BBC Programme - Big School Lottery

[tranquillity]

Watched this prog with great interest as we saw this film crew filming in the Brummie grammars ds and I visited this time last year! Brought back all the mad stress of the many exams ds sat last year, aaargh!!

Felt very, very sorry for the boy living in Newtown, in north Birmingham. I live in south Birmingham and maybe I'm naive but I haven't seen the sort of gang warfare described by this family here, and I found this horrifying. Surely that boy can't be forced into a school, Catholic or not, that will put him in great danger?

Loved the dad who became obsessed with PENCILS - very funny indeed. He was a lovely dad, and wow, his dd was mature. In fact, I was very impressed by the maturity of most of the children throughout this programme. So many of them appeared to be thoughtfully considering their futures even at their young ages.

My fave bit though was the shot of the group of boys, one white boy the rest non white, sitting on a wall together, all mates together. Nothing to do with educational choices, but what a great image

[mike1880]

It was very misleading in some ways. Mainly, nowhere near 10,000 people apply for grammar schools in Birmingham ! There was a lot of double counting going on to put it mildly - the actual number of individual applicants is probably less than 5,000.

Last year there were potentially three GS exams for a boy in Birmingham and two for a girl; this year it will be two and one respectively - if anyone was taking more they were either taking out-of-area tests (the girl was definitely doing that because otherwise they couldn't have put 5 GSs on her form) or they were counting indie exams.

Lovely children, one or two mildly irritating parents (there but for the grace of God...). Lots of shots of Master 1880's place of education, no sign of him yet I'm glad to say. And I loved Julie "Helping families to identify where they live" Newbold! I was crying laughing after that.

[edit]

It's a great shame Birmingham cannot organise itself to set the grammar exams earlier so the results are out in time for the CAF submissions though!

There's no "can't organise" about it - it's entirely deliberate, in B'ham and Walsall the CAF has to be in before you even take the exam .

Mike

[yoyo123]

There's no "can't organise" about it - it's entirely deliberate, in B'ham and Walsall the CAF has to be in before you even take the exam

it was like that in Kent, now exams are in September instead of January and people complain it is too early in the year!

(apologies for hopping off topic )

[TP123]

Completely off topic - but i found the close ups of the children disturbing. They were walking all funny and made me wonder how they were filiming the children - clearly the kids were not holding the camera in-front of them. Was it only me? Do you know what I mean?

I was also surprised with how included the children were when filling in the forms. I certainly discussed it with my DS, but i recall writing the form and sending it off (all last minute as usual). Rather nice to have the child sitting there filling in the form with you. Will do that with my DD i think.

I called my sister around 9pm to tell her abuot the programme - but she refused to see it as she is too stressed with her DS who writes his first exam in November. I think it was more fun for the parents who have "done" it rather than for those about to "do" it.

Will be watching it tonight for sure.

[pheasantchick]

"I think it was more fun for the parents who have "done" it rather than for those about to "do" it. "

Definitely! I'm one of the latter and. although I enjoyed the documentary, I also found it slightly stressful. That won't stop me watching tonight, though. Why are education programmes so addictive.(At least we have Gareth to look forward to on Thursday! Far more relaxing.)

[serialtester]

Is the second part on tonight? I thought it was on next tuesday - I would have sobbed if I had missed it!!!

Luckily I have a few years respite from sec. transfer, but watching last night brought back how latently stressful the process is - even if you think that you are laid back.

I loved the sutton mums, they made me laugh and I chuckled at seeing Mr Wheeldon - he's such a media 'ho

I wonder if they'll mention the online offers cock up, where we all could find out the school place a few days in advance?!

Having received several generic letters from Julie over the past few years (3 sec. transfers + 1 entrance to primary school) it was nice to put a face to the name!!! She was great value for money, and I am impressed that they look at every single form and chase up people who have made unrealistic choices.

[capers123]

Why wasnt there a helpline number if someone was affected by the content of the program? I need one noooooooooooooow

Now then - you can get all the help you need without lifting up the 'phone, just by going on to elevenplusexams.co.uk!

[drummer]

Completely off topic - but i found the close ups of the children disturbing. They were walking all funny and made me wonder how they were filiming the children - clearly the kids were not holding the camera in-front of them. Was it only me? Do you know what I mean?

I didn't find it disturbing but I was intrigued and was also trying to figure out how they acheived that effect!

[T12ACY]

TP123 the camera is attached round the waist of the child on the end of a stick thing which projects out in front of them......

Just watched this on the iplayer and agree it was much more interesting for those of us 'out the other side' although gave me some good ideas for what I would do if I was back there again. Namely renting a 1 bedroom flat for my family of 6

[capers123]

Completely off topic - but i found the close ups of the children disturbing. They were walking all funny and made me wonder how they were filiming the children - clearly the kids were not holding the camera in-front of them. Was it only me? Do you know what I mean?

Certainly was odd, but I think somehow the camera was affixed to the child. Looking at the previews for programme 3/3 (Next week, don't look it up as it contains spoilers in that it says which schools the children got), "This film attempts a bold same day multi-camera experiment, following several of the children on their first day at their new schools. With unique access to five schools on the biggest day of the year, cameras will capture the experience of the children from the start of the day, until they travel home to their nervously waiting parents. Filming at very different schools across the city, each of the children will go through this milestone in their own unique way."