[Archived] Education, Education, Education

[revolutionrock!]

Dunno. Ask my parents. They'd probably say the same. Irony is that I could have gone to Clitheroe GS, but didn't want to travel, so my parents said OK.

Just shut up.

You have way to much time on your hands.

[American]

No more posts on this thread about education please.

Wow, Den, where did you get your education? There should be a comma before please.

At least now we know why PM has such a big chip on his shoulder.

Anything further to our interest regarding Bradley? (I'll make a lame attempt to keep this on topic.)

[Paul Mellelieu]

Just shut up.

You have way to much time on your hands.

Too much time. (For once that's true).

And where are your manners?

[Paul Mellelieu]

Wow, Den, where did you get your education? There should be a comma before please.

At least now we know why PM has such a big chip on his shoulder.

Anything further to our interest regarding Bradley? (I'll make a lame attempt to keep this on topic.)

Not sure it needs a comma. but I won't take flak from some guy from Utah.

[Tris]

I was a boy of ten when decisions were taken about my secondary school.

Hopefully my father was against it on principle.

I'd offer you a spade and pick axe to make the hole bigger - but you found a JCB and are sunk beyond all trace.

[OhmiBRFC]

I went Queens Park High School so therefore I win, yeah.

[SouthAussieRover]

No more posts on this thread about education please.

If ,whoever created this thread from the Nicko thread, could tell us that they have done it, then things would be clearer.

[Darth Paul]

I'm no Elitist but QEGS just isn't the same school as it was 10 years ago, you just have to see the adverts for the next open night on the billboards around town - scruffiest set of no hoper puplis I have ever seen in that picture. Not saying it is right but I left in 1998 and there is no way a picture would have been allowed to go out showing the school like that. Before anyone starts I am not some upper class/middle class toff with daft standards and a rich family (I got a free place on account of my superior intelligence!) and the school is entitled to go in any direction it wants, doesn't bother me at all, but other ex puplis will probably know what I mean...

[Flopsy]

I'm no Elitist but QEGS just isn't the same school as it was 10 years ago, you just have to see the adverts for the next open night on the billboards around town - scruffiest set of no hoper puplis I have ever seen in that picture. Not saying it is right but I left in 1998 and there is no way a picture would have been allowed to go out showing the school like that. Before anyone starts I am not some upper class/middle class toff with daft standards and a rich family (I got a free place on account of my superior intelligence!) and the school is entitled to go in any direction it wants, doesn't bother me at all, but other ex puplis will probably know what I mean...

I left in 1997, I blame allowing Girls in, always trouble.

The new headmaster might change things.

[BuckyRover]

Dunno. Ask my parents. They'd probably say the same. Irony is that I could have gone to Clitheroe GS, but didn't want to travel, so my parents said OK.

If only your parents had done a bit of research into the free places and pushed you a little bit.

By getting in free you would have benefitted from the rich kids paying their fees.

Maybe you could have become a doctor or something.

P.s. Surely if they offered free places they would be taking ability OVER wealth.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

If you look in PM profile, he lists communism as one of his interests. This is obviously the reason for his inverted snobbery and his overall agenda against meritocratic and fee paying educational systems.

Im afraid a ‘communist style’ education system simply doesn’t work. Its basic principles are lovely and all but have been proved that at an ‘operational level’ they are ultimately flawed. They tend to stifle innovation and entrepreneurship whilst holding back the best students from reaching their maximum potential.

As for your education holding you back, that’s absolute rubbish: I went to a comprehensive ( a very good one mind: with over 70% pass rate at 5 GSCE A-C) and it certainly hasn’t held me back both in terms of higher education and in the workplace.

[bellamy11]

I'm no Elitist but QEGS just isn't the same school as it was 10 years ago, you just have to see the adverts for the next open night on the billboards around town - scruffiest set of no hoper puplis I have ever seen in that picture. Not saying it is right but I left in 1998 and there is no way a picture would have been allowed to go out showing the school like that. Before anyone starts I am not some upper class/middle class toff with daft standards and a rich family (I got a free place on account of my superior intelligence!) and the school is entitled to go in any direction it wants, doesn't bother me at all, but other ex puplis will probably know what I mean...

It's no coincidence that the place has become worse since they did away with assisted places.

