How are comprehensive schools different to grammar schools?

So I go to a grammar school - I have done from the age of 11 - and I'm well aware that the school I go to is very far removed from the real world. You get people crying because they got an A, not an A*, and a B is genuinely considered a total failure, and so as you can imagine, there is a huge amount of pressure - not so much from the teachers, but mainly from fellow students - to achieve the highest grades humanly possible, and there's also a lot of pressure to do STEM subjects at uni, preferably Oxbridge/Imperial. The people at my school also aren't a representation of the real world, which really irks me for various different reasons that I'm not going to go into now. I've heard from people who moved to my school for sixth form that comps are really, really different to grammar school, and so - out of curiosity more than anything - I was wondering what life at a comp is like, preferably from someone who has been to both a grammar school and comp school.

Reply 1

Hariex

Hi - I have been going to a comprehensive for four years. (I am in Year 10 now.)

One of the most distinguishing features of any comprehensive is that there is a lot less pressure. Don't take this to mean that there are no "intelligent" students at comprehensives - this is a criticism offensive to me and a lot of my friends. The pressure, instead, is aimed at "giving your best" rather than "being the best". Achieving straight A* grades at my comprehensive is practically unheard of and last year, no students made it to Oxbridge.

This is one of the disadvantages of comprehensives: at least 1/2 of students are, on the whole, unmotivated, particularly amongst us boys. On the extreme end of the scale, this involves absence from lessons, smoking, disrespect, bullying, etc. Note that this is the minority of students, a common misconception.

Why then, do comprehensives fare worse than grammars and private schools? The simple answer is that the majority of high attainers attend the local grammar/private, so there results are certain to be higher than the comprehensive.