Lessons from Grammar School: The Real Pros and Cons
🕒 Read time: 7 mins
I joined a boys grammar school in Birmingham in 2018 and spent seven years at that school. In this time, I made lifelong friends, enjoyed my studies and developed a good idea of what I wanted to be in the future and what my life goals are. However, I still remember my first day at school where I knew nobody and was worried my class would be full of 11-year-old Albert Einsteins and Isaac Newtons and my head was full of all the common misconceptions about grammar schools.
How different are the students at a grammar school?
One of my biggest worries before joining my school was that everyone there would be both child prodigies and stuck up meaning I would find it hard to find my people, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Of course as with many schools there were people there from higher income families who would travel upwards of 25 miles (a 1 hour commute on a good day), but from what I have heard from my mother who is a teacher at a normal school there is not too much of a difference between the pupils only that behaviour was a little bit better than at her school, because the students at my school had to work for a place and had a bit more to risk and we realised that. But we still played football in the corridors, had our childish fights and refused to do our homework on time. And while I knew nobody on my first day, by the end of the week I found myself in a great friendship group that I have stayed with ever since.
My experience with the 11+
The 11+ is unlike any test I have ever done, from what I remember of it, it has some similarities to an IQ test, more about pattern recognition rather than anything else I studied in school before that. I did have 6 months of tutoring leading up to the exam and it did thoroughly help get me used to the format and what to expect. Not to say that it’s impossible to pass without tutoring, it was just good for me to know what I was walking into. I do believe that some parents put too much pressure on their children to do well in the 11+, some of my classmates had been in tutoring for 2 or more years to pass the 11+ and this is at an age where children are heavily influenced by their parents and some of my friends had resentment towards their parents for the hours they spent revising for a test that they did not want to take, to go to a school that is just too far for them. It is important to know that your child should only do the 11+ if they want to and to not apply too much pressure on the situation, as they are still very young.
My Grammar School Education
In terms of academics, I have always been mathematically focussed, finding pleasure in the right and wrong in maths and a displeasure in the loose laws of English and essay writing. But one of the things I am most grateful for at my old school was that there was such a variety in the curriculum. This allowed me to find interests which I would not have found maybe at other schools. Being exposed to lessons such as German, History and even Astronomy in the younger years inspired me to take them for my GCSEs and Creative Writing lessons alongside our English lessons showed me ways of expressing myself through writing and made me enjoy reading more than I ever have in my life. This may come as a surprise, because the stereotype is that grammar schools push STEM subjects to only produce engineers or doctors, but, in reality, all subjects are pushed equally and you are taught to go into whichever subjects you have the most passion for. Another slight difference between grammar and comprehensive schools is that I found the general atmosphere at my school was that of slight competition, because everyone is of a closer ability to each other, every lesson, every test, there is a slight pressure to perform better than your classmates (mainly put on by yourself). This was a helpful for me and helped me thrive, however for some it was more destructive than useful.
The Sporting Opportunities
One of the biggest shocks to me was the sport that they offered at my school. The great sport selection seems to be one of the bigger differences from grammar and comprehensive school in my area, as most of the other schools barely had space for a playground, whereas we were never short of space on our fields (these were shared with a girl’s grammar school that was physically attached to my school but was separately managed). In the winter and spring, we would do rugby (when I first heard this I was very disappointed having been a massive footballer my entire life up to that point), swimming or hockey and in summer it was either the traditional athletics options or cricket – to my knowledge this is quite similar to most other grammar schools, especially with rugby and cricket, as the only matches we got to play for those were against other grammar or private schools in the area. Despite my original complaints about the sporting priorities, I played rugby for the whole seven years I was at the school and away trips on the coach were some of my best memories at the school and being part of that team was ignited my love for the sport (despite how bad we were at times).
Sixth Form
My School had a sixth form attached to it and my year was the last that there were no requirements to get in if you went to the school before, so pretty much the whole year stayed on to the sixth form. I think this made the new people who joined from other schools find it more difficult to integrate, as friend groups had already been formed in the common room it was mainly groups of people that knew each other before sixth form and groups of people who knew nobody else with not a lot of integration between groups. However, in the following few years where less students form my school got back into, there did seem to be more mixing between students not completely fixed but it seemed better than in my year. This is not specific to grammar school sixth forms, I think it is just something to bear in mind when applying to sixth forms and it is a big advantage for sixth form colleges rather than sixth forms attached to schools.
Summary
I believe it was the right choice for me to go to a grammar school, as even from the start I have always been slightly more academically inclined and competitive than my peers and if you think that you or your child is like that then I would definitely agree that a grammar school could be the right choice for them, but only if they want to and have the motivation to put in slightly more work than at another school. Otherwise, you might find the higher pressure overwhelming and then it would not be a good fit.
Overall, my experience at a grammar school was a wholly positive one, going to one taught me that my interests and passions are both things that I should spend time to invest in and explore to a deeper level. I was encouraged to never back down from a challenge and apply myself in ways which I do not think I would have been able to if I went to a comprehensive school (such as competing in both the physics and chemistry Olympiads). I gained a confidence in my work and myself from my school, because I enjoyed the general attitude everyone had there – especially in the later stages of my school life.
Malachi is a dedicated Maths and Science tutor currently on a gap year with an offer to study Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. As a Tutor and Content Writer for Learn Science Together, he combines his strong STEM background with a passion for helping students succeed. Having achieved A* grades in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics at A Level, Malachi writes engaging articles that aim to inspire confidence, curiosity, and ambition in young learners pursuing science and mathematics.
