Growing up in Northern Ireland, I always knew that once I reached Primary 6/Primary 7 I had to knuckle down and work hard to pass my 11+ exam. I knew that my secondary school experience could be very different depending on what school I got the grades to go to. Practice paper after practice paper; spending 4 hours of class time a week working on and marking more papers. It felt like my life was being overcome by these questions.

However, looking back over it, I believe it was the best thing for me. Getting into my local grammar school, in my view, really did help with my education. By being split up into ability, I found it more of a challenge to see if I could beat the others in my class. As I had a lower ability when it came to subjects such as English, I feel like being split up was again helpful as the teacher was able to spend more time working on different aspects that the whole class were not sure about.

Regarding the new examination that they have brought into the Northern Ireland curriculum, children are now focusing on the ‘2 marks more’ that they got compared to their friends. I believe that this isn’t beneficial for the children, as this means there is more room for bullying because they know in greater detail how they preformed on the day. The new AQE test also means that children will have to take another exam, the GL test, if they wish to go to a Catholic Grammar school. I think this is very hard on the children, as they will have to do four exams if they wish to be considered by all of their local grammar schools, compared to the two exams you would do through the 11+.

Just because a child doesn’t get into a grammar, doesn’t mean that they will not be as successful. It shouldn’t be seen as ‘I’m not smart enough, I’m not going to work’ but it should be seen as an opportunity. I have family members who went to the local secondary school, I have been able to make notes on our progress as we are both heading to university around the same time. It is very important to offer equal opportunities to all students. By streaming the children from primary to secondary, I believe they will get the best help for their ability. Our local secondary school will also stream the children so the lower ability classes will be smaller, so they can get more one on one attention; this will be very beneficial for their development.

Overall, I think that entrance exams are good at streaming the children for their best ability. This will therefore help their development throughout their school life and then into their time at university.