Old Police HQ Headquarters in Baswich

db · Oct 18, 2015

1JKz said:
Who needs a front garden anyway?!

i know you say you're...

1JKz said:
...being ironic...

but i've often asked what are the point of front gardens.. you can hardly sunbathe in them, or have a BBQ, or sit and have a beer while reading the paper, etc.. a front garden is just a pointless patch of grass that is one more thing to have to tend to!

tek-monkey · Oct 18, 2015

db said:
i know you say you're...

but i've often asked what are the point of front gardens.. you can hardly sunbathe in them, or have a BBQ, or sit and have a beer while reading the paper, etc.. a front garden is just a pointless patch of grass that is one more thing to have to tend to!

My front garden is tarmac and fits 2 cars, not that I have one but prefer the idea of having parking spaces and not needing them to the alternative.

Lucy · Oct 18, 2015

We don't have a front garden, and living in a village I think that's a disadvantage...

Gramaisc · Oct 18, 2015

db said:
but i've often asked what are the point of front gardens.. you can hardly sunbathe in them, or have a BBQ, or sit and have a beer while reading the paper, etc.. a front garden is just a pointless patch of grass that is one more thing to have to tend to!

Forget the front lawn - have a swimming pool.

Goldilox · Oct 19, 2015

db said:
but i've often asked what are the point of front gardens.. you can hardly sunbathe in them, or have a BBQ, or sit and have a beer while reading the paper, etc.. a front garden is just a pointless patch of grass that is one more thing to have to tend to!

I'm certainly no lover of tending plants, but having lived with & without a front garden I definitely prefer to have one - it's amazing how just a few feet of grass/patio/whatever stops people from peering into your living room as they pass.

1JKz · Oct 19, 2015

db said:
i know you say you're...

but i've often asked what are the point of front gardens.. you can hardly sunbathe in them, or have a BBQ, or sit and have a beer while reading the paper, etc.. a front garden is just a pointless patch of grass that is one more thing to have to tend to!

I see it as being dutiful to nature.

Carole · Oct 19, 2015

tek-monkey said:
I believe it trades on it prior reputation nowadays, not that any of the others are any better.

proactive said:
It's all hype that the gullible, or just plain ignorant seem to lap up.
.

I dont think that I am either gullible or plain ignorant.
Indeed I based my comments on facts.

According to the League Tables published in Jan 2015 for GCSE results the following schools achieved (as a percentage) pupils obtaining at least 5 or more GCSEs with grades fron C - A+ including English and Maths

Stafford Sports College 37%
King Edward High School 39%
Blessed William Howard 53%
Weston Road Academy 55%
Graham Balfour 64%
Walton High School 81%
Stafford Grammar 93%

So I stand by my comment that a reason for moving to the Walton/Baswich/Wildwood area may be because of wanting the children to go to a good school.
Unless I have missed something, where, without going private, is there a better school than Walton?

Lucy · Oct 19, 2015

I went to SSC (Rising Brook as it was then), and I'd completely agree with kyoto's points; it's about the social demographic of the area. There is a lot of social deprivation within the catchment area, and unfortunately in a lot of cases that leads to underachievement as education isn't always the most important thing in family life (of course there are lots of cases where it is). I did well though, and that's not in spite of the teaching, that's because I was brought up to try my best. My siblings also went there (although a decade before me), and they both have good jobs. League tables should never ever be looked without context. I would imagine if you indexed that based on social demographic it would look a lot different.

Floss · Oct 19, 2015

Schools may be good on paper but do they suffer any less bullying incidents? if a child comes from a good supportive home where the parents urge them to do well, whether they live in social housing or a five bed detached, they will succeed. There are also children who believe that it doesn't matter what grades they get because they will just get money from mum and dad, or they'll just get a job anyway in the family business. At the end of the day if a child really wants to do well, they will.

proactive · Oct 19, 2015

Carole said:
I dont think that I am either gullible or plain ignorant.
Indeed I based my comments on facts.

According to the League Tables published in Jan 2015 for GCSE results the following schools achieved (as a percentage) pupils obtaining at least 5 or more GCSEs with grades fron C - A+ including English and Maths

Stafford Sports College 37%
King Edward High School 39%
Blessed William Howard 53%
Weston Road Academy 55%
Graham Balfour 64%
Walton High School 81%
Stafford Grammar 93%

So I stand by my comment that a reason for moving to the Walton/Baswich/Wildwood area may be because of wanting the children to go to a good school.
Unless I have missed something, where, without going private, is there a better school than Walton?

1 League tables aren't everything.
2 I was referring to the attitude in the area generally about living in the Walton catchment area and not about you specifically or anyone else on this thread.
3 get off your high horse.

Gramaisc · Oct 19, 2015

A somebody that went to ten schools, my opinion is that there can be an element of truth in both sides - there are, or were, really poor schools around - going to a 'good*' school can have a beneficial effect, but there can also be an element of the same sort of mentality as deciding to support Man Utd as a way of increasing your success in the football world.

I would also, as I always do at this point, say that relying on schools for your education is not a good idea.

* if it really is good and not just benefiting from having better pupils.

Carole · Oct 19, 2015

proactive said:
1 League tables aren't everything.

3 get off your high horse.

