My daughter, the middle of three, is approaching year 5 of primary school. Her older sister attends our local comprehensive school, a thriving community college, that she can walk to with her friends. An inclusive comprehensive school, that encourages each child to find their own success and happiness through academics, arts and sports.
We are lucky we have first-hand experience with our older daughter flourishing at secondary school, a great local school which reflects the demographic and is part of our community.
Yet every single one of our middle daughters’ friends is about to embark on a year’s worth of tutoring to take the 11+ test, in an attempt to get into a grammar school in the next LEA which is a 30-minute bus journey away.
All of her friends live within a 15-minute walk of our local comprehensive.
I’ve approached some of her peer group parents to try to open up the conversation around the 11+ and the grammar system. It’s a divisive topic and frustratingly seems to have a herd mentality, one embarks on tutoring, and the rest follow, like some exclusive club, something ‘better’.
I’ve explained how happy our oldest child is at the local secondary school and reeled off statistics, benefits and outcomes of comprehensively educated children. But time after time when I ask why they are considering the grammar route, I’m met with the same answer ‘It’s what’s right for my child’ or ‘It’s what’s best for my child’.
The doubt then sets in, perhaps we are bad parents for not tutoring and giving our daughter the opportunity to take the 11+ and go to a grammar school?
We remind ourselves of the lack of equality in the grammar system, a core belief we hold that every child should be given the same chance and access to a good well-rounded education.
Our middle daughter is undoubtedly devastated that her friends may all end up going to grammar school. She already feels left out of ‘tutoring chats’, she’s come home crying about losing her friends and worries that the last two years of primary school will be flooded with talk of 11+ and grammar school.
We will help her navigate this next phase and she has the benefit of seeing how happy her big sister is at the local comprehensive school.
The frustration lies with this outdated selective grammar system. A system that disadvantages a large proportion of society. A toxic system that divides peers and communities. A system that leaves children thinking they are superior for passing an (unregulated) test or inferior for failing it.
Our society needs children to integrate and to be given equal opportunity. And I believe supporting your local inclusive community comprehensive school should be part of Bridget Phillipsons ‘Education Transformation’
I hope all grammar schools become successful comprehensive schools that represent their local community.
A Maya Angelou quote reminds us that we are not bad parents for supporting our good, inclusive local comprehensive. Our daughter will flourish in many ways that are far more meaningful than a 11+ test.
“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength,” Maya Angelou.
