Editing Grammar school (section)

==History==
=== Medieval grammar schools ===
{{see also|Latin school}}
[[File:King's School Normal staircase.jpg|thumb|Norman staircase at [[King's School, Canterbury]] (founded 597)]]
Although the term {{lang|la|scolae grammaticales}} was not widely used until the 14th century, the earliest such schools appeared from the sixth century, e.g. the [[King's School, Canterbury]] (founded 597), the [[King's School, Rochester]] (604) and [[St Peter's School, York]] (627)<ref>{{cite book
| editor     = W.H. Hadow
| editor-link     = William Henry Hadow
| title      = The Education of the Adolescent
| publisher  = HM Stationery Office | location = London | year = 1926
| url        = http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/hadow1926/
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100406010825/http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/hadow1926/
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 6 April 2010
| access-date = 15 April 2010
}}</ref><ref name="Gordon&Lawton">{{cite book
| title     = Dictionary of British Education
| author    = Peter Gordon |author2=Denis Lawton
| publisher = Woburn Press | location = London | year = 2003
}}</ref>
The schools were attached to cathedrals and monasteries, teaching Latin – the language of the church – to future priests and monks. 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).<ref name="Spens Report">{{cite book
| editor     = Will Spens
| editor-link= Will Spens
| title      = Secondary education with special reference to grammar schools and technical high schools
| publisher  = HM Stationery Office | location = London | year = 1938
| url        = http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/spens/
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100406010840/http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/spens/
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 6 April 2010
| access-date = 15 April 2010
}}</ref>
{{anchor|free liturgically}}
With the foundation of the [[ancient universities]] from the late 12th century, grammar schools became the entry point to a [[liberal arts]] education, with Latin seen as the foundation of the [[trivium (education)|trivium]]. Pupils were usually educated in grammar schools up to the age of 14, after which they would look to universities and the church for further study. Of the three first schools independent of the church – [[Winchester College]] (1382), [[Oswestry School]] (1407) and [[Eton College]] (1440) – Winchester and Eton were feeder schools to Oxford and Cambridge universities respectively. There is a mention of a grammar school at [[Shrewsbury School|Shrewsbury]] in a court case of 1439.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Everyday life in Tudor Shrewsbury {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/32893450 |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}</ref> They were [[boarding school]]s, so they could educate pupils from anywhere in the nation.<ref name="Spens Report" /><ref>{{cite book
| chapter    = Chapter XV. English and Scottish Education. Universities and Public Schools to the Time of Colet
| author     = Rev. T.A. Walker
| series     = The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes
| title      = Volume II: English. The End of the Middle Ages
| editor     = A. W. Ward |editor2=A. R. Waller
| year       = 1907–1921
| chapter-url = http://www.bartleby.com/212/
| access-date = 15 April 2010
}}</ref>

===Early modern grammar schools===
{{see also|Neo-Latin#Latin in school education 1500–1700}}
An example of an early grammar school, founded by an early modern borough corporation unconnected with church, or university, is [[Bridgnorth Grammar School]], founded in 1503 by Bridgnorth Borough Corporation.<ref>J. F. A. Mason, The Borough of Bridgnorth 1157–1957 (Bridgnorth, 1957), 12, 36</ref>

{{anchor|free tuition}}
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]].<ref name="Spens Report"/> For example, the oldest extant schools in Wales – [[Christ College, Brecon]] (founded 1541) and the [[Friars School, Bangor]] (1557) – were established on the sites of former [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] monasteries. King [[Edward VI of England|Edward VI]] made an important contribution to grammar schools, founding a series of schools during his reign (see [[King Edward's School (disambiguation)|King Edward's School]]). A few grammar schools were also established in the name of Queen Mary and then of Queen Elizabeth I. King [[James I of England|James I]] founded a series of "Royal Schools" in Ulster, beginning with [[The Royal School, Armagh]]. In theory these schools were open to all and offered free tuition to those who could not pay fees; however, few poor children attended school, because their labour was economically valuable to their families.

In the [[Scottish Reformation]] schools such as the [[High School of Glasgow|Choir School of Glasgow Cathedral]] (founded 1124) and the [[Royal High School (Edinburgh)|Grammar School of the Church of Edinburgh]] (1128) passed from church control to [[burgh]] councils, and the burghs also founded new schools. With the increased emphasis on studying the scriptures after the Reformation, many schools added Greek and, in a few cases, Hebrew. The teaching of these languages was hampered by a shortage of non-Latin type and of teachers fluent in the languages.

