Van Peebles Land: The scandal of Education makes good points:
The real scandal in British education is not that a handful of ancient institutions continue to out-perform nearly all comprehensives. It is the gross hypocrisy in politicians pretending the state system offers equality of opportunity.
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The premium on house prices in the catchment area of a school which turns out A-grade pupils is often more than the fees charged by private day schools. Parents outside the highest earning professional classes cannot buy into these neighbourhoods. This raises the question: Which is the worst example of discrimination – to deny a pupil admission to the top performing school because they lack academic ability or because their parents cannot afford to buy an expensive house?
We live where the Church sent us and our children go to the nearest state school. Fortunately for us the last inspection of Manor School and Sports College said "This is a good school with some outstanding features".
In my experience some schools benefit from a good reputation that maintains itself. When there is a good reputation parents fight so hard to get the kids into the school that the school gets very committed parents determined that their children will prove they made the right choice. At that point the results do not depend so much on the teaching but on the parents drive.
Oh and I would like to emphasise the difference in quality of lifestyle and education it makes for your children to be able to walk to school. They get so many more opportunities for after school activities. Homework is easier if you have not got a long journey to/from school. It also costs a great deal less! Especially if they play a lot of sport (few schools seem to have late bus options, so with 2 boys between them doing late sports about 4 days a week we would have to drive them home 4 days a week).
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