Girl power at wggs?

[thumbelina]

let me see if i have this correct? if you are a girl and live near the girls school (not on its doorstep but close that its your nearest school), you stand no chance of getting in - but the girl who has a brother that already attends the boys school will get in.

does this not seem to take womens rights etc backwards ?- it means that girl can get into a girls school using the ticket that a male provided. ofcourse the same goes for boys.

i know this policy exists in co-ed schools but i thought wggs would have set a better example to future women.

how does that figure in the mind of a girl who will grow up knowing that she did not do the selective exam but got into a school on the basis of her brother doing all the previous hard work? #

fairer system would have been to make all kids entering either of these schools do an exam and regardless of being a sibling or not.

[atsey]

completely agree that on the open evening, I overheard some parent discussing their DD 11+ exam grades ~200ish, and they are able to apply for a place, because they are either in the catchment, or have a sibling link, when there are other DD that are not able to apply as thet are out of the catchment even though their exam scores are 30% more. I thought that the whole idea behind the 11+ grammer school exams was to find the brightest children, irrespective of where they lived.

[Long Journey]

It isn't an actual grammar school though, despite the name.

[thumbelina]

personally i think the cross sibling policy covering two schools (that have very little to do with each other on a day to day basis), discriminates against a bright female who would have gained entry into a school but is denied the place on account of a not so bright female who is dependent on a male doing the hard work.

frankly i am surprised that a girls school would advocate such a sexist policy

no wonder women are behind in pay when it comes to employment etc.

the girls school should be taking on bright girls because they are just that, not because they happen to have a bright brother.

[Kingfisher]

I think that for WGGS only 25% are selected on academic ability... I could be wrong.

At Habs Boys they say they will usually interview a boy who has a sister at Habs Girls or an older brother in the school.

[tense]

We don't have grammar schools in Herts & the Watford Grammars aren't 100% selective - surely you know that??!!!

And my son is managing very nicely thank you, despite getting into his school (not WGSB) because of his big sister. Perhaps I should chastise him for setting back 'boy power'?

[thumbelina]

dear tense, presumably your children attend a co -ed.

i am talking about a single sex school.

are there really no grammars in herts???? shock horror

[Cutting42]

let me see if i have this correct? if you are a girl and live near the girls school (not on its doorstep but close that its your nearest school), you stand no chance of getting in - but the girl who has a brother that already attends the boys school will get in.

does this not seem to take womens rights etc backwards ?- it means that girl can get into a girls school using the ticket that a male provided. ofcourse the same goes for boys.

i know this policy exists in co-ed schools but i thought wggs would have set a better example to future women.

how does that figure in the mind of a girl who will grow up knowing that she did not do the selective exam but got into a school on the basis of her brother doing all the previous hard work? #

fairer system would have been to make all kids entering either of these schools do an exam and regardless of being a sibling or not.

The Watford Grammar schools are partially selective not fully selective so have to balance exam entry along with distance based entry. Watford is very unusual in that 7 out of 9 schools are partially selective which is a considerably higher percentage of partially selective to non selective than anywhere else in the country. Therefore it makes sense to let these schools also run sibling policies to benefit all pupils.

Think you are barking up the wrong tree with the Girls/Women rights as it is exactly the same for the Boys grammar school as well. All the other schools in the Watford area benefit from a sibling policy as well as being partially selective. Why should WGGS and WGSB be treated differently?

I have a DS and a DD and had to qualify separately for both schools as the cross sibling policy was not in place when we would have benefited from it. I felt discriminated against compared with friends who had 2 DD or were at a Co Ed school and so welcomed the return of this policy as I feel it is fairer and more consistent with the general conditions across Watford.

[WP]

personally i think the cross sibling policy covering two schools (that have very little to do with each other on a day to day basis), discriminates against a bright female who would have gained entry into a school but is denied the place on account of a not so bright female who is dependent on a male doing the hard work.

No, these places are at the expense of girls who might have got in on distance, not places from the academic or music routes.

frankly i am surprised that a girls school would advocate such a sexist policy

As others have pointed out, the two schools operate perfectly symmetrical policies, so it can hardly be called sexist.

[handbag50]

How can it be a "sexist policy" if it works the same way for both sexes????