YP Letters: Grammar schools were one part of a more flexible system

MAY I comment on R Maister’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, August 27)? Having just returned from holiday, I have missed any previous correspondence on this so please excuse me if I state the obvious. However, as an eleven-plus failure, and thirteen-plus success, and later a teacher in secondary modern and grammar schools (with some slight experience of primary teaching), I do believe that I can write with some authority on the subject.

It must be remembered that grammar schools were one component of a tripartite systems, comprising grammar, technical and secondary modern schools.

The selection for grammar schools was initially the eleven-plus exam, but what opponents (often deliberately) omit to mention is that secondary modern pupils who showed promise were entered for grammar school entry exams at several points during their school careers. Indeed, there was even direct entry to sixth form for promising students, without the need for examination.

The technical college entry examination was taken during the second year at secondary modern school, while candidates for other careers such as nursing were also examined there, but somewhat later in their careers.

The system was not foolproof, as shown by the number of ex-secondary modern pupils obtaining Open University degrees, but it worked at least as well as the current one, and probably better where it was fully implemented.

From: Nigel Bywater, Oak Grove, Morley, Leeds.

MY daughter got very good GCSE results and your editorial (The Yorkshire Post, August 26) was positive about children meeting the Government’s benchmark and broadly in line with previous years.

Then why did the BBC run a story saying that GCSE results in England have shown the biggest ever year-on-year decline, down to the lowest level since 2008? Was the record decrease in GCSE results a consequence of more and more academies and free schools, clearly a negative outcome for the policies of Michael Gove?

There are some changes to exam grades, which will not show in the results until next year, so why the record downturn in results?

In Scotland, where there are no academies, they had the second highest number of higher passes this year. Scotland is the best-educated country in Europe, according to a report released in 2014 by the Office for National Statistics.