The comprehensive system remains largely intact, and respected, in Scotland; in England it is being systematically demolished. It is worth recalling the early days of comprehensive education in Scotland. A small number of formerly selective, grant-aided schools, Dollar Academy, Kelvinside Academy, Robert Gordon's School, became fully "independent" rather than enter the comprehensive world. In the middle of this process one other reform, the raising of the school leaving age, had an immediate impact.
A small number of teachers, in the wake of these changes, predicted Armageddon and fled to the private sector. The new comprehensives were often created by amalgamating several schools, often a formerly selective school and two or three neighbouring junior secondaries.
In such cases, status within the new schools tended to be in the possession of the staff from the formerly selective school.
These were both hard and heady days. Administrative plans for the new system were not met with parallel plans for a new curriculum. The old Highers and O Grades continued and in most new comprehensives the old divisions were replicated with "certificate" and "non-certificate" streams. Teachers, usually the young and enthusiastic, had to create a curriculum for this new age as they delivered it.
Fortunately, this was the period of the baby-boom, rapidly increasing school rolls, and a consequent boom in teacher recruitment. A generation of young teachers committed to the changes arrived in staffrooms and sought to develop precisely such a curriculum. That generation however also brought into the world of schools a view of teacher trade unionism which differed significantly from the cautious professionalism of previous generations.
The result was that the early decades of the comprehensive system were also the first examples of industrial disruption in Scottish schools. Teachers manning picket lines was a concept foreign to the older professional generation. With the introduction of a comprehensive system, two other shibboleths of the old system, corporal punishment and the external examination system, inevitably came under scrutiny.
Again, many in the teaching profession were slow to recognise what was blowing in the wind. In Ireland comprehensive schools were an earlier model of state schools, introduced in the late s and largely replaced by the secular community model of the s. The comprehensive model generally incorporated older schools that were under Roman Catholic or Protestant ownership, and the various denominations still manage the school as patrons or trustees.
The state owns the school property, which is vested in the trustees in perpetuity. The model was adopted to make state schools more acceptable to a largely conservative society of the time. The introduction of the community school model in the s controversially removed the denominational basis of the schools, but religious interests were invited to be represented on the Boards of Management.
Community schools are divided into two models, the community school vested in the Minister for Education and the community college vested in the local Vocational Education Committee. Community colleges tended to be amalgamations of unviable local schools under the umbrella of a new community school model, but community schools have tended to be entirely new foundations. Sweden had used mixed-ability schools for some years before they were introduced into England and Wales, and was chosen as one of the models.
Before the Second World War , secondary education provision in Britain was both patchy and expensive. After the war, secondary education in England , Wales and Northern Ireland was provided free to at least the age of 14 under a policy introduced by Conservative Secretary of State for Education R. Gillard, However, as a result of the flexibility of the Education Act , many Local Education Authorities LEAs were free to choose how to establish the secondary school sector.
Comprehensive school was introduced in by the Labour Government of the time Chitty The first comprehensives were set up after the Second World War. These early comprehensives mostly modelled themselves, in terms of ethos, on the grammar school , with gown-wearing teachers conducting lessons in a very formal style. Some comprehensive schools have continued to follow this model, especially those that were themselves grammar schools before becoming comprehensives. The opening of Risinghill School in Islington in offered an alternative to this model.
Embracing the progressive ideals of sixties education, the school abandoned corporal punishment and brought in a much more liberal attitude to discipline and methods of study. However, this idea did not take hold in many places.
The largest expansion of comprehensive schools resulted from a policy decision taken in by Anthony Crosland , Secretary of State for Education in the — Labour government, a fervent supporter of comprehensive education.
In the Conservative Party re-entered government. Margaret Thatcher became Secretary of State for Education, and ended the compulsion on local authorities to convert. However, many local authorities were so far down the path that it would have been prohibitively expensive to attempt to reverse the process, and more comprehensive schools were established under Mrs Thatcher than any other education secretary.
However, she went on to be a ferocious critic of comprehensive education. By the majority of local authorities in England and Wales had abandoned the plus examination and moved to a comprehensive system. Over that year period many secondary modern schools and grammar schools were amalgamated to form large neighbourhood comprehensives, whilst a number of new schools were built to accommodate a growing school population. Nearly all new schools were built as comprehensives, and existing grammar and modern schools had either been closed see for example the Liverpool Institute or amalgamated with neighbouring secondary moderns to produce comprehensive schools.
During the s concerns emerged about the tripartite division between secondary, grammar and technical schools. The academic and social roles of the secondary school were not clear and many experts and laypeople were critical of the plus grammar school entrance examination.
By the mids, the Conservative Government accepted the case for comprehensive schools in areas not served effectively by existing schools. Conservative policy aimed at the 'progressive' development of secondary schools and the improvement of selection. Cabinet members felt that references to comprehensives in the White Paper would be a 'political embarrassment'. Nevertheless, by , comprehensive schools had been established. Following Labour's victory in the election, the Cabinet eliminated the plus examination and established a comprehensive secondary system to end separation.
LEAs were requested to submit plans for the reorganisation of secondary schools along comprehensive lines. Grammar schools were asked to continue providing their 'traditional' form of education but also to cater for a wider range of children. It was envisaged that public schools would be more closely integrated into the state system. At the same time, the Secretary of State began to plan for the impact of raising the school leaving age to 16 in The idea of comprehensive schools came from local authorities such as the London county council soon afterwards, gradually spreading to most of England and Wales.
Ms Hirsch might be surprised to learn that a handful of authorities, notably Kent and Buckinghamshire, still have no comprehensive schools. I fully endorse the points she makes about parental contributions for things that should be free and expensive extras that are totally out of reach for many parents. It is no surprise that I chose the school cadet force — all free, including the camp. Having said that, I must give credit to our German teacher who in organised a cycling trip to Germany, on which the accommodation was in affordable youth hostels and the only transport cost was the Dover-Ostend ferry.
Les Masters Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. In fact, setting in secondary comprehensive schools has been the norm for many years and the practice of mixed-ability teaching and learning are rarely seen.
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