Comprehensive school (England and Wales)
[5] The term developed over the next 35 years as the concept of comprehensive schooling itself changed after a series of initiatives were held by local education authorities through this period.
[8][9][10] By the early 1960s, they were defined as not just admitting pupils without selecting them, but also catering to all of their aptitudes and abilities unless they had special needs,[11][12] facilitating new interests and offering combined courses on an individual basis.
[23] Comprehensive schools provide an entitlement curriculum to all children, without selection whether due to financial considerations or attainment.
A consequence of that is a wider ranging curriculum, including practical subjects such as design and technology and vocational learning, which were less common or non-existent in grammar schools.
Providing post-16 education cost-effectively becomes more challenging for smaller comprehensive schools, because of the number of courses needed to cover a broader curriculum with comparatively fewer students.
In addition, government initiatives such as the City Technology Colleges and specialist schools programmes have expanded the comprehensive model.
Maths schools can also be centres of excellence in raising attainment, supporting and influencing the teaching of mathematics in their surrounding area, and are central to their associated universities’ widening participation commitments.
UTCs must specialise in subjects that require technical and modern equipment, but they also all teach business skills and the use of information and communications technology.
Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training and childcare services in England do so to a high standard for children and students.
His Majesty's Inspectors (HMI) rank schools based on information gathered in inspections which they undertake.
[24][25] Every school must publish specific information on its website, including values and ethos, admission arrangements, details of the curriculum, links to Ofsted reports, behaviour policy, performance data, attainment and progress measures, policies for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Students can also go on to a further education college and sixth form college to prepare themselves for a wide curriculum of study, apprenticeships and vocational awards, including Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC), National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), and Technical Levels (T-levels).
All maintained schools in England are required to follow the National Curriculum, which is made up of twelve subjects.
Pupils take GCSE exams at Key Stage 4 in Year 11, but may also choose to work towards the attainment of alternative qualifications, such as the NVQs and Business and Technology Education Council.
[30] Key Stage 4 consists of over 25 broad optional subjects, including computer science, business studies, economics, astronomy, classical civilisation, geology, psychology, sociology, and ancient languages.
[31] The Department for Education has drawn up a list of preferred subjects known as the English Baccalaureate on the results in eight GCSEs including English, mathematics, the sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, computer science), history, geography, and an ancient or modern foreign language.
Local councils are responsible for deciding the RE syllabus, but faith schools and academies can set their own.
Schools are also free to include other subjects or topics of their choice in planning and designing their own programme of education.
If registered with a state school, attendance is compulsory beginning with the term following the child's fifth birthday.
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.
Embracing the progressive ideals of 1960s education, such schools typically abandoned corporal punishment and brought in a more liberal attitude to discipline and methods of study.
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.
By 1975 the majority of local authorities in England and Wales had abandoned the eleven-plus examination and moved to a comprehensive system.
[39] In 1976 the future Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan gave a speech at Oxford's Ruskin College.
He went on to list the areas he felt needed closest scrutiny: the case for a core curriculum, the validity and use of informal teaching methods, the role of school inspection and the future of the examination system.
A "black paper" attacking liberal theories in education and poor standards in comprehensive schools had appeared in 1969, to be followed by a second in 1971.
The black papers called for a return to traditional teaching methods and an end to the comprehensive experiment.
Government policy is currently promoting "specialisation", whereby parents choose a secondary school appropriate for their child's interests and skills.
Most initiatives focus on parental choice and information, implementing a pseudo-market incentive to encourage better schools.
[39] Experiments have included: Following the advice of Cyril Taylor a former businessman and Conservative politician, and chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT)—in the mid-1990s, all parties have backed the creation of specialist schools, which focus on excellence in a particular subject and are theoretically allowed to select up to 10% of their intake.
