Grammar Schools: Who Will Get In?

The second part of this three-part series follows daily life at the two secondary schools. Townley Grammar is judged to be one of the best schools in the country and two miles down the road, Erith School, a secondary modern, is striving to pick itself up after an Ofsted report which judged the school to require improvement. At Erith, we meet Bradley, a Year 7 student who finds it hard to focus in class and requires regular one-to-one attention to keep him in school, and Chichi, an extremely bright student who wants to go to medical school, but comes into conflict with the school authorities.

At Townley Grammar, there are far fewer problems with behaviour and even the smallest infringements are picked up on. Moesha is one of the few who rebel against the rules: 'I feel like if I was in a normal school I would have been in a lot less trouble... But this is Townley.' While the teachers at Townley don't have many discipline problems, the school employs three full-time staff to help students cope with the pressure they put themselves under to keep up with their high-achieving peers.