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I wonder, if the 11 plus was scrapped , would the demand for grammar education lead some of the grammar schools to head down the fee paying route ? Would there be the parental demand for that ?

I'd say there would be, plenty money out there. Some private funding schools already

It is the duty of any teacher to plan their lessons to match the abilities of all the pupils in their class. It's done in primary school. Can't see any reason why it shouldn't be done in any second level school. Any child should be made to fit in any school. Up to the teaching staff and management to ensure that happens

Jim. Climb down off your pedestal and have a look around the big real world.

In a globalised economy you don't hold back your best kids' education for the sake of some unachievable utopia. The ability gap in most grammar school classes is already wide enough currently.

Yeah, the 11+ isn't a great solution to the problem, but the best solution is likely to take far more upheaval than the education system would stomach. The 11+ is significantly better than the comprehensive route, which has been shown over a very long time period to be consistently worse than streaming by ability to separate schools.


You might have to do lesson planning for 3 streams for your day, with what, a maths/english in morning and topical in evening...? Now what if you were teaching 5 different year groups in that day? That's 15 different subsets of lessons you need. How do you coordinate that with colleagues teaching across the year group(s)?

Academic selection has always been part of the education system here unfortunately. There has been no serious attempt to try to work without it as there is no incentive for the grammars to do so. Just get the best academically into the school and let the secondary  school do the heavy lifting with the poorer academically and those with difficult backgrounds etc.
You talk about having 5 different groups each day. Primary  schools face that every day with up to 5 groups to deal with in every subject they teach.

We've a very good educational system, comprehensive schools still stream as do secondary schools, I went to a secondary school, it was streamed.

No new deaths in Spain and 60 odd cases in a population of 50 million is very encouraging news and they are into week 6 of reopening. This virus is very unpredictable. A genuine question here. How does Spain go from 40/50 deaths a day to 2 a day now down to 0 within 2 weeks? I read somewhere they count in real time maybe a day or 2 behind whereas over here deaths can go back 10 days or something along those lines. Genuine question

Warmer country less cold and flu's about that coughing and sneezing would have spread more? People being more cautious with social distancing?

Or it's just dying off, how many people died in Spain?

If parents send their child to a school that is educationally above their child's standard, they need a kicking!

And if a parent doesn't know the standard of their child's ability then they haven't taken any interest in their child's work.

It is the duty of any teacher to plan their lessons to match the abilities of all the pupils in their class. It's done in primary school. Can't see any reason why it shouldn't be done in any second level school. Any child should be made to fit in any school. Up to the teaching staff and management to ensure that happens

That could be 30 different lesson plans for 30 different level of kids in one class.

If parents send their child to a school that is educationally above their child's standard, they need a kicking!

And if a parent doesn't know the standard of their child's ability then they haven't taken any interest in their child's work.

Dublin 7 you really are dense.
Public service pay rises will mean more money circulating and being spent in local small businesses.
The €260m you mentioned will be around €130m net cost to the Exchequer.
The spending of that €130m will generate around €35m in VAT and Excise etc fir the Exchequer.
The remaining €95m in the hands of local small businesses is the equivalent of c3,000 full time jobs whose PAYE etc will return around €8m to the Exchequer and save paying c€30m unemployment.
But some prefer Independent Newspapers/Young Fine Gael economics instead.

If you give it to SME's they create employment. Every single public servant is going to spend every cent then? None of them will put it in savings? Very public spirited of you all!

Lower earners actually contribute more to the economy as they spend all their money and can't afford to save for the future.

Is there training provided for your self entitlement or is it just engrained in public sevices culture?

At what point do they spend their savings? Or does it just get shoved into their coffin? Spend save it all goes in the end

If the GAA got the championship up and running now the sports would get priceless global attention. Hurling is far more interesting than the Bundesliga.

Hurling doesn't even get attention in most of Ireland.

It's  better than the bogball/basketball game that used to be football, before they changed the rules about a thousand times, still making a Horlicks of it and dominated by one team for past ten years 

I wonder what rules they'll bring in next

The top level of Gaelic football as played now is a better spectacle than it has ever been.

I love hurling but the fact is that interest in it is very esoteric in this country, and that's the way a lot of "hurling people" (let's face it, to be accepted as a hurling person you have to be a man - the clique of hurling men, great hurling men, true hurling men etc.) like it.

The spectacle of Dublin embarrassing everyone lately is something to behold

No I don't

So did people die of Covid or was it something else?

Have you proof that we would have had?

Have you proof we wouldn't have?

Feels like we are talking about this spike this months. O wait

I suppose without the lockdown we'd have had the same number of deaths. Oh wait

Cunny it's 2 weeks tomorrow since the south lifted restrictions and doesn't seem to be a spike on the way. Purely going by other countries a big spike is highly u unlikely.
Denmark Austria Norway are now 7 weeks post lockdown and cases all down below 30 which was a drop week on week.

2 weeks before signs, so give it another week

Lagan College have dropped the tests for this year as well. Good to see. Will put more pressure on those grammars who appear to be  still holding out.

I e a mate that teaches there. What was their entrance marks to their 'grammar' stream?

If the GAA got the championship up and running now the sports would get priceless global attention. Hurling is far more interesting than the Bundesliga.

Hurling doesn't even get attention in most of Ireland.

It's  better than the bogball/basketball game that used to be football, before they changed the rules about a thousand times, still making a Horlicks of it and dominated by one team for past ten years 

I wonder what rules they'll bring in next

Teachers and a phased return of kids should be happening now. No doubt come September they will still pick holes about why not to go back. The amount of kids out and about now is not normal. No reason st all why they couldn't be bank in school. I will say this. If we haven't higher numbers next weekends with all the parties gatherings etc I really can't see a second wave. It's going to be a very interesting week ahead looking to see do we spike.

Do you want them in or out of school? I'm confused, if they go to school in groups then it might spike it might not, if they are off school they might meet up and it might spike, you obviously want a scenario where groups meet up and no spike. That would prove your point that it's crushed, crushed I tell you

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