| Topic: | Re:Re:Response to Toby's Observer piece | |
| Posted by: | Andy Jones | |
| Date/Time: | 26/08/09 11:41:00 |
| Whilst extolling the virtues of the remnants of a grammar school ethos at AHS I would in no way want to see a return to that system. The great virtue of grammar schools was they recognised their primary purpose was to encourage academic achievement in their pupils. However there is no denying they are structurally socially divisive. The present system does give a much larger proportion of the population a chance of a decent education however it is far from perfect. The answer to me is not to set up a new 'comprehensive grammar' but to make AHS one i.e. a school which has the ethos of a grammar but a non-selective entry. This is probably only turning the clock back 10 to 15 years to what it used to be. The challenges that AHS faces compared with other local schools are numerous. We have already touched on discipline issues and the fact that troublesome pupils are difficult to get rid of and often passed on from other schools. They also will tend to get a high proportion of children in care, asylum seekers, people who move around alot such as travellers because the school tends to be undersubscribed and therefore always has places. I am not saying these groups necessarily pose particular discipline or academic problems but they would require extra resources which would reduce the focus on teaching. None of this necessarily should mean that the school will fail but it is critically important for any school to be oversubscribed so that their pupil roll remains stable and the proportion of more challenging pupils remains at a manageable level. To achieve this they must be sufficiently attractive to the long term resident population of W3. I appreciate this is a challenge. Many will be of sufficient means to go private, many will be practising Christians and send their children to Twyford, the large Irish and Polish populations and other ethnic groups from Catholic countries will be looking first at the RC schools. However, this should leave a sufficiently large number of the population who would prefer a secular local comprehensive for their child. I think the publication of league tables has sapped a lot of local confidence in the school. Toby Young quotes them and I'm sure he never actually visited the school. This becomes self fulfilling - if a school is perceived as under achieving then it will fail to attract the kind of children who are more likely to gain higher results. The answer is to regain the confidence of the local community. The head needs to give a clear message that academic achievement is the primary aim of the school. This is what every parent, whether a recently arrived Somali asylum seeker or a professional person living near Poet's Corner, wants to hear. Sara is exactly right when she says not having a sixth form is a mistake. It sends out a very bad message about the aspirations of the school for its pupils. With the country in deep recession there will be a much larger pool of people looking for state education so the chances are increased that the school could be over-subscribed if it could regain the confidence of the broader local community. |