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| The big issue: selective education helped my brother – but left me behind The big issue: selective education helped my brother – but left me behind | |
| (2 months later) | |
| My West Yorkshire working-class background offers a microcosm of the absurdities of the selective schooling debate (“Selection is bad for children, bad for society”, editorial comment, last week). After passing the 11-plus, my brother went from a suburban primary to a grammar and then on to a distinguished career as a professor of biochemistry. In contrast, I attended an inner-city primary where, from a cohort of 36, only one boy passed the 11-plus. I was the first student from my secondary modern to get to university, though the lack of modern languages at school denied me access to an arts degree; I settling for a science degree, which I struggled to pass. | My West Yorkshire working-class background offers a microcosm of the absurdities of the selective schooling debate (“Selection is bad for children, bad for society”, editorial comment, last week). After passing the 11-plus, my brother went from a suburban primary to a grammar and then on to a distinguished career as a professor of biochemistry. In contrast, I attended an inner-city primary where, from a cohort of 36, only one boy passed the 11-plus. I was the first student from my secondary modern to get to university, though the lack of modern languages at school denied me access to an arts degree; I settling for a science degree, which I struggled to pass. |
| I am proud of my brother but bitter about how a discredited system limited my opportunities. From a career as a comprehensive school teacher, I know that most of my working-class students thrived in that milieu, whereas I had schoolfriends, some brighter than me, who left school at 15 after feeling like failures at 11.Philip Wood Kidlington, Oxon | I am proud of my brother but bitter about how a discredited system limited my opportunities. From a career as a comprehensive school teacher, I know that most of my working-class students thrived in that milieu, whereas I had schoolfriends, some brighter than me, who left school at 15 after feeling like failures at 11.Philip Wood Kidlington, Oxon |
| At 11, after missing out on “grammar school mobility”, I attended Quarles secondary modern on a large housing estate to the east of London. This was an outstanding school, managed by an exceptional headteacher and supported by a committed staff. | At 11, after missing out on “grammar school mobility”, I attended Quarles secondary modern on a large housing estate to the east of London. This was an outstanding school, managed by an exceptional headteacher and supported by a committed staff. |
| Classes were streamed, and two of these would go on to take O-levels. Many achieved results better than the local grammar school. I graduated with a degree in economics, then taught for 30 years. If Mrs May intends to promote social mobility, the lesson of my experience is that you do it for all by ensuring that schools are well resourced, led by quality management employing inspiring teachers. You do not do it by waving the “grammar” magic wand at a small percentage of the school population which has just reached 11.A GuyverAshcott, Somerset | Classes were streamed, and two of these would go on to take O-levels. Many achieved results better than the local grammar school. I graduated with a degree in economics, then taught for 30 years. If Mrs May intends to promote social mobility, the lesson of my experience is that you do it for all by ensuring that schools are well resourced, led by quality management employing inspiring teachers. You do not do it by waving the “grammar” magic wand at a small percentage of the school population which has just reached 11.A GuyverAshcott, Somerset |
| Grammar schools have been a potent engine of social mobility, giving bright children from working-class families the chance of a first-class education and a better start in life, which many comprehensives do not give. These families are mostly Labour supporters. It is secondary moderns that have failed to give less academic children good vocational training for the workplace.RJ RoscoeCarlisle | Grammar schools have been a potent engine of social mobility, giving bright children from working-class families the chance of a first-class education and a better start in life, which many comprehensives do not give. These families are mostly Labour supporters. It is secondary moderns that have failed to give less academic children good vocational training for the workplace.RJ RoscoeCarlisle |
| A key feature of debates about selective education is the acceptance that, in their heyday, grammar schools were academically successful, yet contemporary evidence, easily available, strongly suggests otherwise. The Crowther Report in 1959 found that nearly 40% of grammar school children were leaving with three or fewer O-levels; a truly dire outcome for the brightest 25% or so of pupils. I suspect that if Ofsted teams could be transported back to the 1950s and 1960s to inspect grammar schools using today’s criteria, large numbers would be placed in special measures or given notice to improve.Dr Adrian ElliottYork | A key feature of debates about selective education is the acceptance that, in their heyday, grammar schools were academically successful, yet contemporary evidence, easily available, strongly suggests otherwise. The Crowther Report in 1959 found that nearly 40% of grammar school children were leaving with three or fewer O-levels; a truly dire outcome for the brightest 25% or so of pupils. I suspect that if Ofsted teams could be transported back to the 1950s and 1960s to inspect grammar schools using today’s criteria, large numbers would be placed in special measures or given notice to improve.Dr Adrian ElliottYork |
| “Seven Decades of Schooling” (In Focus, last week) starts by claiming that Butler’s 1944 Education Act provided for a tripartite structure of secondary education. Not so. It was left to the coalition’s Ministry of Education to issue a pamphlet, The Nation’s Schools, in May 1945, suggesting a division into grammar, modern and technical schools. Butler’s Labour successor, Ellen Wilkinson, endorsed that proposal in a December 1945 circular that not only advocated tripartism but reasoned that grammar schools should take no more than 25%-30% of 11-plus children, lest standards be diluted. | “Seven Decades of Schooling” (In Focus, last week) starts by claiming that Butler’s 1944 Education Act provided for a tripartite structure of secondary education. Not so. It was left to the coalition’s Ministry of Education to issue a pamphlet, The Nation’s Schools, in May 1945, suggesting a division into grammar, modern and technical schools. Butler’s Labour successor, Ellen Wilkinson, endorsed that proposal in a December 1945 circular that not only advocated tripartism but reasoned that grammar schools should take no more than 25%-30% of 11-plus children, lest standards be diluted. |
| You are not, alas, alone in perpetuating this myth about the 1944 Act. The following day, Kenneth Clarke rose to repeat it in the Commons.David BullBristol | You are not, alas, alone in perpetuating this myth about the 1944 Act. The following day, Kenneth Clarke rose to repeat it in the Commons.David BullBristol |