I have had to move my daughter from private to state school abs feel guilty

[FJDGoose]

New Girl Wrote:

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> Marmite? Really? Toasted. Butter. Strawberry jam.

> Or proper thick bacon. There's no other way

> Louisa.

Don't mention croissants whatever you do

[JohnL]

I'm in the marmite hater camp.

[Asset]

I looked up Isaiah14

"For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob" blah blah

Not sure if there's any hidden meaning.....

[maxxi]

Asset Wrote:

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> I looked up Isaiah14

>

> "For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob" blah blah

>

> Not sure if there's any hidden meaning.....

He's crackers?

[malumbu]

The middle classes. Those most worried about their kid's education yet the ones with the least to worry about.

A curse on you all and a curse on the politicians that decided that it was good to have competition in the state sector, fill the roads each day with unecessary traffic, distort house prices and push some schools down a slippery slope because of your paranoia.

I wont give my list of schools which are up their own rrrssses.

Well you can always move to Bromley to be nearer grammer schools and the monoculture that you get as you go South. Ohh what an inverted snob I am.

Interesting point, very few hits from my thread on VW disel cars killing people, yet you lot are happy to sit in traffic every day doing the school run with your diesel fumes killing people. Particularly by schools where the youngsters are more vulnerable to your diesel pollution, whilst you sit their leaving your vehicle iddling, parked half on the pavement. And if you ever go west the other side of Herne Hill at 8 am and see the four by fours with one small kid in taking up all road outside the cluster of preps schools etc.

In fact I am just going to put you all up against the wall.

Good, got about five prejudices off my chest at once. Now that is multitasking. Well done

[Zebedee Tring]

Come on malumba, tell us what you really think. Don't hold back.

[JohnL]

malumbu Wrote:

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> In fact I am just going to put you all up against

> the wall.

>

You're supposed to wait for the revolution ;)

[DuncanW]

Malumba,

Would it not be expected that those that are most worried, concerned and/or engaged with their children's education end up with the least to worry about?

There's always been competition between schools in the state sector. Over the last few years it's become more transparent, and evidence based, rather than anecdotal. Most schools in Southwark select on distance so don't see the link between traffic and school selection criteria.

Bromley doesn't have the grammar school system. It has one boys' and one girls' super-selective which have no proximity criteria so kids from our area are eligible. (And can travel there by train)

Can't speak for anyone else but my kids walk/scooter to school.

Finally, it's not nice to be prejudiced or so angry.

[????]

and why are they just middleclass? Much of the improvement in state education has been driven by the demands from ethhnic minority parents who totally get aspiration and the importance of education and were generally appalled at the state of inner city state education in the 70s and 80s? I quite like Malambu's slightly whimsical rambles but they are full of personal anectdote and prejudice rather than much analysis (as he (she?) himself admits). The use of 'you lot' is always a bit assumptive too

[robbin]

malumbu Wrote:

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> "Ohh what an inverted snob I am."

>

> No, just a bit prejudiced....

[uncleglen]

Yes DuncanW- Peckham's very own Harriet Harman did just that after her son went to Dulwich Hamlet Junior school- so they get rid of grammar schools and then send their own kid's to one....(probably used a chauffeur driven at our expense too I shouldn't wonder)

[Sue]

maxxi Wrote:

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> Asset Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > I looked up Isaiah14

> >

> > "For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob" blah

> blah

> >

> > Not sure if there's any hidden meaning.....

>

> He's crackers?

:))

[Zebedee Tring]

On a point of information, I don't think that either the Blair or the Brown Governments got rid of any grammar schools. However, I am in favour of comprehensive rather than grammar schools.

[Otta]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> and why are they just middleclass? Much of the

> improvement in state education has been driven by

> the demands from ethhnic minority parents who

> totally get aspiration and the importance of

> education and were generally appalled at the state

> of inner city state education in the 70s and 80s?

>

All very true.

But also true that these groups ate often priced out of the schools they want their children to go to.

[uncleglen]

This neatly sums it up...unfortunately the whole country has suffered now that we are not producing properly educated academics in the numbers we need.