[[File:Old Grammar School, Market Harborough 07.jpg|thumb|Old Grammar School, Market Harborough, Leicestershire (1614)]]
During the 16th and 17th centuries the establishment of grammar schools became a common act of charity by nobles, wealthy merchants and [[guild]]s; for example [[The Crypt School]], Gloucester, founded by John and Joan Cook in 1539, [[Sir Roger Manwood's School]], founded in 1563 by [[Sandwich, Kent|Sandwich]] [[jurist]] [[Roger Manwood]], and [[Spalding Grammar School]], founded by John Gamlyn and John Blanche in 1588. Many of these are still commemorated in annual "Founder's Day" services and ceremonies at surviving schools. 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.<ref name="Walford">{{cite book
| chapter   = Girls' Private Schooling: Past and Present
| author    = Geoffrey Walford
| title     = The Private Schooling of Girls: Past and Present
| editor    = Geoffrey Walford
| publisher = The Woburn Press | location = London | year = 1993
| pages     = 9–32
}}</ref>

The school day typically ran from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a two-hour break for lunch; in winter, school started at 7 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m. Most of the day was spent in the [[rote learning]] of Latin. To encourage fluency, some schoolmasters recommended punishing any pupil who spoke in English. The younger boys learned the [[parts of speech]] and Latin words in the first year, learned to construct Latin sentences in the second year, and began translating English–Latin and Latin–English passages in the third year. By the end of their studies at age 14, they would be quite familiar with the great Latin authors, and with Latin drama and rhetoric.<ref>{{cite web
| url         = http://www.likesnail.org.uk/welcome-es.htm
| title       = Educating Shakespeare: School Life in Elizabethan England
| publisher   = The Guild School Association, Stratford-upon-Avon
| year        = 2003
| access-date = 1 October 2008
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010302040536/http://www.likesnail.org.uk/welcome-es.htm
| archive-date= 2 March 2001
| url-status  = dead
}}</ref> Other skills, such as arithmetic and handwriting, were taught in odd moments or by travelling specialist teachers such as [[scrivener]]s.

===Grammar schools in the 18th and 19th centuries===
{{Further|List of English and Welsh endowed schools (19th century)}}
In 1755 [[Samuel Johnson]]'s ''Dictionary'' defined a grammar school as ''a school in which the learned languages are grammatically taught'';<ref>{{cite book
| title      = A Dictionary of the English Language
| author     = Samuel Johnson | year = 1755
| author-link = Samuel Johnson
| title-link     = A Dictionary of the English Language }}</ref>
However, by this time demand for these languages had fallen greatly. A new commercial class required modern languages and commercial subjects.<ref name="Walford"/> Most grammar schools founded in the 18th century also taught arithmetic and English.<ref name="Sutherland">{{cite book
| chapter = Education | pages = 119–169
| author  = Gillian Sutherland
| title   = Social Agencies and Institutions
| editor  = F. M. L. Thompson
| editor-link  = F. M. L. Thompson
| series  = The Cambridge Social History of Britain 1750–1950
| volume  = 3
| year    = 1990
}}</ref> In Scotland, the burgh councils updated the curricula of their schools so that Scotland no longer has grammar schools in any of the senses discussed here, though some, such as [[Aberdeen Grammar School]], retain the name.<ref>{{cite book
| author    = Robert Anderson
| chapter   = The History of Scottish Education, pre-1980
| title     = Scottish Education: Post-Devolution
| editor    = T. G. K. Bryce |editor2=Walter M. Humes
| publisher = Edinburgh University Press | year = 2003
| pages     = 219–228
| isbn      = 978-0-7486-0980-2
}}</ref>

