Picking Out a Secondary School

Before I went to Australia L went with me to visit a secondary school. I was glad to have her along to provide the local perspective. Just to recap the school situation, we can’t afford to send A to what we would call a private school. We would be eating cat food if we did. So our options are one of the state schools in bordering counties. Buckinghamshire has the grammar school system, one of the last counties to have this system. So when children reach the age of 11, I believe they take this test and then the top percentage (not sure what percentage) is creamed off the top to go to the grammar schools. The rest go to a school, in their catchment area (school district to Americans). It sounds fairly simple but it gets more complicated. The school we visited is one of the non-grammar schools in Bucks, which has to be everything to all of the children attending from learning disabled to non-English speakers to the kids that just missed getting into the grammar school. When you look at the standardized test results for all the schools in the country it is no wonder that the grammar schools have near-perfect scores while the other schools fall lower on the list.

Because you hear from parents and others in the community that the grammar schools are where it is at, I had no expectations for this visit but I was pleasantly surprised. The administrator that showed us around explained that the children in England take two important tests, GCSEs when they are sixteen and A levels when they are eighteen/nineteen. If you want to know what those mean, do some research because I’m still confused! I just know that when I have reviewed resumes or what they call C.V.s here, people list out these tests even when they are in their 30s and 40s and have achieve advanced degrees. I was explaining to the administrator that is a cultural difference. We just want to know if someone graduated high school and then we focus on advanced degrees. She looked disturbed by this response. It seems like your past follows you in the UK more than it does in the States.

On the tour we talked to a particularly chatty teacher who explained GCSEs and A levels and also explained how by 2011 England is changing the system and going to a 14-19 curriculum where in that period students achieve certificates and diplomas before going on to university. What this means to A’s secondary experience is yet to be seen.

At the end of the tour, the administrator looked at me and said let me know when you know if your daughter will be applying for a place. I stopped her and said wait a minute since this is not a grammar school, if we live in the catchment area, she has a place right? She hesitated and said only if they had one. But she also added that lately due to a “general declining population” in the county they have always had a slot. I explained to her that the tentative response about where A would attend school is what has been so frustrating and made it difficult to decide where to live. She said to me that I have to understand that if a parent anywhere in the country files a lawsuit about their child being treated wrongly by admissions into a school, the whole country may have to react and change policy. So who gets in is 97% clear with 3% of the dark art thrown in just to confuse us all.

I have talked to a few parents in Bucks whose children attended the grammar schools and they really dislike the system. The other morning when L and I were on our way to the tour we had to first drop off little B at primary school and a teacher that lives up the street rode with us. We were talking about the system and he called it “diabolical” mostly because of what it does to the parents. Children are at an early age subject to tutors and all kinds of cramming in order to pass the grammar school test. He reminded us that only six of the top 100 self-made people in Britain attended university. We do plan to have A take the grammar school test if we reside in Bucks but she will be taking it without the preparation and pressure of the other kids.

Now that we have a move date and A will start school in England in September, I have started to call around to the other schools in Hertfordshire, the neighboring county, to expand our search. I am told that the good schools are all oversubscribed there so we will have to pick the best possible and then if it does not work out, move for the following year to another school district.