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It's hard to argue then with the thesis of a TV programme, Posh and Posher Why Public Schoolboys Run Britain. It suggests that meritocracy and social mobility are dead in British political life, largely thanks to the collapse of grammar schools, a collapse supported by both Tory and Labour governments. The first post-grammar-school political generation has ended up being a public-school generation.

From 1964-97, every British Prime Minister, from Harold Wilson to John Major, was grammar-school educated

Lizzie M `s mention of her school made me realise how many Notts grammar schools have been destroyed. Look at the clowns in charge today. Nearly all Public School and Oxbridge.

I will never understand why Maggie T (herself `Grammar') allowed the closure to complete. I suppose it was too late to alter the advanced stage that had been put in motion by the previous Labour government.

Did not realise how many high flyers in Government had been educated in Nottingham.

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#50 VWGolf It's a sad fact that far too many members of the teaching profession believe dyslexia is an excuse for laziness. We had an uphill battle with teachers when our youngest son was at infants

Spell Checker! We like our Bab's how she is Thank you. Those who have met her know she is a lovely lady. And she's more than a match for those here. I was of a mind to remove those remarks, but ha

My brother and I both passed our 11plus with myself at a higher mark. However, my brother had a photographic memory which is useful when it comes to passing exams. I was a lazy sod at grammar school

But the majority, if not all of the well known local public figures of recent years, were educated at Nottingham High and Nottingham Girls High.

We were lucky enough to be able to afford to send our two sons to a public school (as day boys I hasten to add) but the education they received at great expense to us was the same as I got free at a Notts grammar school in the 60's. I feel very privileged to have had a grammar school education, because after all it was only down to one exam at the age of 11 that got me there. Maybe if I had not passed that exam I would have a different opinion on the comprehensive system that was introduced in the early 70's, but in my opinion that was the worst thing that any government of this country ever did for education. Even now my boys are in their 30's I still study the school league tables when they are published each year. The state schools consistently at the top of the pile are the grammar schools that remain in Buckinghamshire, but yes they are selective and cream off the best at age 11.

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Well said, LizzieM. I also enjoyed the benefits of a grammar school education in the late 50s-early 60s and consider myself lucky to have been part of a proper education system. The current system is slowly beginning to go back to the 3 Rs in this country but not before tremendous damage has been inflicted on the education levels of our young.

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My children all won scholarships to Nottingham boy/girls....all refused to go at the last minute in favour of the local comprehensive....all went to excellent universities and I now have 2 lawyers, 2 economists and an account , all with friends from all walks of life....

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...all with friends from all walks of life....

I like that!

I do think one of the greatest assets I gained from my education (Grammar School, Polytechnic) and early work experiences with the NCB is that I have friends from all walks of life, and have no inhibitions or problems with socializing and communicating with any of them. Among my friends locally, I can count a retired member of the "Joint Chiefs of Staff", and a cook in a local pizza joint!

The important thing is to learn (and remember) that everybody has a voice and deserves to be heard - provided they offer the same courtesy in return!

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My children all won scholarships to Nottingham boy/girls....all refused to go at the last minute in favour of the local comprehensive....all went to excellent universities and I now have 2 lawyers, 2 economists and an account , all with friends from all walks of life....

3 of my kids are failures as well Hippo girl. None of them got into anything useful like Engineering or Science except the 4th one. !!!!!!!!!!
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Not wishing to be personal,Hippo girl (just interested) .Were your 5 the result of x linked or y linked genetics (or both)

I know in my case intelligence it seems to have passed through the females !

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Ah explains a lot. If your kids passed the test to go to the High School,they must have been exceptionally bright, and with the help of a teacher in the family even attending comprehensive school would not have been too much of a hassle.

3 of my best friends and my wife failed the 11 + exam. All went on to have exceptional careers. Only 1 had a father that could send him to public school.

I attended the Nottingham Tech for my A levels. Whilst there I met quite a few others who failed 11+.

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It's called "dumbing down"...

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Just a note Maggie Thatcher went to KGGS in Grantham and coincidently it is one of the few remaining grammar schools still open for business!

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And on a further note....I went to a grammar school my elder brother to the sister secondary and my younger brother to the two combined as a comp. My elder brother actually got more grade one cse's than Either my younger brother or I got in equivalent 'o' levels, and he also set the record for the highest number of grade ones gained up to that year. So I wouldn't set store by which school you went to necessarily :-)

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as every one knows i was a secondary schoool girl myself from a minning background very working class i never paticularly liked school but went back to collage at 40 and starting obtaining some qualifacations but some of my nices and nephews have goneon to get university degrees one was one of the last to take the 11 plus and passed but in the second year the school became comprehensive she went on to gain her alevels and on to university she is now head of languages at a school in lincoln .her cousin who was one year younger went to the same schoolbut did not do very well in fact left before she was sixteen and became a unmarried mum just 2 weeks after her sixteenth birthday when she was in her thirtys decided she wanted to get some qualifacations whent back to collage and then on to uni got a 2.1 in sosioligy and then landed herself a good job .as hippo girl said not yourbackground that counts but your own hard work and asperations.

