“ I am an OE myself, from the comprehensive era, and a father of 3 boys in Barnet.
I dont have an objection to a school catering for the academic elite, but to have it as part of the local authority system is the problem.
When we were looking at senior schools for our boys we looked at QE and decided it wasnt the environment that would suit them, let alone the unlikely situation of them being in the top 180 of 2,500 applicants. Our school choices for boys was then limited to the local comprehensives, of which we were only in the catchment area for one, i.e. we actually had no choice at all.
QE needs to be taken out of the LA options and treated as an out of area independent. This means Barnet Council will have to build another school, which is desperately needed anyway (but will never happen).
It also needs to be said that the 100% pass rate is a red herring. It doesnt count those students that are barred from taking exams because they may not get the top grades. This happens in many other schools too.
On top of that QE is well known to charge a lot of extra curricular activities to parents, who will need deep pockets if their children are to take a full part in the school. ”