Social mobility and grammar schools

I think academic ability is often due to the ratio of teachers to pupils, though.

I was a grammar school girl and got a good education though like most of my age did not go on to higher education. My children passed the "London Reading Test" at Band 1, equivalent to passing the 11+ but there were no good schools to go to. Instead they had to attend a comprehensive with mixed ability classes, reading children's books at 14 and repeating primary school maths so they had little chance of higher education and a good career. I strongly believe grammar schools should be available to those with the appropriate academic ability and it is not elitist to want bright to be educated to their ability.

I grew up in a midlands mining village Tricia and went to GS in 1948. It was one of the best things that happened to me. I learnt so much more than just academic subjects. My horizons were stretched and I became socially aware. I also had no choice about leaving at 16 as my F died in my first year at the school but I am so glad I had that chance. I have never thought comprehensives fulfilled the hope of levelling education and providing the same for all.

I went to GS in South Wales, as did both my parents. Everyone was poor, and everyone got a crack at the 11+. Obviously no-one was tutored; there was no money.

As far as I can see, the GS system now only caters for those with money to tutor, who can afford to live in GS catchments. So not a level playing field.

I grew up in a NE coalmining town, started GS in 1947. Nearly all the others who passed were from working class families, miners, shipbuilding workers.
We all did well, but most had to leave at 16 and go to work to support the family. No higher education.

I was trying once to convince a bright working-class white student to become a doctor, because it was what she wanted. She said she would be a nurse because doctors are middle-class and she would become alienated from her family if she became a doctor.
Interestingly, Asian young people have no such cultural problem ,as, generally speakingtheir parents are more ambitious for them. Likewise the Eastern Europeans being educated here.
So yes, the places for grammar schools will be taken by ambitious immigrants and our own middle-class who can pay for prep schools or coaching to gain entrance.

I think as far as I can work out what happens in Kent. There was a local television report about how the middle class parents paid for their children to be crammed for the exams. Something other parents simply can't afford. In fact some of the parents who paid would normally have sent their children to be privately educated but have been priced out of the market.