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/news-opinion/john-claughton-getting-rid-grammar-6351335

The reason why Bliar and Brown did not 'get rid' of grammar schools is because it was not in their power to do so, and there are so few of them left. Ironically, many pupils these days have to jump through other hoops to get into specialist schools e.e for music, drama, sports etc...grammar schools were centres of primarily academic excellence. Also an interesting article in the Telegraph

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harrymount/100071517/a-public-school-elite-runs-this-country-because-labour-and-tory-governments-destroyed-grammar-schools/

[dc]

Zebedee Tring Wrote:

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> On a point of information, I don't think that

> either the Blair or the Brown Governments got rid

> of any grammar schools. However, I am in favour of

> comprehensive rather than grammar schools.

Indeed. It is an ironic point (upon which I'm happy to be contradicted) that more grammar schools were approved for conversion to comprehensives under a certain Margaret Thatcher when she was Education Secretary than by any other person who has held that position.

[Zebedee Tring]

You're right about Maggie Thatcher, dc. The reason that the Tories in the early 70s closed so many grammar schools was that these schools were very unpopular not just with working class parents but with middle class parents (i.e. potential Tory supporters) who were unhappy about the prospect of their own children going to very inferior secondary modern schools if they failed the 11 plus.

[uncleglen]

More insight into the death of grammar schools.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/9167347/A-new-era-dawns-for-the-grammar-school.html

I went to one in West Ham

My school pals were sons and daughters of doctors, dentists, jailbirds, drunken tugboat sailors, university lecturers, publican, etc etc.....level playing field...

[????]

Inner city schools have started to improve quite dramatically since reforms started by New Labour. Of course the thick old middle class socialists who now run the Labour Party would remove choice and push us back to mediocrity and poverty with their tedious idealism.

[*Bob*]

I went to a grammar too. When I went it was a reasonably mixed bag, socially and economically. Not any more though - the pupils that get in now are pimped and tutored to within an inch of their lives to pass.

[uncleglen]

What a coincidence- a new grammar school is going to be created...Labour actually passed a law in 1998 banning the creation of grammars. Oh dear the politics of envy....

[DuncanW]

I think I'm right in stating that no new grammars had been created for thirty years prior to that so hardly a dramatic piece of legislation. And as mentioned above, M Thatcher closed down more than anyone else. Was that also the politics of envy?

The Blair/Brown adminstration has a record to be proud of on education, which I'm sure the vast majority of forumites with children at some of our many excellent local schools would agree.

[*Bob*]

It's not a new grammar anyway, is it? It's (classified) as an extension of an existing school - which circumvents the legislation that otherwise would prevent it.

[malumbu]

Advance warning, salt shortage this winter as I have just brought the stockpile, so that I can give you all a pinch of NaCl. Ho ho.

Anyway my point on the middle classes being those with the least to worry about, but who are the most worried, was not original thought but taken from a Radio 4 programme a few years ago. Of course please do attribute to me.

So the middle classes - much more likely to be a two parent family (one way or another) engaging in their kids education. if they do social experiment and (shudder) send their kids to a non-competitive school and things go wrong, they can usually do something about it even if it means remortgaging to send private. Isn't this pretty obvious? And happily be hypocrites about the whole argument.

The point about large 4x4s clogging up the roads West of Tulse Hill is true, does add to congestion, does worsen air quality, and does harm (in particular to developing lungs). It is not just VW that is poisoning people, it is us too. Would have expected after a month of media coverage a bit more debate/interest

Not angry about this. Dixons/Currys and many other things I am.

[uncleglen]

Anthony Crosland (Labour fyi educated at Highgate School and Trinity Cambridge)) started the rot of closing the grammars and the only way to appease the left was to continue with the destruction. You can't tell me that this country has not suffered from years of mediocre, wishy- washy education when schools in 1988 were boasting that they offered GCSE in Turkish....and NO Latin ffs. (and I am not joking about the Latin either).I expect the idea was to keep the masses under-educated and then the privately school educated Marxists could then guarantee their votes generation upon generation.