Grammar School Catchments - Why are they allowed to set their own?

Counting_Pennies_2

I just wondered if anyone knew the official reason why Grammar Schools are allowed to set their own catchment area.

I live in an area where there is a massive squeeze in all school places, but the understanding of the Council is that for secondary schools in the coming few years there will not be enough places to take all the children currently in primary school.

Looking into it we found the local two Grammar Schools are allowed to take their 100 pupils each year from anywhere in the country, there is no catchment, basically those who pass their test get in.

I find that astonishing, silly me thought that they could take those who passed their entrance exams from the local area. Staggered that some children have a 2 hour commute, and out local children don't have enough places to go to.

Can someone offer me the legal info on why they are allowed to set their own catchments. I am keen to lobby but need to get my facts straight.

Many thanks

Tropez

It is actually quite complicated and goes all the way back to the Second World War and the 1944 and 1946 Education Acts and the theory of the tripartite system of education which was designed to ensure that everybody gets an education but those who are especially gifted would have an opportunity to be educated in an environment more suited to their levels regardless of social class (this is the concept of social mobility - ie. the idea that the gifted child of a working class individual could go to Grammar School and be educated at a level akin to that of the more affluent classes). Whether it works or not is a subject of debate, and not really relevant to your question but since 1946, despite attempts by various governments to reduce the number of Grammar Schools, there have been provisions for such schools because of concepts such as social mobility.

Judith_W

Basically, standard state schools are selective according to location and grammar schools are selective according to ability. From what I understand most grammar schools do have a level of catchment area criteria, but they are allowed to set their own rules

Counting_Pennies_2

Thank you, the replies are very helpful.

Any ideas how I start to go about this? I have written to my MP who believed I had a point, he wrote to one of the Grammars and got a terse reply, thinly disguised threat that if we pushed further on this, he would take his enormous catchment (basically from the middle of England to the coast) and remove it completely making it even harder for our local children to get in. The other Grammar doesn't have a catchment at all.

The MP wrote back to me that there was nothing else I could do. But I feel very strongly that the local Grammar should be for state pupils in the local area to achieve. Basically an average of just one pupil from each local primary school achieves entrance to the Grammar, and that includes one school where 98% of their pupils get level 4 in their sats (and 50% level 5), everyone else has to squeeze into the comprehensives, and there now isn't enough space for them.

Your assistance in ideas on what I can do next (along with an army of other parents) would be most welcomed.

Many thanks

Tropez

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

Thank you, the replies are very helpful.

Any ideas how I start to go about this? I have written to my MP who believed I had a point, he wrote to one of the Grammars and got a terse reply, thinly disguised threat that if we pushed further on this, he would take his enormous catchment (basically from the middle of England to the coast) and remove it completely making it even harder for our local children to get in. The other Grammar doesn't have a catchment at all.

The MP wrote back to me that there was nothing else I could do. But I feel very strongly that the local Grammar should be for state pupils in the local area to achieve. Basically an average of just one pupil from each local primary school achieves entrance to the Grammar, and that includes one school where 98% of their pupils get level 4 in their sats (and 50% level 5), everyone else has to squeeze into the comprehensives, and there now isn't enough space for them.

Your assistance in ideas on what I can do next (along with an army of other parents) would be most welcomed.

Many thanks

To be honest, I don't think there is much you can do about forcing a Grammar School to accept children from the local area because the law grants them the right to be selective for the social mobility purposes I spoke of before.

What you could perhaps do is complain to the local education authority or raise the issue with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (I believe that is what they're calling themselves at the moment) with regards to your concerns that there are not enough suitable school places being made available in the local area and recommend that they look at better ways of finding pupils from the local area a place in a state school. Sadly, the economic climate is such that a redistribution of funds is unlikely but certainly the Government have an obligation to provide your children with access to an education and bringing the matter to their attention, particularly if you can garner the support of other local parents, may bring about some results - although unfortunately it may take some time.

I think the problem is that Grammar Schools, theoretically, serve a good purpose in that they do allow the gifted children of poorer families to experience an education that they would normally have to pay for (and therefore be unable to afford) but I can certainly understand the concerns of parents in areas where it does not seem that the local children are being adequately served, and also the concerns of others who think that the theory behind Grammar Schools is flawed - certainly, there's a fair few in Government who disagree with Grammar Schools.

For now, raising the concern with the LEA and maybe with the DCSF as a matter of urgency would be the best course of action.

MarzipanFish

Where someone lives in a city and therefore which school they're in the catchment area of is often based on social class. Grammar schools are aiming to circumvent this by covering really big areas.

I expect the 'anywhere in the country' catchment isn't really much different in reality to restricting the distance to an hour or so's commute. Do people really send kids hours away every day?

I guess you might have some scope for arguing for a catchment area to stop people applying from all over the country and then moving if their kids get in to the grammar school but if you're trying to get the area decreased to a part of a city rather than a city you're probably fighting against the main intended benefits of the grammar schools and not likely to get anywhere.


EDIT: Sorry I missed the other messages before I posted so my post's a bit useless now!

JC9297

Even if the catchment was restricted to the area covered by the Local Authority (which to be fair is the smallest it could be to allow all children in the LA the same chance), that would still probably work out at an average of less than one pupil per primary school as there are probably more than 100 primary schools in that area.

I cannot believe there are many children that have a 2 hour commute and the majority of the pupils probably are from within the LA, although perhaps not within a couple of miles of the school, but why should they be denied the chance to study there just because they don't live 5 minutes away. The Grammar Schools are for the brightest, not the closest, children.

faithcecilia

I am a strong believer in the grammer school system, and think it is right that they accept the brightest, most academic children out of those who apply. I believe that, if they were to take more local children who had scored lower in the 11+ rather than those who live further away and scored higher, all the pupils would suffer - the more able would potentially be held back and the less able would be out of their depth.

I actually think we should have more streaming in our education system rather than less, so that every pupil is taught at the absolute appropriate level for them.

To play devils advocate, should it be that anyone is allowed to attend a special needs school just because they are closer to it than the child with disabilities?

property.advert

Also, people do not magically and suddenly have education needs, it doesn't just creep up on them, they know about it for years but do nothing about it and then whine when it doesn't suit them.

They could go live somewhere with a local catchment policy and could have done so in all the years prior to their need.

Counting_Pennies_2

I thank everyone for their responses and will definitely start to lobby.

For those who have jumped on the bandwagon of criticising my intentions.

I have clearly stated there are not enough school places to take the children coming up to Year 6. The projections are that in 4 years time there are not enough places, and this gives us enough time to work on the issues.

There is no money to magically build a new school, or indeed extra classes. The key thing surely is to make sure the school places in the area are for the local children. No I am not saying to make the catchment one town, I am saying make it for one whole county which it sits in the middle of.

The argument that it should be for the brightest and not the most local, there are a whole string of children who have exceeded the 11+ even exceeded level 5 and still cannot get in because people from 80 miles away are getting in (yes truly). Others are put on trains from London and commute in each day. To me this is not acceptable for the children forced to commute, and also not for the very clever children in our area.

7891368

I went to a Grammar school, the people who scored in the top 128 got the places, then 50 or so on a reserve list. People travelled from Reading which is about 70 miles away.

Some counties which bordered, did not have Grammar schools so it allowed those children to still attend Grammar schools.

If THE brightest children that live local achieve BETTER results than those from further away they would gain the place.