Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Oct 19, 2022 5:20 pmThinking of an affluent Tory shire though, I would think that choice didn't matter that much. Enough affluence for the schools to all be pretty attractive options. Not sure why you'd want to inject a grammar into all that.
This is starting to go off-topic, but in my experience with the Grammar school system in NI it's often the case that the best teachers over here are those teaching in non-selective schools. The reasons? Quite simply the teachers in non-Grammars/non-selectives have to teach to a wide range of academic abilities varying from those that could easily handle a "Grammar" education down to those with learning difficulties that otherwise aren't severe enough to be recommended a place in a "special school", while most teachers in Grammar schools expect their students to already be at a certain average academic ability and if students are struggling, the burden is nearly always placed on the student rather than asking if the teacher is able to bring up student performance in certain subjects that they might struggle with while being capable in others. Such teachers are rarely brought to task in these situations, and formal school inspections are often blind to this issue.
The proof in the pudding has been where parents have hired tutors to get their children to get as high a grade/score in what was the old 11+ and more recently in other academic assessment tests used for Grammar school places - the vast majority of such tutors are/were secondary school teachers, very few were teaching at a Grammar and if they were, it's likely they previously taught at a non-Grammar.
Overall, the opinion I've formed of formal education at that age is that up until at least 13/14, it's the ability of the school in question to aid & psuh students of varying abilities that is important, much more than a Grammar/non-Grammar designation, and that even beyond this age there is little difference except that a Grammar may be in a better place to push certain academically gifted students on to prepare them for certain tests as good prep for A-Levels e.g. GCSE Further Mathematics. Then again most Grammars locally in Spoony's hood these days now offer post-16 options that include the likes of BTECs or similar Level 3 qualifications alongside A-Levels, either delivered by themselves or in collaboration with another nearby school or FE college.
So if in a certain LEA in England, general education outcomes in local schools are proving to work well, why change for the sake of change? The only answer I can think of is for some snobby parents that can't afford to send their children to a private school wanting to send them instead to a school that doesn't include other kids called Tyler or Beyonce etc. but of course this can spectacularly/hilariously backfire if their child doesn't get a Grammar school place and no bribing can otherwise work to get them in there.
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