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Grammar schools too easy?

From what I can gather, entry requirements to state grammar schools are quite low, so why do people think grammar schools are so great if not very bright people can get into them easily?

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Original post by Maker

From what I can gather, entry requirements to state grammar schools are quite low, so why do people think grammar schools are so great if not very bright people can get into them easily?

First of all in a properly functioning grammar school system, a grammar school is supposed to take the top 25% of the ability range.

If you look at Lincolnshire or the remoter parts of Kent that is how it functions. In Lincolnshire places can be left unfilled when not enough people who pass the 11+ choose that school.

However where there are few grammar schools in a sea of comprehensives (including neighbouring local authority areas) that isn't how it works. What happens is that since these schools are not allowed to apply a geographical entrance system and some parents are willing to send their kids 30 miles, the scores needed to gain admission are far higher than the scores eeded to pass the 11+. In places like Buckinghamshire fewer than one in five pupils who passes the 11+ gains a grammar school place.

Grammar schools are far more highly selective than all but a small minority of independent schools (mostly but not exclusively London day schools). Common Entrance is for many schools merely a method of banding children, not a method of deciding who gets in except for the most moronic. Most independent schools are under-subscribed.