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I went to Forest Fields Grammar School and I'm proud of it. I blew all my O levels but through hard work and never being afraid to tackle any obstacle , I've had a rewarding varied career, financially and satisfaction wise. My three girls went to Fernwood and two run their own businesses and the other is in Educational Management. I think myself no better or worse than anyone else. However, I appreciate that I come over a bit snobby at times due to my education and having spent a lot of time living in Wollaton on and off (63 - 86).

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I went to Forest Fields Grammar School and I'm proud of it. I blew all my O levels but through hard work and never being afraid to tackle any obstacle , I've had a rewarding varied career, financially and satisfaction wise. My three girls went to Fernwood and two run their own businesses and the other is in Educational Management. I think myself no better or worse than anyone else. However, I appreciate that I come over a bit snobby at times due to my education and having spent a lot of time living in Wollaton on and off (63 - 86).

Dont get me wrong basfordred,ive mostly done ok,but regret not taking 11 plus,always think could have done better,and as the song goes "regrets ive had a few but then again too few to mention" :)

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"Life ain't what it seems on the boulevard of broken dreams" (Gregg Allman) we've all been there mate. Glad you're OK.

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I was too thick to pass my '11 plus' and too thick to take 'O' levels, so I left school before I turned 15 unable to read a newspaper.

And guess what? I'm still thick (but can read a newspaper). Then again the thickest person I ever met was a GP. He was just plain stupid.

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I was at Fairham Comp 61-66 (an all boys school at that time), having failed a "test" that I eventually came to realise was the 11+. Only one lad at my junior school (Greencroft) passed and went on to the High School. Several of the girls went on to Clifton Hall Grammar. At Fairham the first 3 classes of each year were referred to as the Grammar Stream, reflecting the fact, I suppose, that we were the "11+ near misses". There were 13 of us from Greencroft in the top class in the first year, so Mr Bailey must have been doing something right! I got 6 "O" levels, but due to family circumstances didn't go on to 6th form or Uni. Instead I did day-release at Peoples College and then the Nottingham Regional College of Technology (later Trent Poly) and ended up in 19'72 with HNC in Chemistry. Spent my working life in, or associated with, laboratories at PPPaynes, Raleigh, Severn Trent, Scottish & Newcastle, and finally Cussons (Gerrards) in New Basford. In all that time I was on the dole for a total of about 6 months after 3 redundancies - so not so bad for a compo lad.

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My brother and I both passed our 11plus with myself at a higher mark. However, my brother had a photographic memory which is useful when it comes to passing exams. I was a lazy sod at grammar school and only passed one O level (English Language). I got 2 more later. Like Basford Red I worked hard. But I support Grammar Schools and they should bring them back. Not for their snob value but for the fact that there are working class kids who are very clever and need the opportunities that Grammar Schools could give them. Two of my grandkids are in this category but have to put up with the disturbance in classes at their comprehensive at Basford. Our Dylan loves Science but he says that there are too many kids in his year that have no interest in learning and are determined to bring serious students down to their level. My 16 year old grand-daughter has worked hard and has been accepted at Bilborough College. She says it has been a rough journey not made any easier by the idiots who have done their best to try to discourage her.

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Totally agree, Bilbraborn. I came from a poor single-parent family, definitely a working-class kid - but I got the chance of a great grammar school education. I can't understand why the politicians think they're elitist - they were the only chance bright kids from poor familys got.

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I wasn't allowed to take the 11+, mam thought it a waste of time educating a girl! So Secondary Modern for me, but I loved it there, so no regrets about not going to grammar school. When it came to leaving at age 15, the head suggested I stay on another year. You can guess the outcome of that!

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as every one knows i was a secondary schoool girl myself from a minning background very working class i never paticularly liked school but went back to collage at 40 and starting obtaining some qualifacations but some of my nices and nephews have goneon to get university degrees one was one of the last to take the 11 plus and passed but in the second year the school became comprehensive she went on to gain her alevels and on to university she is now head of languages at a school in lincoln .her cousin who was one year younger went to the same schoolbut did not do very well in fact left before she was sixteen and became a unmarried mum just 2 weeks after her sixteenth birthday when she was in her thirtys decided she wanted to get some qualifacations whent back to collage and then on to uni got a 2.1 in sosioligy and then landed herself a good job .as hippo girl said not yourbackground that counts but your own hard work and asperations.

Perhaps a Grammar School education would have helped your dreadful spelling and grammatical errors. There is no excuse for it, you have a caps lock and spell check on your computer, use the bloody thing and don't be so lazy, I find your postings so pathetically put together I can't be bothered to take them seriously or even bother to read them anymore.

Perhaps you should put 'Your own hard work and asperations!!' into writing readable responses. Everyone else tries their best and we all make grammatical mistakes, but when you have a system that can correct everything for you, there is no excuse, think before you post, it's not hard!

Bilbraborn, as long as the country is ruled by a gang of Etonian privileged gits with their distant views of education relating to the 'Common Man' that they can't possibly understand, things will never change.

Our local school Tabor has now been made into a so called 'Academy', another get out clause by Cameron and his cronies. I'm a good friend of the head of technology there who despairs of what is going on, why, because the committee who run this school are closet Mormons and are secretly filling the kids education up with their Salt Lake City ideals, while trying to get rid of poor Bryan, who, despite his successful 30 years at the school, they see as a threat. They are about to have an OFSTED inspection and hopefully the shit will hit the fan if Bryan has anything to do with it.

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