Best way to prep for grammar school entry in Year 3

theoretica

onwards&upwards said:

I find it very weird to keep the sexes apart at school.  Its so artificial.  Isn't learning how to relate to others an important part of growing up?  

I find lumping hundreds of children together into one institution mostly sorted by year of birth to be artificial too.

theoretica

For those interested in data, this is a rather interesting paper on attainment in areas with and without grammar schools.

https://ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2019/06/long-term-outcomes-do-grammar-schools-make-a-difference/

Davesnave

Fireflyaway said:

onwards&upwards said:

I find it very weird to keep the sexes apart at school.  Its so artificial.  Isn't learning how to relate to others an important part of growing up?  

I do agree with the importance of getting on with everyone. However given the choice I would still select single sex education. Maybe not so much at primary or junior age but senior school I would. School is for learning, not impressing the opposite sex, worrying that boys / girls don't fancy you, fussing over your appearance, having to deal with rejection, unwanted attention etc. Boys do tend to show off more when girls are about and girls can get very funny with each other if they like the same boy. It's just an extra distraction. I'm not against kids mixing. My child hangs out with both genders outside of schools, at sports and when volunteering. 

Times may well have changed, but I remember few relationships within year groups when our school became mixed. I had only one girlfriend from the same school and year. We didn't meet often in breaks and our paths in lesson time only crossed on a couple of occasions per week. We also lived in different towns, so we had other sets of friends, all of which was healthy, as time spent together felt different and special.

Yes, there are distractions caused by sexual and other kinds of attraction but that's all part of the learning experience, as is coping with teasing, disappointment and the inevitable cracks in one's self-image. Learning to weather life's storms and fend of distractions are better not left until university IMO. We probably all know someone who went crazy as soon as the brakes were off on arrival there!

onwards&upwards

Fireflyaway said:

onwards&upwards said:

I find it very weird to keep the sexes apart at school.  Its so artificial.  Isn't learning how to relate to others an important part of growing up?  

School is for learning, not impressing the opposite sex, worrying that boys / girls don't fancy you, fussing over your appearance, having to deal with rejection, unwanted attention etc. 

Sorry, but that's a huge and important part of being a teenager isn't it?  

fred246

I don't understand why people think it is acceptable to say "No thick kids allowed" or "No girls allowed". To me it's exactly the same as "no black kids allowed" or "no asians allowed". It's all discrimination and it's unacceptable to me. It's common sense. Research is irrelevant.

Spendless

Having had a child under CAMHS with suicidal ideation caused by widespread verbal bullying at her Outstanding, gets some of the best grades in the area compared to the others that perform below the National average school, I would prioritise good pastoral care over exam results any day of the week. Thankfully mine are now in further and higher education with a whole host of student support services accessible to them. 

silvercar

fred246 said:

I don't understand why people think it is acceptable to say "No thick kids allowed" or "No girls allowed". To me it's exactly the same as "no black kids allowed" or "no asians allowed". It's all discrimination and it's unacceptable to me. It's common sense. Research is irrelevant.

If you narrowed that down to individual classes, you wouldn't allow streaming within subjects. So no one would be allowed eg to do triple science for fear of your defined "thick kids" being unable to cope. 

silvercar

fred246 said:

How does a trans child know which school to go to?

If that was a serious question the answer is that they should go to a mixed school at age 11, and consider moving to a new school/ college at 6th form where they can start afresh without being identified as the trans kid.

If your underlying message was that you shouldn't have any single sex schools for fear of a trans kid being forced into a school for a gender where they feel uncomfortable, then the answer is that we don't set up the whole education system on that basis as education should be focused on delivering the best learning outcomes.

peachyprice

mark1234567890 said:

Thank you for all of the replies everyone.

The school I was referring to is the Manchester Grammar School, so Grammar in name but not by nature it would seem.

Here is a link to information on their Junior School: https://www.mgs.org/204/junior-school-1

And there it is: 

MGS is an independent, fee‐paying school. School fees are £12,930 for the academic year 2019‐20

https://0e58658be539ee7325a0-220f04f871df648cf4a4d93a111e3366.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/manchester/uploads/document/ONLINEAPPLICATIONFORM-2020.pdf?ts=1592558169

So OP, not so much how will you prepare him, more how will you arrange your finances. 

fred246

peachyprice said:

mark1234567890 said:

Thank you for all of the replies everyone.

The school I was referring to is the Manchester Grammar School, so Grammar in name but not by nature it would seem.

Here is a link to information on their Junior School: https://www.mgs.org/204/junior-school-1

And there it is: 

MGS is an independent, fee‐paying school. School fees are £12,930 for the academic year 2019‐20

https://0e58658be539ee7325a0-220f04f871df648cf4a4d93a111e3366.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/manchester/uploads/document/ONLINEAPPLICATIONFORM-2020.pdf?ts=1592558169

So OP, not so much how will you prepare him, more how will you arrange your finances. 

Years 3 to Upper 6 would cost 11 x £12930 = £142K. It's serious money. It's normally quite a bit more with transport and uniform added and then keeping up with the Joneses seems pretty major with these children. I was amazed that people paying this sort of money look no further than 'league tables'. We would have been happy to pay for transport but the coach left at normal school closing time so any after school activity would have meant us driving as well as paying for the coach. Our primary school headteacher warned us that a boys grammar school is a nerd factory and may not be the best type of school.