JULIE Hardern’s personal experiences of grammar schools (Messenger, September 29), while interesting, are not a good basis for deciding whether selecting children into different schools at 11 works well.
Alternative experiences are just as valid, including those who have been seriously damaged by the experience of failing selection exams.
Julie Hardern may not have been tutored for the exam, but many are or go to fee-paying primary schools in order to get an advantage. And private secondary schools attract more students, because parents who can afford it send their children to them rather than to a non-grammar school. They know that education in such schools is poorer than in a comprehensive system.
Areas with selective schools have wider gaps in attainment between richer and poorer children and the average student does no better. Social mobility is also lower. Most education authorities realised many years ago that selection does not work for the benefit of all students and it’s about time that Trafford followed suit.
Martin Wright Sale
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