Why is me having an opinion being on my high horse? Name calling or just plain rudeness is not condusive to open debate. In fact I think that comment says more about you than it does about me.

League tables are not everything I agree.

But hypothetically speaking, if one wanted the best possible education for your child and one couldnt go private, which school in Stafford would you choose to send them to?

proactive · Oct 19, 2015

Carole said:
Why is me having an opinion being on my high horse? Name calling or just plain rudeness is not condusive to open debate. In fact I think that comment says more about you than it does about me.

League tables are not everything I agree.

But hypothetically speaking, if one wanted the best possible education for your child and one couldnt go private, which school in Stafford would you choose to send them to?

Name calling?

If one wanted the best education then one would choose either Adams Grammar or NGHS. However, as @Gramaisc rightly points out, relying on a school for education is not necessarily to be recommended.

Gramaisc · Oct 19, 2015

My secondary schools, rated by me.

1 Comprehensive with around 2,000 pupils. Best, by far - the only one really worth attending.

2 Grammar school in the process of going comprehensive.

3 Grammar school in Lincolnshire town - bit weird.

4 Grammar school in Hampshire town - super-posh, sterling silver cap badge, founded by Henry VIII, more like a mental institution than a school, but very highly regarded (by outsiders).

Goldilox · Oct 19, 2015

Carole said:
League tables are not everything I agree.

But hypothetically speaking, if one wanted the best possible education for your child and one couldn't go private, which school in Stafford would you choose to send them to?

There is a 'value added' measure on the league tables which compares how the pupils score in their GCSEs vs. how they were expected to do from tests in their last year of primary school. Graham Balfour scores the highest for general pupils & Walton for 'disadvantaged' pupils (whether that means economically disadvantaged or special-educational-needs disadvantaged I'm not sure).

All of the schools in Stafford are below the national average, although I would imagine it's possible that is because we have better than average primary schools?

Carole · Oct 19, 2015

proactive said:
Name calling?

However, as @Gramaisc rightly points out, relying on a school for education is not necessarily to be recommended.

You both say that relying on a school for education is not recommended.
So how would one achieve exam results...or is that not reccomended either?

So how would a person attend a university without good exam results?
By saying they went to the "school of hard knocks?"

I believe @proactive that you are being deliberately provocative and obtuse because you love to get a reaction, you enjoy winding people up and mostly you appear to enjoy being argumentative.
When people disagree you start with the rudeness. Nice.

I may have got you wrong, but its how you come across. Sometimes.

proactive · Oct 19, 2015

Carole said:
You both say that relying on a school for education is not recommended.
So how would one achieve exam results...or is that not reccomended either?

So how would a person attend a university without good exam results?
By saying they went to the "school of hard knocks?"

I believe @proactive that you are being deliberately provocative and obtuse because you love to get a reaction, you enjoy winding people up and mostly you appear to enjoy being argumentative.
When people disagree you start with the rudeness. Nice.

I may have got you wrong, but its how you come across. Sometimes.

I am neither being provocative or obtuse. I simply hold a different opinion to you.

Is that allowed?

Schools teach you about the academic side of life, how to read/write, understand maths, learn a language and understand where we have been and how that should influence where we are going. Provided that a school is doing its job. An education is more than just that though. It's about common sense, managing people and expectations, knowing how to have fun and being able to accept that people have different opinions and sometimes there is no right or wrong answer, about being able to think outside the box.

Apart from not liking your attitude when you replied earlier because for some reason you seemed to assume my post had been aimed at you personally, hence my high horse comment, I don't believe that I am being rude.

Gramaisc · Oct 19, 2015

Exams are part of the problem, they are, at best, a very poor and simplistic measure. I wonder why people even bother taking note of them - but they do, so, people have to go along with it, even though few people really believe that the results are really predictive of anything useful.

"I'm not here to educate you, I'm here to help you pass the exam.", as one of the few teachers whose name I can remember once said.

One feature of the school that I regard as the best that I went to was that we finished at 1pm and could then go out and learn real stuff. My abiding memory of school is endless tedium and doing what we did yesterday - again.

Wormella · Oct 19, 2015

I'd happily get rid of league tables and standardized testing if I could. What's a good school for one kid of a bad school for another - the same with teachers, the same with facilities - the same with everything. Things change so quickly and formalised education is not the be all and end all of a child's ability or worth. Choices available are constrained by what schools offer at any given point.There are so many factors that league tables and gcse results are such blunt metrics that really they should be ignored.

I don't think there are any 'bad schools' in Stafford, I've certainly met lovely bright pupils from all of them (and uninterested horrors too) - I do a lot of work with school children all around the county - at varying ages - and the same thing is played out in all of them. Schools alone do not educate a child, family and the home play such a large part, from an early age, that is often not recognised until it's too late.

db · Oct 19, 2015

Goldilox said:
I'm certainly no lover of tending plants, but having lived with & without a front garden I definitely prefer to have one - it's amazing how just a few feet of grass/patio/whatever stops people from peering into your living room as they pass.

oh god yeah, i didn't mean having one's house immediately on the path! like @tek-monkey said, a decent drive or some other useful patch of land would be much more preferable to a pointless bit of grass..

Old Police HQ Headquarters in Baswich

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