectives, thereby making them less superselective, that will not change.

I have to laugh at the idea of a catchment area around Pate's - the number of children living in the streets round that school who have even sat the test, let alone passed it, in the last 10 years would not even fill a class.
Rob Clark
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Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by Rob Clark »

Interestingly in Bucks some of the GSs used to almost set themselves up as ‘super-selectives’ in that although the official county pass mark was 121, you had to get (I think) 127 to get into them. This was abandoned a few years ago, after it was declared illegal (I think – sorry my knowledge is a little hazy as it was before my DCs’ time) and the criteria used now is distance. Now that more are converting to Academies, it will be interesting to see if certain GSs try to reintroduce something similar…
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by Amber »

Rob Clark wrote:Interestingly in Bucks some of the GSs used to almost set themselves up as ‘super-selectives’ in that although the official county pass mark was 121, you had to get (I think) 127 to get into them. This was abandoned a few years ago, after it was declared illegal (I think – sorry my knowledge is a little hazy as it was before my DCs’ time) and the criteria used now is distance. Now that more are converting to Academies, it will be interesting to see if certain GSs try to reintroduce something similar…
Well the way I understand it, academies can pretty much do what they like. Who knows, maybe they could use that list of 'teachers' most hated names' to draw up a list of those they would like in. Criterion 1. Children named Rebecca, Charlotte, Alexander or William.
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by yoyo123 »

Amber wrote: I have to laugh at the idea of a catchment area around Pate's - the number of children living in the streets round that school who have even sat the test, let alone passed it, in the last 10 years would not even fill a class.
oi! I grew up on PEW!
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by Amber »

yoyo123 wrote:
Amber wrote: I have to laugh at the idea of a catchment area around Pate's - the number of children living in the streets round that school who have even sat the test, let alone passed it, in the last 10 years would not even fill a class.
oi! I grew up on PEW!
In the last ten years? Wow you are much younger than me yoyo. I would put a smiley now but on account of earlier problem can only manage a random selection of punctuation and numbers. 9@&5:,?3
Lynne
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2011 1:06 pm

Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by Lynne »

Amber wrote: I have to laugh at the idea of a catchment area around Pate's - the number of children living in the streets round that school who have even sat the test, let alone passed it, in the last 10 years would not even fill a class.
That is a rather "snobbish" comment.

Maybe that is because the families that live in that area aren't able financially to send their children to private school or afford to tutor them, so they would have a fighting chance to pass the 11 plus, and therefore feel their child would have no hope of passing, so therefore do not want to put their child through something that they know will be to no avail
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by Amber »

Lynne wrote:
Amber wrote: I have to laugh at the idea of a catchment area around Pate's - the number of children living in the streets round that school who have even sat the test, let alone passed it, in the last 10 years would not even fill a class.
That is a rather "snobbish" comment.

Maybe that is because the families that live in that area aren't able financially to send their children to private school or afford to tutor them, so they would have a fighting chance to pass the 11 plus, and therefore feel their child would have no hope of passing, so therefore do not want to put their child through something that they know will be to no avail
Er, I don't see how it is snobbish. Perhaps I didn't make my point clearly. It is a sad reflection of the truth - that selection 'by ability' is actually a proxy for selection by social class, on the whole. This is well acknowledged and documented- it's not just my opinion but something you can see in Germany too, for example, which has a highly selective system, much more so than our own. You have summed up my point very nicely. It is quite true that the families around the school can generally not access the resources needed to get a child through the 11+. Until recently I was teaching in a primary school very close to Pates and no child ever sat the 11+. To me the very fact that they see it as 'to no avail' is a tragedy in itself...there is unequal access to these institutions, and it is one reason why I am opposed to them.
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Should our grammars have catchment areas?

Post by yoyo123 »

definitely longer ago than 10 years admittedly! I remember when Boy's Grammar moved from centre of town to present site..they were still wearing mortar boards in 6th form then!

yours
old crone of Kent
(formerly of Cheltenham)
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