 Most people educated in the 1950s and 1960s spent time at a secondary modern school. Everyone took the 11-plus exam at the end of primary education but only a successful minority, 25%, went on to be educated in the traditional grammar school sector. Everyone else went to the secondary modern, the 'bog standard' alternative of its day.
This new category of school was created by Rab Butler's great Education Act of 1944, which established free education for all, raised the school leaving age to 15 and set out a new three-part system of secondary schooling. It was originally planned that children would attend grammar, modern or technical schools but this last category – for pupils with ability at science and engineering – never established itself.
Academic vs practical education
While the post-war grammars, like the one portrayed in last year's 1950s school, tried to copy the great public schools with their rituals, formal, academic timetables and teachers in gowns, secondary moderns had no such pretensions. While the grammar schools took pride in Latin, Greek and higher mathematics, the secondary moderns followed a more modest, practical syllabus suitable for students heading straight for the workplace.
A school for its time
This was a time of mass manufacturing and labour-intensive work, when a town's main employers might need thousands of shop-floor workers and hundreds of secretaries. It was also a time when few women – even if they needed paid employment – thought of developing a career. So, where possible, the secondary modern aimed to emphasise practical rather than academic skills, woodwork rather than algebra.
The school from series 1 of That'll Teach 'Em.
Top of page | 
