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[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

I finished up at the local Comprehensive and left at end of 5th year with a few "O" levels and a couple of C.S.E.s.First maths lesson and it was the deputy headmistress teaching it and as she got to my name on the register she looked at me and said "Are you any relation to Ian and Martin?" and I said "Yes miss they're my older brothers" at which her head went into her hands and she said "Oh,god another one" I knew then I was bound to go far at that school

Sounds so much better than the wanky PC word 'headteacher'

Headmistress has gravitas.

[Nick W]

The selection process changed for the better in the early 90,s.
The system which had been in place for decades, and the one my Daughter passed in its last year, the 11+ under was open to manipulation by Primary schools.
Example = Child 1 scores 98% in the exam and child 2 (parent is a school governer) scores 88%. School then grades them both as group A and they both get an average of one anothers scores - 93%.
They both pass and go to Grammar school, but child 2 shouldnt have done.
The following year a new system was introduced, and was the one my Son took. All pupils who want to take the 11 plus go to a local Grammar school on a Saturday morning and take three exams.
If there are 100 places available, the 100 who got the highest score in the exams are offered the places.
Very simple and very fair.
The fly in the ointment is till parents paying for professional coaching, although that isn't as easy under the new system, as the old system was mainly verbal reasoning rather than three different subjects.

You had a very different selection procedure than we did


I took the 11+ test(it's been called the Kent Test for years) early spring 1981. I was ten years old.


Scores weren't published, you either passed or failed. It was entirely written, with no verbal components and sat in normal school time. If there were more passes than places in each area, then the county examiners chose who did and didn't get a place - the teachers were not consulted. The actual exam results were not available even to the junior or secondary school head teachers. I should add that my mother was a junior school teacher; the head of Balfour CPS where I went was both a friend  and former colleague of hers, and my father was a governer of the school I went to - none of them had access to the actual 'scores'.


Nobody I know of had extra-curriculum teaching. That is not the case today; I have a couple of teacher friends who supplement their income  with extra tutoring to pass various exams, including the Kent Test. One of them does this for children who attend the local public school, which has fees of £10k a term!

[Nick W]

Left handed puppetry, German Polka history and underwater basket weaving all being more use than a Sociology degree

Hence the joke:
How do you get a sociology graduate off your doorstep?




Pay for the pizza.


 

[Doctor Gollum]

 

[Nick W]

I once told that joke and others(like How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris?    Nobody knows, it hasn't been tried)to my cousin and quickly realised that she doesn't have much of a sense of humour. She is French though. Or maybe it struck a nerve with her Phd in renaissance art 

[Doctor Gollum]

You've answered your own question there... It doesn't matter. Because she is French. 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Nick W - I think I got the verbal reasoning part wrong. That was another kind of exam, but taken around the same time.
The kids took mock exams for which scores were published and gave the school an idea of who might pass or not, and allowed them to be categorised as A, B etc. by the Headmaster, who could then make his recommendations. This was not common knowledge, but those who thought they needed to know, knew how it worked and worked the system accordingly.
Being very active in the PTA or also being a teacher in another school and helping in this school when it was needed, was the sort of thing that could swing things in someones favour. When they took the real thing, I dont recall if the marks for the real exam were disclosed to parents or not, but I do know the Headmaster, under some pressure, admitted how the system worked, after it was all over and done.
It was the last year of that system, so he probably thought it didnt matter too much.

[B52]

The ladder and the rope:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulqATsIgXf8

[TheBoy]

I think the grammar school education - which I "benefitted"* from - was in no way elitist, because attendance was on pure merit, not if your dad was in the old boys club.

I also believe it helped all levels of ability, as the brighter kids were not held back by the dimwits, and the dimwits were not left behind because the lessons were too advanced for them to follow.



*I have long believed I would have done better by not going (not that I did often), as the school was more into academia, and particularly more art subjects rather than science.  Which is not the way my simple brain works.  Out of us 5 kids, 2 went to the grammar school system, the other 3 didn't.  The 2 that went to the grammar schools, one is almost unemployable, and I work for some tinpot telco.  The 3 who went to the John Collet School for Thickos have all done rather well...

