My wife and I have home educated our three sons since birth, that means they have never attended a school, grammar school or otherwise. When we moved to Skegness our eldest son was 15 1/2 years old and doing well in his education: he’s gifted in many areas and finds learning very easy.
He’d been studying from A-Level texts (Mathematics for example) for years and where we moved from we’d arranged to do GCSE’s as an external candidate at a local comprehensive school, but that was no longer an option, so doing GCSE’s fell by the way side (wrong time to move).
With no GCSE’s The Skegness Grammar School which specializes in Maths and Computing (what our eldest son was studying) would not even consider him as an A-Level candidate. The other Skegness comprehensive school in the area St Clements College Skegness isn’t considered a good school (it failed and was closed) and does not offer the A-Levels he required (A-Level Mathematics, A-Level Further Mathematics and A-Level Physics, offered NONE of these!) and so St Clements College wasn’t a realistic option.
Studying with the Open University
He managed to arrange with the Open University (OU) to study a low level course (Start Writing Essays A1072 worth 10 points) an area which he needed work on (so a useful course in it’s own right) and easily passed (59%). This showed he was capable of the work load. He signed for a level 1 Mathematics course with the OU: Open Mathematics MU120 (worth 30pts towards a degree) which he passed well, 76% which is a really good grade for a 16 year old.
He started another Maths OU course Understanding Mathematics Level 1 MT121 (worth 30 points) and is on for a 80%+ pass rate (course ends in June 2009). At the same time our son was studying at The Skegness Academy (vocational courses mostly in IT) for 12 hours a week for the EMA grant (16-18 year olds get money to study now!!).
The courses at The Skegness Academy are way below our sons level, so it was studying there for the money, though the IT courses are recognised and relevant to his career (computer programmer) so they won’t hurt (all education is worthwhile).
Courses studied:
City and Guilds Adult Numeracy Level 2 (equivalent to a GCSE Maths) Result: Distinction
City and Guilds Adult Literacy Level 2 (equivalent to a GCSE English) Result: Distinction
City and Guilds Unitized IT Level 2 (advanced diploma) Result: Distinction
City and Guilds Unitized IT Level 3 (advanced diploma) Result: Expect Distinction
By October 2009 he had completed one OU course, almost completed another (he was guaranteed 70% plus result (see one of the comments below, apparently he wasn’t guaranteed 70%+)) and started a third OU course. He’d also passed two City and Guilds course with distinction and was weeks away from passing a third course (the IT Level 2 course) and was planning on studying the level 3 IT course.
A-Levels at The Skegness Grammar School
Had The Skegness Grammar School taken our son on for A-Levels when he reached 16 years of age in October 2007, October 2008 it would have been the beginning of what could have been our sons second year of A-Levels at The Skegness Grammar School (TSGS offers A-Level Mathematics, A-Level Further Mathematics and A-Level Physics). I realised he could use his OU courses (these are harder than A-Levels) and the City and Guilds study to gain access to The Skegness Grammar School to study A-Levels as well as his OU courses and drop the time he spends at The Skegness Academy.
A-Level Physics (he’s barely studied higher level Physics) in particular would be useful in gaining access to University to study Computer Sciences, even if it was just one year of studying Physics (AS-Level) it would help.
In October 2009 I called The Skegness Grammar School and spoke to the receptionist. I asked if it was possible to use his OU courses as a way to gain access to A-Level studies at their educational institution either skipping the first year of A-Level study (I think with hard work he could catch up) or start from the beginning and potentially sit the full two year courses: our son was looking at Universities and liked the idea of studying at Cambridge University, but the reality was without actual A-Levels he realistically wouldn’t be seriously considered. To get the very best Computer Sciences degree possible he was considering taking an extra year to give a Cambridge application a serious chance.
Our second son who was just about to start GCSE studies (also home educated, never attended school) was also interested in studying at the Grammar School since we realised he will have similar problems to his elder brother when he’s 16 years of age! which is why I made the first call to TSGS.
A call back from the receptionist of the Skegness Grammar School was no to both our sons. I enquired what was the chances of our second son gaining access if he was tested etc… and was told the grammar school is particularly over booked for that year, so even if he was capable of that level of study (which he is) he’d be highly unlikely to get in anyway.
I rarely take a first no as an absolute NO, though the information regarding our second son strongly suggested there was little point pursuing that matter further.
For our eldest son however was a different case, A-Levels are never over subscribed (TSGS have about 80 A-Level students a year) and this was an unusual case and he should be able to gain access to A-Level study at the Skegness Grammar School on merit. I passed the matter to my eldest son to pursue himself, originally he was going to do everything himself, but as his brother was interested as well made more sense for me to make the first contact.
