Grammar school vs Non-grammar

[Yurgen]

My experience is that it's more a matter of the school ethos and the teachers they have than whether it's a grammar or not.

My son is at a grammar that fits the OP's description of their kid's comp, i.e. no text books, "lite" homework, etc - basically relying on notes made in class and "scrappy worksheets". He's in year 9 now, and no sign of them upping the game at all. We thought it was probably OK in year 7 as the "settling in" process and expected a ramp up in year 8, nothing happened, now year 9, still the same. Quite worrying really.

They have a VLE on their website which I suppose it a replacement for text books, but it's so haphazard it's barely useable - some subjects have literally nothing in their section, whilst others are so overloaded with links, online textbooks, etc., you really don't know where to start. Worst still is that it's not up to date - as our son found last summer when he was working to a "summer exam revision" cribsheet downloaded from their VLE only to find the exam completely different - the sheet on the internet was for an earlier year and had not been removed (and hadn't been dated!).

The thing that has really worried us is the massive difference in teaching standards. Some teachers give out regular homework (occasionally demanding) but others give out virtually nothing. I.e. in year 7, he got maths homework twice per week, but in year 8 he only got 2 maths homeworks for the entire year. Resulting in dropping from 90%+ end of year test result in year 7 down to just over 50% in year 8.

At first, we were happy to allow the school/teachers to run things and just went along with what they were doing and saying, but this year, we've taken over, we've bought a load of GCSE text books and are working through them with him ourself, in parallel with the topics they're doing in class. We've also spoken and emailed several times to the teachers, head of year, form teacher, etc., spelling out the inconsistency in homework, highlighting their VLE is barely useable, etc., but really not getting any sensible improvements, so we're really picking up the slack ourselves.

So, not all comps will be like yours and not all grammars will be like that either. As I say, our son's grammar sounds more like the OP's comp. It's good to know that there are some grammars out there that are a bit more organised/pushy. I can't really believe that there is such a difference in teaching styles/standards.

My god I could have written this post, practically word for word.

My son is at a grammar that makes a big noise about its high standards and workload, but it's a complete pretence and fraud. Years 7-9 he probably got about an hour's homework a week (seriously). Year 10 it increased a little, but was always completely non-existent in the face of any irregularity (the first week of term; the last week of term; before or after any school trip etc. etc.).

Then in year 11, it gave way to the importance of "revising". Which basically means from about mid-October they gave NO homework because the students had to be reivising for their mocks in December. Then they gave a bit again, then from about March they had NONE because they had to be "revising" for GCSEs.

Never mind that they were given NO indication WHAT to revise. Never mind that it might have actually been useful to have structured homework tasks with marking and feedback as part of the revision process. No, just "go away and revise".

When I raised this with the deputy head he spent a few weeks checking what my son's homework was, emailing me and insisting on the rigorousness of it and the reasons why some wasn't set. Most of which was just nonsense. Day after day he'd come home with nothing in his homework diary, and yet he wasn't getting sanctions for not doing homsework that was set. Other parents have said the same. The deputy head basically denied my concerns. It's clear the staff are playing him, and know how to tick the right boxes while really doing sweet FA about ensuring the kids' coverage and knowledge.

We ended up getting our son private tutors in key subjects and he got pretty good GCSEs, but could have done better. The school makes a big noise about how amazing its result are but TBH I don't think they're that great, given the selective intake.

The only upside to this sorry tale is that is does appear to be considerably better and more rigorous in the sixth form. But I would say to shrimpy and anyone else: don't believe your kid will get their progress properly pushed and looked after just because they're in a grammar school. A grammar school can be just as crap as any other school. In some ways it's easier for them to get away with it, because the selective intake makes up for it.

[Catseye]

Well said Yurgen, there are plenty of coasting GS and not just comp schools, there are simply more comp schools almost a ratio of 9 to 1 so it is easy trot out BS about how bad comps are.

We have such a self selected membership here they can't see the wood for the trees and will swear blind they know better than the overwhelming objective evidence.

It's like banging your head against a brick wall until their children fail the 11+ then they all get an epiphany moment and are never heard of again on this forum!

[K76]

I am (fairly) new to the forum and just came across this. It is really interesting. I have always thought that the difference between a grammar school was they expected you to be more self motivated and get on with work without needing to be told what to do. My DD goes to a local comp and she gets loads of homework and they tell her what to revise and where to look for answers and link in any relavant wesites on ShowMyHomeWork. My friends whose kids are at grammars say they have to find most of it out for themselves.

[Yamin151]

Isn't the provision of homework of questionable value anyway?

I'm very happy my son is getting a rigorous education but don't actually want his home life and precious hours of leisure to be filled up with loads of homework either! Whatever happened to being a teenager?