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Teaching groups hit out at plans to expand grammar schools in Kent claiming they create a "selective system which labels 10-year-olds failures".
Paul Carter, leader of Kent county council, is drawing up plans to increase grammar school places in the west of the county because the schools are oversubscribed. His move follows 11-plus results that show 5,113 pupils passed the test this month but the county's grammar schools have only 4,458 places.
Teachers' leaders and parents have opposed the plan.
Margaret Tulloch, secretary of Comprehensive Future, an anti-selection pressure group, added: "Instead of tinkering with the sizes of grammar schools, Kent should be arguing for an end to its selective system which labels most 10-year-olds as failures."
Marian Darke, south-eastern regional secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "This is a problem of Kent's own making.
"It has stuck rigidly to its idea of having grammar schools."
Reader views (9)
I am all for Grammar Schools. Those who don't get in are not failures, they just have different talents/skills as Gary from Amersham says. And those do get the chance to study unimpeded by the non academically-minded.
Davidke and James Macleod Ritchie - might we know what you both do for a living? It'd be good to find out what you contribute to society other than ugeneralisations and sour comments. (I work in publishing.)
- Lewis, London, 18/12/2009 14:38
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Oh lets bow down to Grammar Schools!...They wouldn’t dare take on any ‘special needs’ kids and of course only the best can achieve! Let us all be NIMBYs and step over the kids that cannot achieve top marks in their SAT results and pass the 11+
Or should we wake up from dreamland and realise like a company, a school’s ethos is usually from the leadership of the HeadTeacher & their SMTs. If a School not working to standard the blame shouldn’t just fall against the wall of Government, but we should look how that school is failing and whether the Leadership is on the right path.
Kent council should spend more time investigating the standards of their other schools and help improve the intake into all their schools!
- Jacqui, London, 28/10/2009 13:38
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Bob from Cheam - thanks for the support!! Thats why there are only a few 'Premiership quality' footballers, or 'Virtuos Pianists' - children are born with certain talents - most of which have shown themselves by the time they have been in Education for 6 or 7 years. Yes - Grammar Schools are 'selective' - but so is evrything else in Life, our Duaghter is unlikely to pass 11+, but she is great at Art - the 11+ will be a step to far for her, but that doesn't mean she has 'failed' - just that she is great in other areas apart from academia!
- Gary, amesham, 28/10/2009 11:42
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Get rid of these useless Socialist teachers. They are part of the problem. Who the hell are they anyway to decide whether these schools are built anyway? If they are too useless to teach at Grammar Schools then it says it all, they are not fit to teach at all. Get rid of them, give the kids a chance in life rather than drag them down to the lowest common denominator!
- James Macleod Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove, 28/10/2009 11:33
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Gary, unfortunately that's not the way the woolly liberals see it, their ethos dictates that all children are created equal and that “intelligent” is a label that undermines a childs confidence.
- Bob, Cheam, 28/10/2009 10:27
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Obviously grammar schools achieve much higher grades as they only have the most successful students. but I think the real difference comes in their attitude to work.
Pass the two grammar schools in this area and you will see pupils leaving at four in the afternoon. Pass any of the local comprehensives and you will see pupils pouring out at three. In Walthamstow I have seen them leaving as early as 2.30. Mathematicians will easily calculate how much longer a grammar school student has at school over seven years.
- Alan Green, England. The forgotten country., 28/10/2009 09:58
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Both my kids went to the same Kent Grammar School. One went on to get a law degree and is now a senior civil servant, the other is a film journalist. Neither have ever been unemployed.
Thank heavens for Kent's educational system - they must be doing something right.
- Sam, London, 27/10/2009 15:02
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Our son passed his 11+ after consistently getting top grades in SATs at his Junior School. Grammar School is a revelation for him - -rather than being ignored in favour of 'special needs' pupils - basically 50% of the class, given little or no homework which usually went unmarked, given no praise for constantly turning in excellent work - he is now thriving in an atmosphere where hard work, discipline, high standards and reward for effort are recognised and encouraged. These are simple things - but often sadly lacking in 'secondary' schools. Money has nothing to with it - the buildings are 1930's and 1960's crumbling prefabs, with no multimillions BSF money - but what the school does have in spades is an ethos of work hard &push yourself to the limit. Failing the 11+ isn't failing - it's just that special needs occurs at both ends of the educational spectrum, and if the same funds were allocated the bright achievers as we allocate to those who are at the other end of the scale - Grammar Schools would be trumpeted as the ideal, rater than something elitist to be sneered at. Lets celebrate success for a change and recognise that certain children are naturally gifted, and need to be stretched academically, which is essentially what Grammar Schools provide.
- Gary, amesham, 27/10/2009 13:32
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The teachers should mind their own business. They won't be good enough to teach in them in any case.
- Davidke, ramsey isle of man, 27/10/2009 11:38
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