Skegness Grammar School Application
He set up several appointments with the head of admissions (a Mr Nuttall) who believed he was capable of the work and would support his application. He had an appointment with the head of the school (a Mr R Ballantyne), for what we believed a final decision (we expected a yes) and on the day of the appointment the head master refused to see him!
The headmasters reason for the refusal was he’d already seen an application for our eldest son to join the grammar school and declined it and considered our sons actions as underhanded!
Apparently my one telephone call and the call back from the receptionist was treated as an actual application to join the grammar school!
I was a little #@’#@” off to say the least, he’d used my call to generally enquire about both sons as an actual school application!!
This was the day before Skegness Grammar School went on holiday for a two week break, I called several times that day to speak to the headmaster leaving messages and was never called back!!
At that point our son decided he would rather not go to The Skegness Grammar School if it’s run by poorly educated and prejudiced people (can only believe he’s prejudiced against the home educated) like the head master so he dropped it! Personally I would have taken this as high as possible, but it’s our sons life, education and decision.
Almost 6 months on and our son is still working with the Open University and the Skegness Academy (he’s putting less time into the Skegness Academy now due to working part-time, volunteering and doing 3 OU courses).
Courses Studying
Understanding Mathematics Level 1 MT121 (on for 80%+ pass) (30 points)
Data Computing and Information U150 (on for 75%+ pass) (30 points)
Using Mathematics Level 2 MT2221 (just started) (30 points)
City and Guilds Unitized IT Level 3 (advanced diploma) Result: Expect Distinction
He has offers at York University and Nottingham University to study computer sciences (conditional offers dependant on his latest course results). His OU course results are averaging at over 75% (and getting better) so unless he starts taking drugs or something and fails his OU courses in the next few months he will be going to University this year (October 2009).
In theory he could use the OU courses he’s passed (will pass by June 2009) to jump into the second year of a University Degree as they do count towards a Computer Sciences degree. As he’s 18 years of age when he’ll go to University I advised him not to do this, I went to University and the 1st year is quite easy educationally, but adapting to the change in lifestyle is NOT. Much better to adapt to living alone/new friends etc… and then be settled for when the courses start to get hard (second year is much harder) than have to deal with everything at once and possibly damage his chances of a 1st class honors degree.
So big thumbs down to The Skegness Grammar School for poor leadership skills.
Would be very interested to hear others perceptions of this grammar school, especially when dealing with the headmaster (Mr R Ballantyne).
David Cameron Law
8 responses to The Skegness Grammar School Review
I’m quite surprised by this to be honest, working in a school where home-educated pupils have been known to join at various stages throughout the academic calendar.
However, grammar schools have traditionally viewed themselves as being a bit elitist.
Not knowing the exact facts of your predicament nor having heard of the school, I can’t comment on this situation.
However, a few observations on your post – MU120 is not harder than A levels – it covers little more than foundation GCSE.
MST121 is not harder than A levels either – it is comparable to AS level but still includes some GCSE maths – albeit “higher” GCSE maths – in the form of, eg the sine and cosine rules.
Furthermore, your son cannot have been “guaranteed 70% plus result” in MST121 just by completing the majority of TMAs since passing the course requires passing the final TMA and CMAs – even getting 100% in all three primary TMAs does not guarantee a pass on weighted average, since the final TMA and CMAs *MUST* also be passed. Fail them, fail the course, regardless of accrued average.
MS221 is the level two course up from MST121 and is broadly similar to A2 level mathematics in that it introduces such topics as trig identities and formulas, plus the binomial theorem, which are standard A level topics.
However, IMO, MS221′s calculus is a step up from A level calculus, but not by much.
Now, I mention all this not to sound like a smart a55 but to suggest that school heads talk to department heads during admission selection and department heads are very often acutely aware of exactly where non core curriculum courses really do slot in in comparative terms.
I would also advise you edit your post to remove the part which follows: “At that point our son decided he would rather not go to The Skegness Grammar School if it’s run by *********.”
That part of the post is likely libellous and defamatory, not only to the person identified in it, but to all staff involved in the faculties in question.
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The Skegness Grammar School Review
Benefits of being a search engine optimization (SEO) expert (what I do for a living) is you tend to get quite good at obtaining Google search results.
Number 1 in Google for “Skegness Grammar School Review”
Hmm, only number 11 for “Skegness Grammar School” though, will have to put more effort into the SEO of this page.
David
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The Skegness Grammar School Review
I am sorry for what you went through with the school.
I am a former pupil of Skegness Grammar School and can asure you it is a brilliant school and run by brilliant minds. Especially Mr Nuttall.
The school does also take home school pupils through the year also, as one of my closest friends was home schooled but still accepted in to the school after passing a test into the GCSE classes to do her exams.
