Grammar school

Over time the curriculum was broadened, first to include Ancient Greek, and later English and other European languages, natural sciences, mathematics, history, geography, art and other subjects.

In the late Victorian era grammar schools were reorganised to provide secondary education throughout England and Wales; Scotland had developed a different system.

Grammar schools became one of the three tiers of the Tripartite System of state-funded secondary education operating in England and Wales from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s, and continue as such in Northern Ireland.

More recently, a number of state grammar schools, still retaining their selective intake, gained academy status are thus independent of the local education authority (LEA).

Other subjects required for religious work were occasionally added, including music and verse (for liturgy), astronomy and mathematics (for the church calendar) and law (for administration).

During the English Reformation in the 16th century, most cathedral schools were closed and replaced by new foundations funded from the dissolution of the monasteries.

The usual pattern was to create an endowment to pay the wages of a master to instruct local boys in Latin and sometimes Greek without charge.

[6] Such a dispute between the trustees and master of Leeds Grammar School led to a celebrated case in the Court of Chancery.

"[11] Although he offered a compromise by which some subjects might be added to a classical core, the ruling set a restrictive precedent for grammar schools across England; they seemed to be in terminal decline.

[3][9] However it should be borne in mind that the decline of the grammar schools in England and Wales was not uniform and that until the foundation of St Bees Clerical College, in 1817, and St David's College Lampeter, in 1828, specialist grammar schools in the north-west of England and South Wales were in effect providing tertiary education to men in their late teens and early twenties, which enabled them to be ordained as Anglican clergymen without going to university.

[6][9] The commission proposed the creation of a national system of secondary education by restructuring the endowments of these schools for modern purposes.

[20] Until the implementation of the Robbins Report in the 1960's expanding higher education, pupils from public and grammar schools effectively monopolised access to universities.

According to Anthony Sampson, in his book Anatomy of Britain (1965), there were structural problems within the testing process that underpinned the eleven plus which meant it tended to result in secondary modern schools being overwhelmingly dominated by the children of poor and working-class parents, while grammar schools were dominated by the children of wealthier middle-class parents.

[29][32] Petitions were launched in several areas, but only one received the signatures of 20% of eligible parents, the level needed to trigger a ballot.

In these areas, the eleven plus exam is used solely to identify a subset of children (around 25%) considered suitable for grammar education.

[44] Attempts to move to a comprehensive system (as in the rest of the United Kingdom) have been delayed by shifts in the administration of Northern Ireland.

As a result, Northern Ireland still maintains the grammar school system, with many pupils being entered for academic selection exams similar to the 11-plus.

Since the "open enrolment" reform of 1989, these schools (unlike those in England) have been required to accept pupils up to their capacity, which has also increased.

The Democratic Unionist Party claimed to have ensured the continuation of the grammar school system in the province as part of the St Andrews Agreement in October 2006.

The last government-run 11-plus exam was held in 2008 (for 2009 entry),[48] but the Northern Ireland Assembly has not been able to agree on a replacement system for secondary transfer.

The first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, advocated grammar schools for the colony to save the wealthy from sending their sons to the United States to be educated, but he was unable to convince his superiors in London.

[60] Legislation in 1839 allowed for more than one grammar school in a district, triggering a rapid but unstructured growth in numbers over the following two decades to 86 in 1861.

Mainstream schools in Hong Kong reflect the post-war British grammar system, focusing on a traditional curriculum rather than vocational subjects.

Grammar schools along the lines of those in Great Britain were set up for members of the Church of Ireland prior to its disestablishment in 1871.

Before the 1970s when Malay was made the medium of instruction, many such selective schools became known for providing excellent English-medium education and have produced many notable alumni, including former Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Tun Razak (St. John's Institution) and all five of his predecessors.

The absence of a national education system meant that the first sizable secondary-education providers were grammar schools and other private institutions.

When laws banning polygamy became strictly enforced in Singapore after 1965, these schools extended their English-speaking classes to girls from families of any socio-economic background.

Since the 1960s their mission was to provide a high-quality elite education to the top 10% in national annual IQ tests, regardless of socio-economic background.

The Ministry of Education published annual rankings, but discontinued them after criticism of excessive academic stress placed on schoolchildren, some of whom committed suicide in response to perceived failure.

These schools initially taught young men the classical languages as a preparation for university, but by the mid-18th century many had broadened their curricula to include practical subjects.