@petef1 I meant no disrespect and at the time, it did had a rep of being a bad school. That was the view from the outside, I never went into the school so I have no idea what school life was like inside it. But I’m glad that it’s now one of the schools on the up.
Everyone’s edication experience is different, some went to grammar, some went private, some went to a “good” secondary and some went to a “bad” secondary. But everyone sat the same exams & taught us things that we have continued to develop / learn throughout of lives
@Otter87 no disrespect taken. It did have a bad rep, some true, some false. You learned to look after yourself, that was certainly the case, but I don’t think it was anymore than any other secondary school.
My brother went to John Hampden and he experienced some challenges there, so tough life wasn’t just reserved for the comprehensive schools.
Had some good memories - and some bad ones. Double Maths on a Tuesday and Thursday still haunts me
Surely as Buckinghamshire has selective entrance to grammar schools, so if you don’t pass the 11+ (or 12+ depending on era) you are selected for a secondary modern school.
Yes, this is a basic and common mistake. Under the selective form of educational apartheid children are separated into sheep and goats ar the age of 11 (was 12 when middle schools existed). Approx 25% of those who achieve the highest marks are offered places at the grammar schools, the rest went/go to what were known under the 1944 education act as ‘Secondary Moderns’, like my own school, Wellesbourne (RIP). The term comprehensive referred to schools that took pupils of all ability, following the closure of the former grammar schools in most of the country. Therefore, comprehensive schools by definition can’t exist in areas like High Wycombe, which retain selection. End of.
It’s not ‘end of’; you’re wrong. I failed my 12+. The majority of my middle school mates who failed (and we went to Lansdowne Middle) went to Great Marlow. I was sent to Cressex as it was local and my mother was not prepared to pay for my travel. My best friend, she went to Great Marlow and she attended Booker Hill. One of my fellow students ended up going to William Ramsay. The COMPREHENSIVE school options were open and very much sought after by parents. NO ONE wanted to go to Cressex and many applied from our area to others and went through no problem.
I’m 66, and attended school in High Wycombe, so remember very well what it was like in the 1960’s.
I maintain that Buckinghamshire did not and does not have truly Comprehensive Schools since they cannot by virtue of having selective Grammar Schools for the top ~22%.
Granted Buckinghamshire Council now refer to all-ability schools - note not Comprehensive - on their own website along with Grammar Schools. This is just modern branding as it’s no longer politically correct to tell a child they have “failed” the 11+.
FWIW there was certainly a lot of very good data to show that those on the 11+ pass/fail borderline achieve much better academic results by being a high flyer at a Secondary Modern School than by going to a Grammar School, where they would be considered a low ability pupil.
I experienced an even more extreme version of this, as my parents briefly sent me to a private school in Oxford. I’m sure this admission will open me up to some pelters in future but I’m quite looking forward to it.
I really didn’t get on with the private system, and was back in a state comprehensive within a couple of years. I went from feeling like an underachieving idiot most days, to realising I was actually reasonably smart.
The quality of teaching, the friends I made, the self-esteem I was sent out into the world with, and generally the person I was shaped into was far superior at the comp.
Your child’s education isn’t going to be purely defined by the reputation of the school they get into. Small classroom sizes aren’t everything . Some of the kids at the private school ended up being deeply dysfunctional and unsuccessful adults.
100% spot on. @petefl by all means keep telling yourself that there are ‘comprehensive’ schools in High Wycombe. But as others and I have pointed out, there really aren’t. I appreciate this isn’t much use to the original poster from Hillingdon seeking advice on secondary schools in Wycombe, but my advice would have been to avoid the education system there. My wife and I moved away to avoid our children having to go through the 11+ system. The only pupils who ‘pass’ are those who are born with a high IQ, or as in the majority of cases, those who are hothoused and tutored within an inch of their lives, to pass. We opted out of that game, thankfully.
Were looked all over for a new house, away from Bucks, seriously considered Thame, or Bedfordshire. But with family here we decided to settle and hope for the best, I have nieces and nephew at PR school and they’ve been fine.
I dont like the grammer school system though, but when my daughter is old enough will try and push her through it, if possible, to not get in this situation with the school offered.
I suspect that Buckinghamshire is not alone in having a range of good, bad and indifferent schools. Some will be on the up and others deteriorating, some have good commited teachers and students and others not.
Everyone’s school education is their own responsibility. Shame it comes at a period in life when few are able to realise that.
