Southend is failing its youngsters by allowing three out of four grammar school places to be taken by children from outside the borough, according to councillors.
Opposition groups at Southend Council claimed the authority should do more to ensure a higher proportion of the town’s selective school pupils actually lived in the area.Such as..?
Ron Woodley, an Independent councillor for Thorpe, said: “We are not doing enough to ensure our talented children are being taught here.
“What we have is children coming in from Ipswich, being educated in Southend and then going back to Ipswich.
“What is that doing for the economy here? Nothing.”You mean, while here, they don't eat and drink, and shop? I find that very hard to believe. The ghastly little schoolgirls in the green uniforms that get the c2c trains home to Upminster & Barking must be single-handedly keeping the fried-chicken shops of Southend in business!
And, of course, c2c themselves are having to hire cleaners to remove the detritus from their carriages...
However, James Courtenay, the Tory councillor responsible for education, said the statistics did not mean Southend youngsters were being disadvantaged. He pointed out every child from within the borough who passed the 11-plus exam secured a place at a grammar school.
He said: “Southend does not have enough children, at this time, passing the 11-plus to take all of the places. “And, bear in mind that according to comments, the 11 plus (weighted against outsiders and in favour of locals) is not taught for in Southend schools because some heads are fundamentally biased against it.
I believe that for some strange reason even in areas which have grammar schools state primaries tend not to prepare their kids for the 11+. A lot of parents in Kent have to send their children to prep schools when their aim is to get them into the local state grammar. It's a weird ideological stance to think that forcing parents to choose a private school is a better way of defending state education than providing teaching which facilitates their staying in state schools throughout. Those privately educated kids who fail the 11+ certainly aren't going to the secondary modern - they stay private.
ReplyDeleteBunny
ReplyDelete'Heads fundamentally biased against it', otherwise read as heads want to keep the masses down and stifle social mobility.
I was lucky enough to go to a state middle school in Dorset that did prepare us for the 12+ (they had first, middle and secondary schools, the latter starting in year 8, rather than year 7). The result of that was pretty impressive; of the roughly 150 intake that year at that (all girl) grammar school, 26 of us were from that one school, the biggest block from a single school to my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm not too sure how you get along within society with such sweeping generalisations, maybe you don't really and are a bedroom revolutionary. (sorry, free speech and all). Maybe a bit more life experience could make you more impartial and learn to play devils advocate. Around the time you look back and realise that disrespecting people who have died in full view of their family is like pissing on the grave of someone you have never met or attempted to understand while their loved ones watch. If you ever think think this is a valid reaction then you really need some serious help.
ReplyDeleteSo the teachers are deliberately harming their charges' chances of getting into a good school in the same town?
ReplyDeleteIt would be tragic if it wasn't so commonplace.
I wonder what today's 11+ paper looks like compared to the one I passed in 1962?
ReplyDeleteThere was a reality show on a couple of years back that took current pupils of around 14/15 years of age back to the regime of an old style Grammar school of the 50's. The pupils were all supposed to be A and B graders, top of the intellectual food chain so to speak.
They let them settle in to the strange regime for a couple of weeks then gave them all a Maths test. All but three failed (private school pupils by the way). The pupils had assumed that they were sitting an O level paper, but were in fact sitting the maths paper of an old 11+. That puts our current kids who are assumed to be in the top ten percent for academic skills, four years behind where my generation were at age 11.
Anonymous @15:25. What are you rabbiting on about or are you a troll?
ReplyDelete"It's a weird ideological stance to think that forcing parents to choose a private school is a better way of defending state education than providing teaching which facilitates their staying in state schools throughout."
ReplyDeleteHatred and envy aren't rational, so why should the steps taken to exercise it be?
"...otherwise read as heads want to keep the masses down and stifle social mobility."
Spot on!
"...26 of us were from that one school..."
That IS impressive!
"Maybe a bit more life experience could make you more impartial and learn to play devils advocate."
So I can stroke my chin like those vapid intellectuals you must love in the left-wing press, eager to rationalise any atrocity that they don't have to bear the consequences for?
Hmmm, I rather think they might need some help.
Sorry. Free speech, and all... :)
"It would be tragic if it wasn't so commonplace."
ReplyDeleteQuite! I doubt Southend is unique in that respect.
"That puts our current kids who are assumed to be in the top ten percent for academic skills, four years behind where my generation were at age 11."
I've seen that experiment repeated in newspapers, and I'm not too surprised by the results...
"What are you rabbiting on about or are you a troll?"
I suspect it's something I've Tweeted but not yet written up for the blog. No doubt it'll be back to wring its hands & display its 'superior moral code' in public when I do..
XX Southend is failing its youngsters by allowing three out of four grammar school places to be taken by children from outside the borough, according to councillors.
ReplyDeleteOpposition groups at Southend Council claimed the authority should do more to ensure a higher proportion of the town’s selective school pupils actually lived in the area. XX
"children from outside the borough"
But this is O.K to say....right?
WHAT if you replaced that phrase with "Children from outside the culture"???
Or would that not be "P.C" enough?
XX children coming in from Ipswich, being educated in Southend and then going back to Ipswich. XX
ReplyDeleteXX children coming in from Pakystan, being educated in Southend and then going back to Pakystan. XX
Difference is???
On NOESSS! "P.C"!!!!