BBC2 11+ documentary

[Guest55]

No Grammar has room to expand at that stage - we do have a Late Transfer Tests but few places come up.

[tiffinboys]

£50m fund could be used for 13+ capacity enhancement.

[Blue_Marigold]

I just caught up with this on iPlayer and cried through most of it. Very emotional

[mm23292]

Heartbreaking to watch. Shows everything that is wrong with this draconian process.
So many children end up carrying that sense of failure throughout their secondary years, seems so wrong to impose this on any child.

[anotherdad]

Heartbreaking to watch. Shows everything that is wrong with this draconian process.
So many children end up carrying that sense of failure throughout their secondary years, seems so wrong to impose this on any child.

In defence of the schools and those councils asked to run the selection process, the terms "pass" and "fail" are parental inventions. I have never seen or heard a school - primary or secondary - refer to "passing" or "failing", the terms are always things like "qualified" or "deemed selective". You have only to view a random selection of threads on this forum to see that the pass/fail vocabulary is widespread among parents.

It's a provocative view that won't go down well in some quarters, but with the sheer desperation displayed by some parents to get their children into grammar school, is it any wonder that hundreds of children are burdened with unhelpful expectations or a sense of failure? How many times do we hear of appeals where children have burst into tears before or during the test, been sick or simply not performed on the day because of expectations and pressure? Where has that come from? How about the many stories of parents uprooting their families to try and secure a place at a school? What's the message to the child it all revolves around? There are of course many cases where a grammar school place is entirely appropriate, where a genuine injustice has been done or where genuinely extenuating circumstances have tripped up a child expected to qualify, but there are many others much less genuine.

I'm afraid that much as I am a critic of the system, I do lay the blame for unfair pressure on children squarely at parents' doors.

[mad?]

I'm afraid that much as I am a critic of the system, I do lay the blame for unfair pressure on children squarely at parents' doors.

hear hear

[kenyancowgirl]

Hear hear.....

[Guest55]

Totally agree - much of my pastoral workload was dealing with the effect of parental pressure.

[tiffinboys]

It's a provocative view that won't go down well in some quarters, but with the sheer desperation displayed by some parents to get their children into grammar school, is it any wonder that hundreds of children are burdened with unhelpful expectations or a sense of failure? How many times do we hear of appeals where children have burst into tears before or during the test, been sick or simply not performed on the day because of expectations and pressure? Where has that come from? How about the many stories of parents uprooting their families to try and secure a place at a school? What's the message to the child it all revolves around? There are of course many cases where a grammar school place is entirely appropriate, where a genuine injustice has been done or where genuinely extenuating circumstances have tripped up a child expected to qualify, but there are many others much less genuine.

Well said, anotherdad.

[mm23292]

I could not agree more anotherdad. And it saddens me how far this parental frenzy extends. We know of a child who at aged 8, felt the need to contact Childline, as she was too tired and stressed with her long days and lengthy after school tutoring sessions. Yet this is sadly becoming more and more common.
Yes the selection process strives to be tutor proof, as well it should. Our children should be taking this test, with minimal preparation, so as not to artificially inflate their ‘natural’ ability profile. And yet what happens? Schools like ours, run tests like CATs and other standardised assessment observations, in order to guide parents on their children’s suitability for grammar, and our HT has tried very hard to drive this message home. Yet regardless of what parents seem to be told, they remain **** bent on believing that extra tuition will pull them up to where they need to be! Some of these parents simply do not seem to understand the consequences of this. One parent I know, on being told that 2 years worth of standardised scores that were pointing towards a broadly average profile...105 to 110, seemed disgusted at the lack of initiative the school had shown. It was their job to improve this, and twice weekly kumon sessions since the age of 5, and one to one 11 plus tuition from the start of year 4, is all essential for her child, because the school is not doing its job! It really does beggar belief.