In England, urban middle-class pressure for a commercial curriculum was often supported by the school's trustees (who would charge the new students fees), but resisted by the schoolmaster, supported by the terms of the original endowment. Very few schools were able to obtain special acts of Parliament to change their statutes; examples are the [[the King's School, Macclesfield|Macclesfield Grammar School]] Act 1774 and the [[Bolton School|Bolton Grammar School]] Act 1788.<ref name="Walford"/> Such a dispute between the trustees and master of [[Leeds Grammar School]] led to a celebrated case in the [[Court of Chancery]]. After 10 years, [[John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon|Lord Eldon]], then [[Lord Chancellor]], ruled in 1805, "There is no authority for thus changing the nature of the Charity, and filling a School intended for the purpose of teaching Greek and Latin with Scholars learning the German and French languages, mathematics, and anything except Greek and Latin."<ref name="Matthews">{{cite book
| title     = The Register of Leeds Grammar School 1820–1896
| author    = J.H.D. Matthews |author2=Vincent Thompson Jr
| publisher = Laycock and Sons | location = Leeds | year = 1897
| chapter-url       = https://archive.org/details/registerleedsgr00englgoog
| chapter   = A Short Account of the Free Grammar School at Leeds
| page      = xvi
}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Spens Report"/><ref name="Sutherland"/> 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 Theological College|St Bees Clerical College]], in 1817, and [[University of Wales, Lampeter|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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Education of the Anglican Clergy, 1780–1839|last=Slinn|first=Sara|publisher=Boydell and Brewer|year=2017|isbn=978-1-78327-175-7|location=Woodbridge|pages=129–169}}</ref>

===Victorian-era grammar schools===
[[File:Frances Mary Buss.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.5|alt=sepia photograph of a seated woman in conservative Victorian dress|[[Frances Buss]], founding head of [[North London Collegiate School]] (1850)]]
[[File:Dorothea_Beale.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.5|[[Dorothea Beale]], principal of [[Cheltenham Ladies' College]] as of (1858)]]

The 19th century saw a series of reforms to grammar schools, culminating in the [[Endowed Schools Act 1869]]. Grammar schools were reinvented as academically oriented [[secondary school]]s following literary or scientific curricula, while often retaining classical subjects.

The [[Grammar Schools Act 1840]] made it lawful to apply the income of grammar schools to purposes other than those defined in the original endowment eg. teaching of classical languages. <ref>{{cite web |last1=Gillard |first1=Derek |title=Grammar Schools Act 1840 |url=http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/acts/1840-grammar-schools-act.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114013526/http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/acts/1840-grammar-schools-act.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 November 2013 |website=www.educationengland.org}}</ref>  Such change however to the intentions of the original endowment required application to and consent of a court of law.  In mid C19 therefore, some schools started reorganising themselves along the lines of [[Thomas Arnold]]'s reforms at [[Rugby School]], and also the spread of the railways supported the success of new boarding schools, teaching a broader curriculum, such as [[Marlborough College|Marlborough]] (1843), [[Epsom College|Epsom]] (1855) and [[Framlingham College|Framlingham]] (1864).

The first girls' schools targeted at university entrance were [[North London Collegiate School]] (1850) and [[Cheltenham Ladies' College]] (from the appointment of [[Dorothea Beale]] in 1858).<ref name="Walford" /><ref name="Sutherland" /> Academically orientated girls' secondary schools were established in the latter part of C19. In locations with an older boys' grammar school they would often be named a "high school" .<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burstall |first1=Sara Annie |title=English High Schools for Girls: Their Aims, Organisation, and Management |date=1907 |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/englishhighscho00bursgoog |access-date=7 March 2025}}</ref>  Examples of the latter are [[Manchester High School for Girls]] (1874) and [[King Edward VI High School for Girls]] (1883).

Following the [[Clarendon Commission]], which led to the [[Public Schools Act 1868]] which restructured the trusts of nine leading schools (including [[Eton College]], [[Harrow School]] and [[Shrewsbury School]]), the [[Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton|Taunton]] Commission was appointed to examine the remaining 782 endowed grammar schools. The commission reported that the distribution of schools did not match the current population, and that provision varied greatly in quality, with provision for girls being particularly limited.<ref name="Walford" /><ref name="Sutherland" /> The Taunton Commission's report of 1868 proposed the creation of a national system of secondary education by restructuring the endowments of these schools for modern purposes. The result was the [[Endowed Schools Act 1869]], which created the Endowed Schools Commission with extensive powers over endowments of individual schools. It was said that the commission "could turn a boys' school in Northumberland into a girls' school in Cornwall". Across England and Wales schools endowed to offer free classical instruction to boys were remodelled as fee-paying schools (with a few competitive scholarships) teaching broad curricula to boys or girls.<ref name="Walford" /><ref name="Sutherland" /><ref>{{cite book
| series  = The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes
| year    = 1907–1921
| editor  = A. W. Ward |editor2=A. R. Waller
| title   = Volume XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two
| chapter = Chapter XIV. Education
| author  = J.W. Adamson
| chapter-url     = http://www.bartleby.com/224/
}}</ref>