[Shabani]

i dont know how QEGS is allowed to be called a grammar school, the test to get in is ridiculously easy according to friends

i went to a proper grammar school in Clitheroe and got a miles better education for free, as long as we still have grammar schools there is hope for all

[Paul Mellelieu]

If only your parents had done a bit of research into the free places and pushed you a little bit.

By getting in free you would have benefitted from the rich kids paying their fees.

Maybe you could have become a doctor or something.

P.s. Surely if they offered free places they would be taking ability OVER wealth.

Who said I'm not a doctor?

And please don't say a single word about my parents.

[Paul Mellelieu]

If you look in PM profile, he lists communism as one of his interests. This is obviously the reason for his inverted snobbery and his overall agenda against meritocratic and fee paying educational systems.

Im afraid a ‘communist style’ education system simply doesn’t work. Its basic principles are lovely and all but have been proved that at an ‘operational level’ they are ultimately flawed. They tend to stifle innovation and entrepreneurship whilst holding back the best students from reaching their maximum potential.

As for your education holding you back, that’s absolute rubbish: I went to a comprehensive ( a very good one mind: with over 70% pass rate at 5 GSCE A-C) and it certainly hasn’t held me back both in terms of higher education and in the workplace.

Meritocratic and fee paying. Please explain.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Meritocratic and fee paying. Please explain.

Grammer (Meritocratic) & Private (fee paying) its quite simple

[colin]

Grammer (Meritocratic) & Private (fee paying) its quite simple

You've done that on purpose haven't you?

[rog of the rovers]

I think you'd be suprised how many people on the board have QEGS connections.

The system may be at fault, but haven't these debates been raging for half a century now?

[Manchester Blue]

You've done that on purpose haven't you?

It would be very funny if he had done. Sadly he clearly hasn't done.

[philipl]

The sad fact is that QEGS has always had a poor track record in terms of what it produces from the quality of the raw material that goes in. Its value add is low and has been arguably ever since Kemball-Cook ceased to be Headmaster in the mid-60s.

The introduction of league tables has only served to highlight this reality which is another significant factor in the town's decline. Nobody looking for a top day school is ever going to come to Blackburn in the basis of QEGS whilst many of the town's brightest and most advantaged children are let down by the school.

I am not writing on the basis of personal experience- I was OK- but looking at it dispassionately. QEGS is out-performed by the majority of the schools it would regard as its direct competition.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Grammer (Meritocratic) & Private (fee paying) its quite simple

Read this slowly. If entrance is based on ability to pay, then it's not meritocratic.

[jim mk2]

The blame culture is alive and well on this thread with many cases here of people blaming QEGS for their own failures.

QEGS was (and is) a wonderful school if you make the most of everything it has to offer. It's all down to you.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Read this slowly. If entrance is based on ability to pay, then it's not meritocratic.

A grammar school is based on ability

Private education is something different. If you read my original post, I stated that our system is based on a synthesis of meritocracy (grammar) and a capitalist method- the ability to pay fees (Private).

For everyone else there are comprehensives, but you I assume would like to abolish the choice of the first two school types? In favour of a totalitarian, talent stifling system.

[SouthAussieRover]

The blame culture is alive and well on this thread with many cases here of people blaming QEGS for their own failures.

QEGS was (and is) a wonderful school if you make the most of everything it has to offer. It's all down to you.

Said the Murdoch employee.

Whatever your educational background life doesn't always deal you a fair hand.

[blue phil]

Most comprehensives don't "fail", but don't let the facts get in the way of a rather thick slice of prejudice.

Just explain to me why, because my Dad was a taxi driver, and my mum a phone operator, that I -and thousands of other working class kids from the area - got a second class education. It stinks.

Most comprehensives don't fail , that's probably true ...........but you can be damn sure that the ones that do are in the cities and the others that succeed are in areas where the parents are in effect "paying" for their kids' good education through their mortgages .

So what's the difference ? Someone paying the school directly - or those who pay by moving to an area where they know the school is good ? Not much IMO .

The danger is if you remove fee paying schools and selection schools you just end up lowering standards at the top and do nothing to address the massive problems at the bottom . It's pure envy dressed up as a warped ideological theory .

At the end of the day there's nothing to stop you now if you want to improve your "second class " education . What can you not learn now that the teachers didn't tell you then ?