Ability to think must trump ability to pay..

[mike1880]

Slightly simplistic and possibly be the other way round - GS pupils don't get the A-level or university results that might be expected (and not as good as indie pupils), so combined with the abject failure of the comprehensive system to produce engineers, scientists, lawyers, journalists, etc., imho the state system as a whole has some awkward questions to answer if anyone ever had the guts to ask them.

Whatever; the Sutton Trust has been going on about this for 10 years (the report into the "experiment" at Belvedere makes very interesting reading) and it hardly seems likely to happen, whatever one thinks of it in social engineering, education policy or financial terms.

Mike

[Waiting_For_Godot]

The information came from the MIDYIS test that I believe is done in all schools? So the figures were based on potential ability and at grammar school the MIDYIS scores should be higher, averaged out, than at comps.

Good post Mike.

[Pushy Dad]

There's a new report and commentary from the Sutton Trust linked below:
http://www.suttontrust.com/news/media/a ... the-times/.
As I understand they're hoping to get tax-payer funded places at independent day schools awarded via Open Access as "It is time we ditched our ridiculous class system".

I agree that the class system is ridiculous but so is the commentary. I mean, instead of lobbying for the expansion of the grammar school system, the Trust appear to be sugggesting that tax payers should subsidise kids to attend a £14k a year indie. Not exactly an efficient use of tax payers money IMO.

[Pushy Dad]

the preps and independent schools we looked at all said that the children's overall ability at entry was higher than that in the maintained selective schools

I don't think that these prep/indie schools would get many takers if they said any different

[Waiting_For_Godot]

the preps and independent schools we looked at all said that the children's overall ability at entry was higher than that in the maintained selective schools

I don't think that these prep/indie schools would get many takers if they said any different

It was on their inspection reports.

[mike1880]

I mean, instead of lobbying for the expansion of the grammar school system, the Trust appear to be sugggesting that tax payers should subsidise kids to attend a £14k a year indie. Not exactly an efficient use of tax payers money IMO.

Their argument is that it worked out cheaper than providing state school places because most parents paid most/all of the fees. As they say, you can prove anything with statistics (better use of public money than a royal yacht though imho...or a high speed train...).

Intake to selective indies probably varies regionally. Here in B'ham the GSs are VERY selective and outperform most indies - but the top indies still outperform the top GSs and even the "second tier" indies take about the top 30% so are (very roughly) as selective as Kent or Bucks GSs.

Mike

[Loopyloulou]

I struggle to see the point of the Sutton Trust. Peter Lampl clearly believes that one particular group (the wealthy) have privileged access to the universities. He would like to see that group replaced by another group (the well educated, or perhaps the intelligent, or perhaps the poor, I'm not quite sure). So one particular individual would lose his university place, to be replaced by another particular individual. What is the advantage of that?

[sherry_d]

It is uber competitive now to get in the Sutton Trust Summer School and only a selected few manage to get a place. The results he is getting from these students can't be put down to what ST alone as ST is creaming off from a big pool . There are zillions of post Student Room of tips on how to get accepted into the Summer School so these are already highly motivated Russell Group applicants..

The point of ST was to reach out to those who don't even think about applying to these Russell Group university but sadly that's been hijacked and the already highly motivated applicants are the ones going through his Summer School now.