• Those glorying in the likely establishment of England’s newest grammar school and claiming it will engender social mobility need to be reminded of some uncomfortable facts (Cameron under fire as he allows first new grammar school in 50 years,15 October). One such is the fate of those pupils placed in lower streams on entry. Judging from my own grammar school experience and that of many others, such lower stream pupils are too often written off by their “brighter” A-stream contemporaries, and by at least some teachers and,worst of all, by themselves. Many “underperform”. And, or of course,it is working-course kids who are disproportionately represented in the lower streams. Is there any reason to believe this will change with the establishment of the new grammar school in Kent and of the others likely to follow if this retrograde policy is allowed to proceed?
Professor Colin Richards
Spark Bridge, Cumbria • I suffered a secondary contemporary education. The standard of teaching was abysmal and expectation for the pupils zero. On leaving, and no one had any expectation of going to university. Though I was not the brightest,I got lucky and studied BSc physics (via an ONC qualification thanks to the local tech). For every working-course kid who got into grammar school four others were condemned to be warehoused until they could recede to work at 15. No child deserves this.
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Source: theguardian.com