Tories to bring back Grammar schools

[tinfoilhat]

Grammar schools could set a very high bar by all means. That would serve my purposes admirably since this would provoke howls of protest from the many aspirational parents whose children didn't quite make the grade.

 

I've not got a huge problem with that. If tarquin isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and messes about a lot I don't think it's altogether a bad thing that he doesn't get into a good school just because tarquins mum and dad bought a nice house near a good school.

[Staunton]

I've not got a huge problem with that. If tarquin isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and messes about a lot I don't think it's altogether a bad thing that he doesn't get into a good school just because tarquins mum and dad bought a nice house near a good school.

 

Me neither, but I imagine it might cause considerable discomfort for a good many MPs.

[Sidonica]

So you think just anybody should have command of our nuclear weapons and armed forces then. Glad we cleared that up.

 

Tony Blair (privately educated) took us into Iraq and Mrs Thatcher (grammar school) gave the order to sink The Belgrano. Doesn't seem to matter where they got their education they both made (in my opinion) the wrong decision.

[tinfoilhat]

Me neither, but I imagine it might cause considerable discomfort for a good many MPs.

 

Why - they'll just send their kids to a private school or, a point raised earlier, they'll get them heavily tutored. It's not even an argument.

 

Have I spelt tutored right? It doesn't look right.

[I1L2T3]

Grammar schools could set a very high bar by all means. That would serve my purposes admirably since this would provoke howls of protest from the many aspirational parents whose children didn't quite make the grade.

 

We went through a similar thing a couple of years ago at GCSE time. We know a lot of the parents of friends of my daughter, many of whom are outwardly quite affluent. The school the kids were going to has a very high entry level for 6th form, like surprisingly high for a state school.

 

A lot of sheepishness after results day when their kids didn't make it in.

[Santo]

Tony Blair (privately educated) took us into Iraq and Mrs Thatcher (grammar school) gave the order to sink The Belgrano. Doesn't seem to matter where they got their education they both made (in my opinion) the wrong decision.

 

Hardly relevant but worthy of response;

 

"Under international law, the heading and location of a belligerent naval vessel has no bearing on its status."

 

Feel free to bring up more totally off topic crap

[Staunton]

Why - they'll just send their kids to a private school or, a point raised earlier, they'll get them heavily tutored. It's not even an argument.

 

Have I spelt tutored right? It doesn't look right.

 

If they can afford it!

 

'Tutored' is correct, but it does indeed look wrong somehow.

[tinfoilhat]

If they can afford it.

 

'Tutored' is correct, but it does indeed look wrong somehow.

 

Thank you.

 

We were talking about MPs kids getting tutored specifically.

[Justin Smith]

I'm quite the fantasist when it comes to how the world should be, but you quote fairness, justice and equality when in reality those things really occur, what's fair about having feckless parents, or being born into the catchment of a sub par school or being forced to share your teachers attentions with kids who can't behave or are simply unsuited to school.

What's fair about grammars is that it at least gives some slight opportunity that you could be recognised as a diamond in the rough. Exam style dependant ofc.

 

It's not the upper end of achievers, who generally when all things considered would be in with a fighting chance of success anyway that really need hep. it's the ones who fall into the lower middle bracket, those who really need attentive teaching to not slide and theirs is the group, that due to whatever policy creations, have to share their classrooms with disruption.

 

The few don't need their advantage bolstering, by being smarter, diligent, attentive etc the advantage exists already.

Being taught at a rate or level the remainder would struggle with isn't in some way unfair it just is what it is.

 

Doing the sensible thing which is much harder, would be to remove any mildly disruptive or time swallowing pupil from a class and educate separately.

But that would be very callous, much more expensive and almost certain political suicide to impliment

 

There are other answers to this, more discipline, enforced by transfer to special schools for the most disruptive. Those schools should have the most spent on them with very low teacher pupil ratios. I (almost) don`t care how expensive they are, if they worked, in both helping the studious in the mainstream schools and dissuading the problem pupils from a life of fecklessness or even crime.

I don`t believe that would be callous or political suicide, quite the opposite.

Edited September 10, 2016 by Justin Smith

[El Cid]

Like which countries? South Korean (their results always rate well) children have 14 hour school days 6 or 7 days a week. I think a shift to that might cause ripples.

 

Scotland does a little better than England; they seem to have a better life in numerous ways.