Tommies

[stroudydad]

Interesting reading.

http://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/ne ... ads-642257

[Amber]

This is the reality of selective education, very sadly. As I have said more times on this forum than I care to remember, selection by ability is a proxy for selection by class, by and large, and the sharp elbowed middle classes will always get the best school places for their children as they have the cultural capital to work the system - the 'nous' if you like. It doesn't matter what schools do to try to redress this imbalance, it is an entirely inevitable consequence of selective education and the reason I am such a vociferous opponent of it. Middle class children from Cheltenham and Swindon are not inherently more intelligent than children from Gloucester. The system is plain wrong and unjust.

And before I get the inevitable 'hypocrite! Your kids go there' - yes, they do, possibly I am, I have admitted it and answered that point a million times too.

[Debims]

Bit of an over-simplification in that article, they compare the WHOLE of Swindon with just two Gloucester postcodes. When we visited they said 40% of boys are from Gloucester, 40% from Cheltenham and the remaining 20% from other places including Swindon, Cirencester and Stroud. Don't be swayed by the anti-Grammar rhetoric in the papers.

[Watermelon8]

Bit of an over-simplification in that article, they compare the WHOLE of Swindon with just two Gloucester postcodes. When we visited they said 40% of boys are from Gloucester, 40% from Cheltenham and the remaining 20% from other places including Swindon, Cirencester and Stroud. Don't be swayed by the anti-Grammar rhetoric in the papers.

But it is a fact that tommies (of all the glos grammars) take the least 'local' children. That does put me off strs. Our y8 guides on Monday talked about all the boys in their yr who travel for an hour plus to get to school & about the 'Bristol' bus in particular detail! I just want my children to attend a great local school & have some lovely local friends. Luckily DD at hsfg & DS at Crypt have mostly local school friends, makes life so much simpler!

[Amber]

Both my Tommies sons’ very wide groups of friends are local. They tend to meet up in Cheltenham- the Brewery complex is a bit of a focal point as the Gloucester boys (and girls) can get there easily too.

[Watermelon8]

Both my Tommies sons’ very wide groups of friends are local. They tend to meet up in Cheltenham- the Brewery complex is a bit of a focal point as the Gloucester boys (and girls) can get there easily too.

That's good to know. Thanks

[Amber]

And when thy get older ‘spoons’ and moo moos in Cheltenham are the hot hang outs. Not sure what the Bristol and Swindon contingents do -stay over with friends maybe. But there are certainly hoardes of kids from not only Tommies but all the local schools mixing together at parties and clubs by sixth form, and my sons have friends from lots of them. Even Crypt.

[capers123]

Given Tommies location*, access is quite easy from Cheltenham, where there are not many places per capita at grammars with just the one, co-ed, school.

Gloucester has about 225 places for boys at Grammar, compared with about 75 in Cheltenham, for roughly similar populations. So it's not surprising if quite a few boys commute from Cheltenham.

An answer would be for the grammars to have 'Catchment' or 'Priority' areas. At which point well-off parents will suddenly move close to the schools (and the roads will be busier with those parents commuting to Cheltenham, Bristol or Swindon, rather than a few busses coming in). Alternatively the academic standards of the schools will drop as they'll have to give priority to (relatively) less-able local pupils.

Hey ho.

* I found out where Tommies actually was on Sunday when dropping my partner off at a Gloucestershire Music Wind Orchestra event. I'd always assumed it was closer to the city centre...

[Stressed?Moi?]

The way these types of articles read you would think the schools are actively picking and choosing the areas their pupils come from. Unlike other state schools, they can’t; if you qualify you are in. Conversely boundary changes for Balcarras and Bourneside for example are being changed, which many feel are a cynical attempt at trying to get kids from more affluent areas. To my mind that’s worse. The rights and wrongs of middle class and sharp elbows is not within the control of grammar schools surely - that’s the “fault” of the system. I get fed up of them being vilified. Personally everyone I know who is anti grammar schools has either not passed the test or their child hasn’t.

[Amber]

From the Head's current newsletter:

You may have seen in the local press the headline that “More Swindon boys than city lads started at Gloucester grammar school in September”. Whilst we are committed to preserving our status as an outstanding Grammar School serving children and families from Gloucester City, Gloucestershire and beyond, I thought parents might be interested to know that 43% of our pupils are from Gloucester and its immediate environs (GL1-4), and 6% are from Swindon postcode areas. There are year-on-year variations, but there has been little discernible change in this ratio over the medium to long term.

We currently have a programme to encourage applications to sit the test from primary schools in Gloucestershire which serve communities with higher than average levels of deprivation. If you wish to find out more please contact (email address of staff member given).