Secondary modern school - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school

Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

that existed in most of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System

Tripartite System

The Tripartite System was the arrangement of state funded secondary education between 1944 and the 1970s in England and Wales, and from 1947 to 2009 in Northern Ireland....

, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus

Eleven plus

In the United Kingdom, the 11-plus or Eleven plus is an examination administered to some students in their last year of primary education, governing admission to various types of secondary school. The name derives from the age group for secondary entry: 11–12 years...

examination. They were replaced in most of the UK by the comprehensive school

Comprehensive school

A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

system and now remain in place mainly in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, where they are usually referred to simply as Secondary schools, and in some parts of England, such as Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

(where they remain and are referred to as community schools), Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, Wirral

Wirral

Wirral may refer to:* Wirral Peninsula, a peninsula in the northwest of England, between the rivers Dee and Mersey* Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, occupying the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula...

and Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

.

The 1944 Butler Education Act

Education Act 1944

The Education Act 1944 changed the education system for secondary schools in England and Wales. This Act, commonly named after the Conservative politician R.A...

created a system in which children were tested and streamed at the age of eleven. Those who were thought unsuitable for either an academic curriculum or a technical one were to be sent to the secondary modern, where they would receive training in a wide range of simple, practical skills. Education there was to focus on training in basic subjects, such as arithmetic, mechanical skills such as woodworking, and domestic skills, such as cookery. In an age before the advent of the National Curriculum, the specific subjects taught were chosen by the individual schools.

The first secondary moderns were created by converting about three thousand Senior Elementary schools, which previously had offered a continuation of primary education to the age of 14, into separate institutions. Many more were built between the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

and 1965, in an effort to provide universal secondary education.

Movement towards a comprehensive system

Although the Butler Act planned a parity of esteem between this and the other sections of the tripartite system, in practice the secondary modern came to be seen as the school for failures. Those who had "failed" their eleven plus were sent there to learn rudimentary skills before advancing to factory or menial jobs. Secondary moderns prepared students for the CSE

Certificate of Secondary Education

The Certificate of Secondary Education was a school leaving qualification awarded between 1965 and 1987 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland....

examination, rather than the more prestigious O level, and although training for the latter was established in later years, less than one in ten students took advantage of it. Secondary moderns did not offer schooling for the A level, and in 1963, for instance, only 318 former secondary modern pupils sat A levels. None went on to university.

Secondary moderns were generally deprived of both resources and good teachers. The Newsom Report

Newsom Report

The Newsom Report of 1963 was a United Kingdom government report , which looked at the education of average and below average children. Entitled "Half our Future" the report argued that the future of the country depended on better education for those of below average ability...

of 1963 reported on education for these children, and found that in some schools in slum areas of London 15-year old pupils were sitting on furniture intended for primary schools. Staff turnover was high and continuity in teaching minimal. Not all secondary moderns were as bad, but they did generally suffer from neglect by authorities.

The poor performance of the ‘submerged three quarters’ of British schoolchildren led to calls for reform. Experiments with comprehensive schools

Comprehensive school

began in the 1950s, hoping to provide an education that would offer greater opportunities for those who did not enter grammar schools. Several counties, such as Leicestershire

Leicestershire

Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

, eliminated their secondary moderns altogether. In 1965, the Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

government issued Circular 10/65

Circular 10/65

Circular 10/65 is a Government circular issued in 1965 by the Department of Education and Science requesting Local Education Authorities in England and Wales to begin converting their secondary schools to the Comprehensive System. For most of England and Wales, it marked the abolition of the old...

, implementing the Comprehensive System. By 1976, with the exception of a few regions, such as Kent

Kent

, Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

, Stoke

Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...

, Slough

Slough

Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...

, the Wirral

Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 311,200, and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Heswall, Hoylake and West Kirby. The city of...

and Ripon

Ripon

Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally...

, secondary modern schools had been formally phased out.

Secondary modern schools today

In counties still operating a selective system, there are still schools fulfilling the role of the secondary modern by taking those pupils who do not get into grammar schools. These schools may be known colloquially (though not officially) as high schools (Medway and Trafford), upper schools (Buckinghamshire) or simply all-ability schools.

External links

"That'll Teach 'Em 2", Channel 4
"Take the 11-plus test", Channel 4
"School learns the language of success", The Independent Online — records the success of Walderslade Girls' School, in Medway, which was still a secondary modern school
Testimonial of Mike Ion, DfES Regional Director of the Key Stage 3 Strategy

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Movement towards a comprehensive system

Secondary modern schools today

See also

External links