| Topic: | Re:Re:Re::Re:Other local secondaries - C | |
| Posted by: | Tom Pike | |
| Date/Time: | 03/11/05 23:19:00 |
| As a parent of children who will over the next few years be entering secondary school in this area I have looked over the league tables. I’ve also pored over detailed breakdowns such as the exact A-level grades achieved (see e.g. http://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk) and of course the Ofsted reports. I have also talked to quite a few parents who have or had children in secondary education here. Chiswick Community School appears on average to be a pretty-average performing school (bog-standard comprehensive?). It is also an oversubscribed school that supplies students to the most highly ranked universities in the country. The seeming contradiction is consistent with its intake from a much larger (and generally more socially deprived) catchment area than Chiswick but with a fair proportion of children coming from professional families in Chiswick (and some beyond). All the other secondary schools in this area are selective, either by religion (state) or ability/parental income (independent). This does tend to cream off the children of many well-motivated parents who either have a genuine religious commitment, have the money to pay for the fees, or read the league tables and play the system. This means that Chiswick Community School is actually not representative of its immediate community. But here is the irony. If it were representative, it would be a selective school - on being able to afford to live in its W4 catchment area. I know some of you will see no problem with selection by postcode. However, I have seen first hand in the States how the public school system in the cities has been shredded by their financially divisive school districting system, and the resulting social fragmentation to which it contributes. I think it is important that Chiswick has a non-religious state option where my (and other) kids will have the opportunity of a good education. Chiswick Community School, I know from example, has provided it. But I am concerned that if it doesn’t maintain the support of a critical mass of local parents there will be a vicious cycle of falling achievement at both entry and exit. On the other hand, given that there will always be a reasonable proportion of locals who will have the wherewithal to buy a heavily resourced education for their kids, or prefer a faith-based school, I doubt that Chiswick Community School is in any imminent danger of changing to selection by W4 postcode. There has previously been many supportive comments by past and present parents about Chiswick Community School on this forum. It would be good to hear some comments to put against the recent descriptions of “trainwreck” and “uniformly bad standard of education” applied to the school/sector, though such comments would bring a wry smile to the exCCSers currently studying at Oxford and Cambridge. |