Secondary modern school

Wetherby High School, a typical former secondary modern school in Wetherby, West Yorkshire

A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland, from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils – those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination. They were replaced in most of the UK by the Comprehensive School system and now remain in place mainly in Northern Ireland, where they are usually referred to simply as Secondary schools, and in some parts of England, such as Buckinghamshire (where they remain and are referred to as community schools), Lincolnshire, Wirral and Kent.

Origins

The 1944 Butler Education Act 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 and 1965, in an effort to provide universal secondary education.

Tri-partite system

The Eleven Plus examination was employed to stream children into Grammar Schools, Technical Schools (which only existed in some regions) and Secondary Modern Schools. Claims that the Eleven Plus was biased in favour of middle class children remain controversial. However, strong evidence exists that the outcome of streaming was that, overwhelmingly, grammar schools were attended by middle class children while secondary modern schools were attended by working class children.[1][2][3]

The most academically able of students within secondary modern schools found that their potential progression to university and advanced post-secondary studies was constrained by limitations within their schools, the wider educational system and access to higher external examinations.[1][4]

The 'baby boomer' generation was particularly affected during the period 1957 to 1970 because grammar school places had not been sufficiently increased to accommodate the large bulge in student numbers which entered secondary schools during this period.[1][4] As a result, cut-off standards on the Eleven Plus Examination for entry into grammar schools rose and many students who would, in earlier years, have been streamed into grammar schools were instead sent to secondary modern schools.[1]

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 examination, rather than the more prestigious O level, and although training for the latter was established in later years, fewer 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.

Grammar Schools were generally funded at a higher per-student level than Secondary Modern Schools.[5] Secondary moderns were generally deprived of both resources and good teachers.[6] The Newsom Report 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 interaction of the outcome of Eleven plus streaming (middle class into grammar schools and working class into secondary modern schools) and better funding of grammar schools produced the result that middle class children experienced better resourced schools offering superior future educational and vocational options while working class children experienced comparatively inferior schools offering more limited prospects for educational and vocational progress. This reinforced class divisions in subsequent vocational achievement and earning potential.[7]

Criticisms

Although most students sent to secondary modern schools experienced the negative consequences of lower per-student funding than that enjoyed by grammar school students, there existed a segment of the population of students in secondary modern schools that was particularly disadvantaged in the extent to which their schools could equip them to reach their full educational potential. This group consisted of the most academically able of students within the secondary modern system. The capacity of secondary modern schools to offer the best possible education to these students was limited by several factors.

In the 1960s there was increasing criticism of the limitations imposed on students within secondary modern schools flowing from political pressure from increasing numbers of middle class parents of ‘baby boomer’ children who did not obtain admission to grammar schools[4] and evidence that students from secondary modern schools who took GCE ‘O’ Levels were increasingly achieving results comparable to those being achieved by students from Grammar Schools (a remarkable finding given the disadvantages, discussed above, of secondary modern schools compared to grammar schools)[4][9]

Movement towards a comprehensive system

Further, the failure of secondary modern schools generally to equip the ‘submerged three quarters’ of British schoolchildren to realise their full potential led to calls for reform. Experiments with Comprehensive Schools 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, eliminated their secondary moderns altogether. In 1965, the Labour government issued Circular 10/65, implementing the Comprehensive System. By 1976, with the exception of a few regions, such as Kent, Dorset, Buckinghamshire, Stoke, Slough, the Wirral and Ripon, secondary modern schools had been formally phased out.

Secondary modern schools today

In counties still operating a selective system, there are still 130 schools fulfilling the role of the secondary modern by taking those pupils who do not get into grammar schools. [10]These schools may be known colloquially (though not officially) as high schools (Medway and Trafford), upper schools (Buckinghamshire) or simply all-ability schools.

In 2013, the National Association of Secondary Moderns (NASM) was founded by Ian Widdows, Headteacher at the Giles Academy in Boston, Lincolnshire. The organisation represents non-selective schools in selective areas[10] and has held annual conferences since it was founded, the first in Peterborough in 2014 followed by a second in London in 2015 and a third at the QEII Centre in Westminster on 28 April 2016. The 2016 event included speeches from Shadow Secretary of State for Education Lucy Powell, Tim Leunig from the Department for Education, National Schools Commissioner Sir David Carter, Steve Besley from Pearson and Mike Treadaway from FFT.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hart, R.A., Moro M., Roberts J.E., 'Date of birth, family background, and the 11 plus exam: short- and long-term consequences of the 1944 secondary education reforms in England and Wales’, Stirling Economics Discussion Paper 2012-10 May 2012 pp. 6 to 25. http://www.stir.ac.uk/media/schools/management/documents/workingpapers/SEDP-2012-10-Hart-Moro-Roberts.pdf
  2. ↑ Sumner, C., ‘1945 – 1965: The Long Road to Circular 10/65’, Reflecting Education, Vol. 6, No. 1, April 2010, p.97. http://reflectingeducation.net
  3. 1 2 Sampson, A., ‘ Anatomy of Britain Today’, Hodder and Stoughton, 1965, pp.194–195
  4. 1 2 3 4 Ford, J., 'Social Class and the Comprehensive School', Volume 233, Routeledge and Kegan Paul 2006, pp. 4–16. Publication Date: 29 January 1998 | ISBN 0415177723 | ISBN 978-0415177726
  5. ↑ Brooks, V., 'Role of External Examinations in the Making of Secondary Modern Schools in England 1945–65', 2008, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00467600600909892
  6. ↑ Newsom, J.,’ Half our future’, A report of the Central Advisory Council for Education, London: HM Stationery Office, 1963
  7. ↑ Hart, R.A., Moro M., Roberts J.E., 'Date of birth, family background, and the 11 plus exam: short- and long-term consequences of the 1944 secondary education reforms in England and Wales’, Stirling Economics Discussion Paper 2012-10 May 2012 pp. 24–25. http://www.management.stir.ac.uk/research/economics/working-papers
  8. ↑ Ministry of Education, New Secondary Education, 4, p.46
  9. ↑ Gillard, D., ‘Us and Them: a history of pupil grouping policies in England's schools’, (2008) (see the section ‘1945-1960: Doubts and concerns’) www.educationengland.org.uk/articles/27grouping.html
  10. 1 2 Stewart, William (31 January 2015). "Secondary moderns fight back as clamour for grammars grows". TES- Times Education Supplement (TES Global). Retrieved 16 April 2016.

External links

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