[[File:GIRLS' COUMTY SCHOOL LAB.jpg|thumb|left|Laboratory, Brecon [[county school|County School]] for Girls in 1896]]
In the late [[Victorian era]] there was a great emphasis on the importance of [[self-improvement]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Baltz Rodrick |first1=Anne |title=The Importance of Being an Earnest Improver: Class, Caste, and "Self-Help" in Mid-Victorian England |journal=Victorian Literature and Culture |date=2001 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=39–50 |doi=10.1017/S1060150301291037 |jstor=25058538 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25058538 |access-date=5 March 2025}}</ref> Many schools established at that time emulated the great [[public school (UK)|public schools]], copying their curriculum, ethos and ambitions, and some took or maintained the title "grammar school" for historical reasons.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} 

Under the Free Place Regulations of 1907, an increased grant was made available to secondary schools that provided at least 25 percent of their places as free scholarships for students from public elementary schools. Grammar schools thus emerged as one part of the highly varied education system of England and Wales before 1944.<ref name="Spens Report"/><ref name="Sutherland"/>

===Tripartite System===
{{main|Tripartite System}}

The [[Education Act 1944]] created the first nationwide system of state-funded secondary education in England and Wales, echoed by the Education (Northern Ireland) Act 1947. One of the three types of school forming the [[Tripartite System]] was called the grammar school, which sought to spread the academic ethos of the existing grammar schools. Grammar schools were intended to teach an academic curriculum to the most intellectually able 25 percent of the school population as selected by the [[11-plus]] examination.
[[File:Framlingham_College.jpg|alt=|thumb|[[Framlingham College]], a former direct-grant grammar school]]
Two types of grammar schools existed under the system:
<ref name="statistics">{{citation
| title      = Grammar school statistics | author = Shadi Danechi
| publisher  = House of Commons Library | date = 3 January 2020
| url        = http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01398/SN01398.pdf
| access-date = 13 June 2023
}}</ref>
<ref name="New Anatomy">{{cite book
| title      = The New Anatomy of Britain
| author     = Anthony Sampson
| author-link = Anthony Sampson
| publisher  = [[Hodder & Stoughton]]
| location   = London
| year       = 1971
| pages      = 139–145
| quote      = a few direct-grant schools have acquired a special reputation. The most famous of them is Manchester Grammar School
| title-link     = Anatomy of Britain
}}</ref>
* State-maintained grammar schools, which reached a peak in 1964 with 1,298 in England and Wales.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Danechi |first1=Shadi |title=Grammar School Statistics |journal=House of Commons Library Briefing Paper |date=3 Jan 2020 |issue=1398 |pages=4–5 |url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01398/SN01398.pdf |access-date=13 June 2023}}</ref> Though some were quite old, most were either newly created or built since the Victorian period, seeking to replicate the studious, aspirational atmosphere found in the older grammar schools.
* [[Direct-grant grammar school]]s of which there were 179. They took between one quarter and one-half of their pupils from the state system, and the rest from fee-paying parents. They also exercised far greater freedom from local authorities, and some were members of the [[Headmasters' Conference]]. These schools included some very old schools encouraged to participate in the Tripartite System. The most famous example of a direct-grant grammar was [[Manchester Grammar School]], whose headmaster, [[Eric James, Baron James of Rusholme|Lord James of Rusholme]], was one of the most outspoken advocates of the Tripartite System.<ref>Sampson (1971), p. 143.</ref>

