which grammar school?

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Willyk wrote: »

The 3 mile rule comes into play only if you have been rejected by all the schools within the 3 mile radius of your house, so you cannot selectively choose a school far away and then be entitled to the pass.

That is my understanding too. If our children had gone to the local grammar school they would have been entitled to a free bus pass as we are just outside the 3 mile radius. Unfortunately one choose a school in the centre of Belfast and the other chose a school in East Belfast so we are liable for bus fares, which when they were both in school came to more than £1,000 a year!

Our daughter is now at university so we only pay for our son who's pass costs £600 p/a. This will increase next year when, despite only using the bus pass to attend school, he will be sixteen and expected to pay adult fares. Once his younger brother (hopefully) joins him at the same school it would actually work out cheaper to insure the older son on my car and have them travel into school together rather than pay for one adult and one child fare for the round trip every day. Not very environmentally friendly but definitely cheaper.

Some information here

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beccam

I went to Bloomfield and it is a good school but personally I would prefer to not send my daughter to an all girls school.
As you say, everyone has mixed feelings on the matter and on different schools....my friend who also went to Bloomfield is happily sending her daughter there in Sept.

Grosvenor has a great reputation but has been very hard to get into over recent years, I don't know how it will work now with no 11+ as I know a couple of years ago they were looking A grades to get in.

Strathearn-well I really can't comment since I will always think of them as Strathearn S!uts....school rivalry! ;-)

What does your daughter think?

vincennes_2

Well Beccam, I have not discussed too much with her yet. She would like to go to Sullivan but I don't want to pay £600 a year for transport so I may consider Grosvenor although it is also a bus ride away. But at the end of the day , it will all depends on how well she does at the test. She needs to do 3 1hour tests. Also, if we want to consider OLASP, we will need her to sit another test which lasts 2 hours. That is 4 saturdays in a row, and I have to say it seems a bit much for a 10 year old!

Artytarty

beccam wrote: »

I went to Bloomfield and it is a good school but personally I would prefer to not send my daughter to an all girls school.
As you say, everyone has mixed feelings on the matter and on different schools....my friend who also went to Bloomfield is happily sending her daughter there in Sept.

Grosvenor has a great reputation but has been very hard to get into over recent years, I don't know how it will work now with no 11+ as I know a couple of years ago they were looking A grades to get in.

Strathearn-well I really can't comment since I will always think of them as Strathearn S!uts....school rivalry! ;-)

What does your daughter think?

I strongly object to you calling Strathearn girls sluts! I could get into a slanging match with you ( remember, I went to Bloomfield so am more than capable of a good b*tchfest) but my daughter was Head Girl at Strathearn so I shan't let her down.
You may have been only joking but I think you have overstepped the mark.
Arty.

SuperMum2008

I agree Arty - it was asilly comment, but I hear a lot of similar silly comments from people about every single sex school in Belfast every time a school is discussed! I went to convent which had a similar reputation, and then a mixed grammar in which apparently all the girl were "sl*ts" and all the boys were sporting heros. Yet the girls were going out with the boys, so how come they weren't the male equivalent of "sl*ts"?! Doesnt make sense.

Every school has good and bad points, because every school is made up of normal people and sometimes people are good and sometimes bad. Im sure at the end of the day, a good, strong realistic principal, good facilities, good past results and a good group of friends are what makes your school a good experience. Its up to us and our children then to make the most of every opportunity that is available, whever they end up, and not to partake in name-calling or assuming things about a school we know little about!

beccam

Artytarty wrote: »

I strongly object to you calling Strathearn girls sluts! I could get into a slanging match with you ( remember, I went to Bloomfield so am more than capable of a good b*tchfest) but my daughter was Head Girl at Strathearn so I shan't let her down.
You may have been only joking but I think you have overstepped the mark.
Arty.

:eek::o
Apologies Arty, believe me it was only a joke. Even when I was at Bloomfield I had many a friend in Strathearn and they jokingly called us many a name for being Bloomfield girls. (and none of those girls were sluts either!):o

It really is just a joke and by no means an actual reflection on the pupils there.
I'm no eejit but thats the chant for 'Bloomfield Collegiate school for eejits'.

(now you're free to disagree and call me an eejit for saying such things;))


TBH I don't think any school can really 'change' the child that attends it, if a child is going to be badly behaved/poor at study or excellently behaved and a great studier they will be no matter where they go. I know girls that went to 'good' schools, got pregnant at 14 and never returned to studies others went to schools that don't have a good reputation and they are now PR execs, solicitors and doctors.

I really didn't like school especially in the 4th and 5th year so I left (much to the horror of my parents and teachers) after GCSE's and went to college where I found it suited me better, less !!!!!yness and none of the hassle with cliques and groups.

Sorry all completly off topic (its very late)

Back to the OP, vincennes the new testing system sounds horrific!! I know the 11+ wasn't perfect but surely this is worse!!? I wonder about the sense of the people who make these decisions, your poor daughter having to go through all that!
If Grosvenor is easier I would say it now has as good (if not even better) reputation than Sullivan, some would still see it maybe as not so 'posh' (for want of a better word) but it is certainly proving itself with results and also has good extra curricular activites.

zippychick

m_l_h wrote: »

As a former pupil of Strathearn, I have to admit that if I was given the choice again, I wouldn't go there. Don't get me wrong - the teachers and staff in general are excellent, it's the girls that aren't particularly nice. That's a strong generalisation, and I apologise (to a point), however at an all girls' school there does tend to be a large amount of b*tch*ness going on.

Same here, full of snobs (majority, not all of course). It was 13 years ago I left, but i hated every minute of it. Extremely academic and if you're not an A star star star, then you're nothing. I always wish I had went to Grovesnor (sp). I was a loner the whole time in Strathearn and just found it all too snobby. I came from a single parent family and I remember the PE kit required something like 2-3 pairs of trainers plus plus plus. I still feel awful to this day that my Mum paid all that for a school i hated . Maybe it wasn't full of snobs, but I felt ostracised as i didn't come from a rich or well off family.

I hang around with 95% males now, I think that says it all for what it did to me anyway! Each is different though.

When i have kids, they will be encouraged to go to mixed school, I just found it very catty really. There is not one single person I am still in contact from there either.

I got 7 gcses but not A stars, when i left and went to college, i came out with high level distinctions!!!!!! It was probably I didn't suit the school through no fault of its own. I'm not really into fashions and girly girl stuff, so it was a bad choice for me from the get go.

thriftmonster

We live in E Belfast and ds1's bus pass to Sullivan costs about £220 a year - we pay £22 a month by DD for 10 months - spread like that it isn't too bad \and they can use the service buses up to 6pm as well as the school buses. I am really impressed with the school - academically very strong, good music, sport and excellent pastoral care.

Willyk

Thrifgtmonster, Off topic, but what do the packed lunch figures refer to at the end of your post ? Thanks, Willyk

thriftmonster

The packed lunch figure is a sort of grocery challenge. School dinners for the two of them would cost me £4.60 a day so I work out how much it would be for the month and then try and beat it with the much lower cost of packed lunches.