Grammar schools to return

The issue I see is middle class parents generally have the means and desire to pay for tutoring for their kids to pass the exams and get into a grammar school (even if some of them, in reality may not have passed originally). Meanwhile poorer students fail the exam and get shafted, some of which may have potential but just don't have the means to get there.

For certain subjects I do take responsibility because I went into some GCSE's too relaxed however for some subjects I was being taught by teachers that were not even qualified to teach the subject, so my school didn't help me at all since they were understaffed in some areas

I still achieved well over my DfE targets but I still know I could've done better

Unqualified teachers are not allowed in comprehensive schools. All that means is that schools should be better funded and regulated.


I thrived in a streamed school where the best were pushed while the others were given more support and had the motivation of going up a set.

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Wouldn't more grammar schools reduce the vicious competition for places? Those who missed out by a few marks in their 11+ will have more opportunities to get into a grammar school as the mark thresholds will theoretically be lower and if they had a bad day, they could take an entrance exam at another school.

I don't know how to feel about this. I have been to both a secondary school and a grammar school, and they are both different environments. In my first school I didn't do as well as I could have, partially from teachers trying to bring students on Ds up to Cs, and because I ended up with the wrong crowd of people for a while.

Ideally, all schools should be good schools and be able to support both weaker and academically capable students. In my old school I did not get my A* in GCSE Maths. Our teacher put us all in for the GCSE Maths exams in year 11 (year 10 for England), and I was the only person who achieved an A. My teacher had to bring everyone else's Bs-Es up to passes and I did not get taught the higher topics. I want to able to a place like Cambridge and I feel like this will have held me back a bit. It also stopped me from being able to study Further Maths at my new school, and I had to self-teach it because their entrance requirement was a B in Further Maths but I wasn't even offered the GCSE.

Its definitely a tricky one. To be honest though, the 11-plus wasn't fair. I had absolutely no tutoring for the exam because we couldn't afford it, but my friends who got tutored got As, but yet my GCSE results turned out a lot better than their's. My fear is that people who can't afford tutoring or extra-curricula's will end up disadvantaged. As I said, ideally a school should be able to accommodate for both, but I do feel like because of my first secondary school I did not do as well as I could have.

I have found though in my new school that some of the children actually think they're better than the kids in my old school, which is not right at all... I'm really mixed on the issue.

in what way did they think they were better

Grammar Schools push kids further as they are in an environment with other clever children.
If they were in a state school, chances are that they accustom themselves to lower standards.

At my grammar school we were constantly reminded that we were the 'top 10%' of intelligence in the area and I feel like that really helped me to hold myself to a higher standard of work. I think I'd be a completely different person if I didn't go to a grammar school.

I understand the appeal but I don't agree with opening more grammar schools. The main reason for this is that the whole reason that grammar schools started in the first place was based on psychological research that turned out to be corrupt. We based a whole schooling system on false evidence

The teachers were qualified to teach a certain subject but were being put on others too... My Geog teacher was also put on RE and Tech (he'd never done tech in his life)

My school had the approach of that they would rather have everyone pass at C's than have me achieve my potential. 42% of my year got 5A*-C's and only 8 people achieved an A* in any subject (I was one of them)

I still did better than my DfE targets and did okay because I got 1A* 8A's and 2B's but it was difficult to stay motivated when the teachers didn't seem bothered about anything and didn't know how to teach the subject

Grammar schools also entice more teachers to qualify and come into the profession.

Imagine if you wanted to be a teacher. Would you teach a standard comprehensive school or a high achieving grammar school in your area, knowing that the government is going to pump more money into the grammar school system under Theresa May.