11+

So to those banging on

Gnetters do not 'bang on'

My sister who is 9 years older than me passed the 11+ and went to a grammar school that was still fee-paying but on a scholarship. I failed the 11+ and from the day the news was received with shock and horror by my mother, I knew I was a failure. However, 25 years down the line, after doing my O and A levels at night school, I was accepted to do a degree in English and History, so that at the age of 40 I got a 1st class hons degree. The disappointment, though energetically denied and covered up by my family, was evident and my sense of having failed is still a deep seated feeling which I have to try and conquer in many situations. My first day at secondary modern started off with the Deputy Head lecturing all the newcomers on what was to be expected in terms of behaviour and expectations. We were told that we were not as clever as those who had passed the 11+ and who had gone to the grammer school which was about half a mile away in the same village, but we would always be in a supporting role for those who had done so and be grateful for that opportunity. My friend passed the 11+ and we were split up in terms of education, but she hated it and only passed O level woodwork. My sister still goes on about the fact she went to grammar school and although we get on fine on the whole, it's ages ago and she still views this as her sign of her superiority. Her husband went to the same rough, tough secondary modern as me! Do I agree with grammar schools? I don't think so, but consider that all State secondary education should be of an excellent standard to match the privileges given to those who can afford private education.

Personal experience demonstrates Earl of Beaconsfields' (PM in Victorian times)" childhood a mistake/ youth a blunder/old age a regret".(11+ product)

Following on from your post Anniebach, my MiL was a primary school teacher in the thirties and she told us about a letter she received from one of the children's Mums. It read like this. "I am sorry little Johnnie was not at school yesterday but he got his feet wet and he only has one pair"!! She loved that story.
Following on from other posts, I said to my GS before he got his results that it doesn't matter where you go to school, it is what you make of it. You can go to an amazing school and not be happy or do well, or you can go to a failing school and be happy and do well if that is what you choose to do. My Father always used to tell the story of a young man who approached a village and came across an old man on the outskirts of the village. He said to the old man "What are the people like in this village?" The old man said "Tell me, what were the people like in the last village you stayed in?" The young man said "They were a mean and miserable crowd of people which is why I am moving on". The old man replied "Well I think you will find these villagers are mean and miserable too".

Personal experience demonstrates Earl of Beaconsfields' (PM in Victorian times)" childhood a mistake/ youth a blunder/old age a regret".(11+ product)

Sorry, friends123 I am very

Details of his schooling are sketchy. From the age of about six he was a day boy at a dame school in Islington that one of his biographers later described as "for those days a very high-class establishment." Two years later or so—the exact date has not been ascertained—he was sent as a boarder to the Rev John Potticary's school at Blackheath.

I wasn't aware that the 11+ existed in Disraeli's (1st Earl of Beaconsfield's) time.
The 11+ was introduced in 1944 and Disraeli died in 1881

Perhaps he took it posthumously.