I just felt the need to stand up for my former school and I felt your comments slightly unjust. Many many students are turned down from many many schools for a number of reasons, this does not mean that school teachers are poorly educated or prejudice.
The Skegness Grammar School is a fantastic school and I speak from experience.
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The Skegness Grammar School Review
Thanks for the comment, good to see someone appreciated their time at a school enough to defend it online.
Just to make things clear I’m not attacking Skegness Grammar School per se. Mr Nuttall (head of admissions) appeared to be willing to support our sons application to study A-levels (suggesting a reasonable person willing to give others a chance) and based on the schools exam results they clearly have excellent teaching staff.
My problem is with the head master Mr R Ballantyne and I stand by my review of the school above.
The issue isn’t the rejection per se, it’s the reason the head master gave.
If the reason was something like they believed he wasn’t up to the work load or he’d missed too much course work etc… those are genuine reasons. To reject a hard working student who would easily handle that level of work (he is mathematically gifted) based on a phone call from his father enquiring about the possibility of two of his children attending the Skegness Grammar school is wrong.
I find it difficult to understand how an educated person would potential damage a young persons future because I’d made a phone call enquiry! Last time I checked you can’t apply to any school, especially not a very popular grammar school over the phone giving just a young persons name and age and return phone number!
A reasonable headmaster would have seen our son on the day of the appointment, (he’d already had two productive appointments with Mr Nuttall) not turn him away at the door with out seeing him and calling him underhanded!
Also there is no excuse for ignoring telephone calls from a parent, I called multiple times and never received a call back!
Personally I’d have rather taken this to the board of governors, but our son wanted to move on. Unfortunately for the headmaster of Skegness Grammar school I tend not to let things go so easily, my business is search engines and when I write a review I normally get top 10 rankings for relevant searches on Google (the current results will get better for this page over time). The cost of making a bad decision is when anyone searches deeply for Skegness Grammar school they will find this review and see a not so pleasant side of the person running Skegness Grammar school.
Long term I expect this page to be number 2 for the Google search Skegness Grammar School.
David Law
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The Skegness Grammar School Review
The TSGS “trendy”,but has gone down “The s**t pan” since Mr Rigby left.
My daughter did well, no thanks to the Headteacher who goes into hiding when there is ever a problem !!
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I looked up The Skegness Grammar School A-Level Results for 2009.
Information from various websites.
Out of 137 grammar schools, The Skegness Grammar School came in at number 104 out of 137 based on average UCAS points scored per student.
Based on the % of students scoring A-level pass at grades A or B, Skegness Grammar School is ranked as number 397 out of 582 schools offering A-levels.
Girls do a lot better than boys at TSGS with boys performing almost 8% below girls. If you look at all A-Level results this sort of picture is the norm, girls are better at studying than boys, and that includes A-Level mathematics and further A-Level maths.
Just over 20% of students perform well enough in their exams results to seriously apply for a place at Cambridge University (you need two As and one B to be seriously considered).
Overall A-level exam results at TSGS have fallen over the past 5 years by over 10% (based on UCAS points per exam).
The Skegness Grammar School A-Level Results
83 A-Level students
% of A-levels awarded grade A : 23.62% (26.7%)
% of A-levels awarded grade B : 25.59% (25.3%)
Average UCAS points scored per student : 334.94
% of A-levels awarded A and B grades : 49.21% (52%)
Numbers in brackets are national results of all schools offering A-Levels.
Note: average UCAS points per se is not a good indicator of the quality of the education at school, some schools UCAS results are over 500, but this probably includes General Studies A-Level (I understand this is easy to get 120 points from). Taking the UCAS points table above into account 334 points could equate to two As and 2 Bs, which is a good result. The % of grade As is more telling over 3% below the national average.
Since this school specialises in mathematics it’s also interesting to look at the national average for mathematics and further mathematics A-Level results. I couldn’t find TSGS specific A-Level results, so can only compare their average results to the national mathematics results:
TSGS grade As average = 23.62%
National average for Mathematics grade As = 45.2%
National average for Further Mathematics grade As = 58.1%
I don’t know the number of students studying A-Level maths at The Skegness Grammar School, so this is far from accurate, but suggests they perform well below average. If anyone knows where I can see the 2009 exam results for TSGS I’d love to take a look at them and perform a little statistical analysis on them.
David
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The Skegness Grammar School Review
Just being honest David ! that’s all.
More people agree with me anyhow !!
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Eldest son finished his first year at University recently, his first year results have him set to receive a 1:1 Honors degree (assuming he continues with similar results in year 2 and 3).
Very poor decision making by the head of Skegness Grammar School since it would have improved their results having him as an A-Level student.
Fortunately the bad decision making by the head teacher hasn’t damaged his future prospects, but it could have.
David
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The Skegness Grammar School Review
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