YP Letters: Grammar schools add to variety we can offer our children

Exam season has prompted a new debate about grammar schools.

DO grammar schools mean “poorer schools for most” as suggested by Geoffrey Bryant (The Yorkshire Post, August 24)? Not in the experience of my son’s family, who live in an area where grammar schools still exist.

My grandson, 15 and very bright, attends a grammar school which is high achieving, and where he is stretched academically and enjoys varied sport.

My granddaughter, aged 13 and dyslexic, attends the comprehensive school which, with more modest expectations in the field of exam results, has time to take trouble with pupils who may be struggling.

With their support she is doing very well, to the joy of her dyslexic mother who was written off as thick as a teenager.

Children are not the same, even from the same family, and to put them all into the same school was never going to work. The more variety we can have, the more likely children are to find the right school to meet their needs.

From: LR Hirst, Northorpe, Mirfield.

I AGREE with Dylan Jardine (The Yorkshire Post, August 15) regarding the success of grammar schools in aiding children of modest backgrounds in achieving a better start in life.

To prove what I say, my nephew attended Dewsbury Wheelwright Grammar and his father was a school caretaker but he achieved the position of chairman of IBM in later life. Also my daughter went to Mirfield Free Grammar School and achieved her qualification in estate management. I am one of five boys and three girls, my father was a working man and his belief about children’s education was that some are born to be workers and tradesmen, others are born to be academics.

He made sure we all had trades because if you learned a trade you would always make a living.

The trouble with education is governments and councils have interfered with it over the years. What a difference since we had primary secondary modern technical schools, grammar schools and universities.

From: Adam Thomas, Menston, Leeds.

CAN politics be taken out of education so the parties work together to decide what is best for our children rather than the tribalism we get at Westminster. Constant political bickering is one reason so many teachers are taking early retirement. We need to cherish them.