Grammar school pupils were given the best opportunities of any schoolchildren in the state system.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hitchens |first1=Peter |title=The golden age of the grammar schools |journal=The Spectator |date=21 Sep 2021 |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-golden-age-of-the-grammar-schools/}}</ref> Initially, they studied for the [[School Certificate (UK)|School Certificate]] and [[Higher School Certificate (UK)|Higher School Certificate]], replaced in 1951 by [[General Certificate of Education]] examinations at [[GCE Ordinary Level (United Kingdom)|O-level]] (Ordinary level) and [[Advanced Level (UK)|A-level]] (Advanced level). In contrast, very few students at [[secondary modern school]]s took public examinations until the introduction of the less academic and less prestigious [[Certificate of Secondary Education]] (known as the CSE) in 1965.<ref>''[http://www.qcda.gov.uk/6210.aspx The story of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911091932/http://www.qcda.gov.uk/6210.aspx |date=11 September 2009 }}'', [[Qualifications and Curriculum Authority]].</ref> Until the implementation of the [[Robbins Report]] in the 1960's expanding [[higher education]], pupils from [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public]] and grammar schools effectively monopolised access to universities. These schools were also the only ones that offered an extra term of school to prepare pupils for the competitive entrance exams for [[Oxford University|Oxford]] and [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]].

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.<ref>Sampson, A. ''Anatomy of Britain Today,'' London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1965, p.195</ref> The Tripartite System was largely abolished in England and Wales between 1965, with the issue of [[Circular 10/65]], and the Education Act 1976. Most maintained grammar schools were amalgamated with a number of other local schools, to form neighbourhood [[comprehensive school]]s, though a few were closed. This process proceeded quickly in Wales, with the closure of such schools as [[Cowbridge Grammar School]]. In England, implementation was less even, with some counties and individual schools successfully resisting conversion or closure.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Jörn-Steffen |last1=Pischke |first2=Alan |last2=Manning |title=Comprehensive versus Selective Schooling in England in Wales: What Do We Know? |date=April 2006 |journal=NBER Working Paper No. 12176 |doi=10.3386/w12176 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite report
 |title=The impact of the structure of secondary education in Slough 
 |author=Ian Schagen 
 |author2=Sandy Schagen 
 |date=November 2001 
 |publisher=[[National Foundation for Educational Research]] 
 |url=http://www.emie.ac.uk/publications/other-publications/downloadable-reports/pdf_docs/slsfinalreport.pdf 
 |access-date=19 October 2009 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104074511/http://www.emie.ac.uk/publications/other-publications/downloadable-reports/pdf_docs/slsfinalreport.pdf 
 |archive-date=4 January 2012
}}</ref>

The Direct Grant Grammar Schools (Cessation of Grant) Regulations 1975 required direct grant schools to decide whether to convert into comprehensives under local authority control or become [[Private schools in the United Kingdom|private schools]] funded entirely by fees. Of the direct grant schools remaining at that time, 51 became comprehensive, 119 opted for independence, and five were "not accepted for the maintained system and expected to become independent schools or to close".<ref>{{cite hansard |title=Direct Grant Schools | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1978/mar/22/direct-grant-schools | house=House of Commons | date=22 March 1978 | column_start=582W | column_end=586W }}</ref> Some of these schools retained the name "grammar" in their title but are no longer free of charge for all but a few pupils. These schools normally select their pupils by an entrance examination and sometimes by interview.

By the end of the 1980s, all of the grammar schools in Wales and most of those in England had closed or converted to comprehensive schools. Selection also disappeared from state-funded schools in Scotland in the same period. Although almost all former grammar schools ceased to be selective, there are comprehensive schools that chose to maintain the descriptor "grammar" in their nomenclature.{{efn|{{cslist |[[Appleby Grammar School]] |[[Batley Grammar School]] |[[Beverley Grammar School]] |[[Bingley Grammar School]] |[[Enfield Grammar School]] |[[Hutton Grammar School]] |[[Ilkley Grammar School]] |[[Kirkby Stephen Grammar School]] |[[Mirfield Free Grammar School]] |[[Penistone Grammar School]] |[[Prince Henry's Grammar School, Otley]] |[[Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne]] |[[Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn]] |[[Ramsey Grammar School]] |[[Steyning Grammar School]] |[[Tadcaster Grammar School]] |[[Watford Grammar School for Boys]] |[[Watford Grammar School for Girls]] |[[William Hulme's Grammar School]] }}}} Most of these schools do however operate some form of selection in their admission process, due to oversubscription. There is also a small group of formally [[Partially selective school (England)|partially selective schools]] which select a cohort of pupils based on academic ability. The tripartite system (reduced to grammar and secondary modern schools) does survive in certain areas, such as Kent, where the eleven-plus examination which divides pupils into placement in grammar or secondary modern school is known as the [[Kent Test]].