[ronnyd]

I finished up at the local Comprehensive and left at end of 5th year with a few "O" levels and a couple of C.S.E.s.First maths lesson and it was the deputy headmistress teaching it and as she got to my name on the register she looked at me and said "Are you any relation to Ian and Martin?" and I said "Yes miss they're my older brothers" at which her head went into her hands and she said "Oh,god another one" I knew then I was bound to go far at that school

That's exactly what SWMBOs teacher said when she started secondary school in 1954.   Poor woman remembered her three elder sisters. 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

I think the grammar school education - which I "benefitted"* from - was in no way elitist, because attendance was on pure merit, not if your dad was in the old boys club.

I also believe it helped all levels of ability, as the brighter kids were not held back by the dimwits, and the dimwits were not left behind because the lessons were too advanced for them to follow.



*I have long believed I would have done better by not going (not that I did often), as the school was more into academia, and particularly more art subjects rather than science.  Which is not the way my simple brain works.  Out of us 5 kids, 2 went to the grammar school system, the other 3 didn't.  The 2 that went to the grammar schools, one is almost unemployable, and I work for some tinpot telco.  The 3 who went to the John Collet School for Thickos have all done rather well...

Despite being from Brackley TB has this spot on.

I also have siblings some of whom went to a grammar, and some of which went to a comprehensive.

Most have done better than me. Although my sister describes her comprehensive education as 'the organised production of mass mediocrity'

[New POD]

Newpod:

What if you win all £49million on tonight's lottery...

Would you be happy to redistribute all of it equally to everyone on benefits?

If you work hard and get to a point where you have six figures in savings, would you be happy to be reset so that someone who couldn't be bothered was given most of it so that you each had the same?

Or be forced to give up any rental properties leaving you with the smallest property for your needs ie a studio/1 bed if there's only two of you?

I ask because that's fundamentally what you are advocating...

And where does it stop? Cars? Bicycles? Food? Water? Medication?

No they can.all opps right off and get a job. 

£49 million you say?
My aspirations could not consume that much, and after I've distributed it wisely to family and friends, there will be about 15 million for redistribution.  Homelessness, as in rough sleeping and debt Due to mental.health issues are where i.would start my focus.  Obviously I'd be looking for paid advisors and I'd definately start at OFF because I feel sure we've got the brightest and yet most kind and understanding demographic.

[ronnyd]

Newpod:

What if you win all £49million on tonight's lottery...

Would you be happy to redistribute all of it equally to everyone on benefits?

If you work hard and get to a point where you have six figures in savings, would you be happy to be reset so that someone who couldn't be bothered was given most of it so that you each had the same?

Or be forced to give up any rental properties leaving you with the smallest property for your needs ie a studio/1 bed if there's only two of you?

I ask because that's fundamentally what you are advocating...

And where does it stop? Cars? Bicycles? Food? Water? Medication?

No they can.all opps right off and get a job. 

£49 million you say?
My aspirations could not consume that much, and after I've distributed it wisely to family and friends, there will be about 15 million for redistribution.  Homelessness, as in rough sleeping and debt Due to mental.health issues are where i.would start my focus.  Obviously I'd be looking for paid advisors and I'd definately start at OFF because I feel sure we've got the brightest and yet most kind and understanding demographic.

Not enough Os and too many Fs Pod. 

[Doctor Gollum]

How very philanthropic of you. £34 million for personal use?

I rest my case

Personally speaking, I would buy a handful of nice, but not flashy properties in places that I would like to spend time, a small fund for my cousins little girl, a couple of million in a pension pot.

And then set up a non profit for the remaining £40 million or so.

[B52]

I think the grammar school education - which I "benefitted"* from - was in no way elitist, because attendance was on pure merit, not if your dad was in the old boys club.

I also believe it helped all levels of ability, as the brighter kids were not held back by the dimwits, and the dimwits were not left behind because the lessons were too advanced for them to follow.



*I have long believed I would have done better by not going (not that I did often), as the school was more into academia, and particularly more art subjects rather than science.  Which is not the way my simple brain works.  Out of us 5 kids, 2 went to the grammar school system, the other 3 didn't.  The 2 that went to the grammar schools, one is almost unemployable, and I work for some tinpot telco.  The 3 who went to the John Collet School for Thickos have all done rather well...

Despite being from Brackley TB has this spot on.

I also have siblings some of whom went to a grammar, and some of which went to a comprehensive.

Most have done better than me. Although my sister describes her comprehensive education as 'the organised production of mass mediocrity'

Out of interest, what do you make of this?

https://youtu.be/4-C2i9Iq9vY

I believe it still exists.