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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.
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.
Timetables varied from place to place. There was no national curriculum so schools and local education authorities followed the directions of their own professional advisers and established practice. There was a core of basic English, maths, geography, History, one modern language, PE and Religious Studies, plus a version of Science dominated by Biology.
It goes without saying, there were no computers. While the grammar schools, which mostly had ancient foundations and remained single-sex, secondary moderns, with their new buildings and equipment, were largely co-educational. Woodwork, metalwork and technical drawing were seen as important subjects for the boys. The girls, meanwhile, did needlework or cookery and, in many cases, typing.
This division between secondary modern and grammar schools started to disappear in July 1965, when the then education secretary Anthony Crosland issued a circular requesting local authorities to abolish the 11-plus exam and start creating a comprehensive, all-ability system of secondary schools. This was put into practice throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.
There were many reasons for the change, not least the demand for a better, more academic education than the secondary moderns were able to offer. Fairness was a particular priority. Secondary moderns had become second-class institutions. They had less money than grammar schools, the teachers were less-well qualified and were paid less.
Although the 11-plus should have ensured that children from ordinary backgrounds had a fair share of grammar school places, in practice the grammars were dominated by middle-class offspring, who had books at home or were coached for the exams. Secondary moderns were overwhelmingly working-class. While in theory it was possible to move from one type of school to another, in practice it rarely happened.
Few formal exams were taken in secondary modern schools, although O-levels and, later, certificates in secondary education (CSE) were supposedly available for those who chose to stay an extra year until the age of 16. But millions of pupils left with no qualifications at all. For children with academic potential, secondary moderns could be disastrous.
Some enjoyed their time and were relieved to escape the academic straitjacket of the grammar school. It is more common to hear of people's disappointment that their life chances were so heavily influenced at the age of 11.
Some grammar schools still remain, most notably in Kent but the old-fashioned idea of a secondary modern – a place for pupils with no academic aspirations - has completely vanished. That said, recent years have seen renewed interest in providing a more practical, 'vocational' style of secondary schooling for students who wish to enter the job market instead of going to university.
It has already been made easier for 14-16-year-olds to spend part of the school week studying with an employer and this looks set to become more common. While the practicalities are still a matter of dispute, the principle is widely accepted. Letting 14-year-olds choose between an academic and practical career is not a return to the past. It is no long acceptable to tell 11-year-olds that they are barred from taking exams because they are 'good with their hands'.
Nicholas Pyke, regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement and deputy news editor for the Independent on Sunday.
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