Editing Comprehensive school (section)

===History===
The first comprehensives were set up after the Second World War. A central feature of the [[London County Council]] (LCC) Schools Plan of 1947 was a proposal to establish 'a system of Comprehensive High
Schools'.<ref>{{cite book|title=Replanning London Schools |date=1947 |publisher=London County Council (www.education-uk.org) |page=25 |url=https://www.education-uk.org/documents/lcc1947-lsp/1947-replanning-london-schools.pdf |access-date=21 March 2025}}</ref>
Earlier in 1946 [[Walworth School]] was an 'experimental' comprehensive school set up by the LCC,<ref>{{cite web |last1=West |first1=Anne |title=A (short) history of comprehensive education in England |url=https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/89495/1/West__history-of-comprehensive-education.pdf |website=eprints.lse.ac.uk |publisher=London School of Economics |access-date=22 November 2024}}</ref><ref>Peter Medway and Pat Kingwell, "A Curriculum in its place: English teaching in one school 1946–1963", ''History of Education'' 39, no. 6 (November 2010): 749–765.</ref> although London's first purpose built comprehensive was [[Kidbrooke School]] built in 1954. Also in 1946 the [[The Lakes School|Windermere Grammar School]] though retaining the name became a (boys') comprehensive.<ref>{{cite web |title=School History |url=https://thelakesschool.com/the-lakes-school-cumbria/school-history/ |website=thelakesschool.com |access-date=21 November 2024}}</ref> On the [[Isle of Man]], (a Crown dependency and not part of the [[United Kingdom]]) comprehensive education was also introduced in 1946.<ref>{{cite news |title=Exhibition to mark 70th anniversary of comprehensive education |url=https://www.isleofman.com/news/view/22001023/exhibition-to-mark-70th-anniversary-of-comprehensive-education#:~:text=The%20opening%20of%20Ramsey%20Grammar,t%20widely%20introduced%20until%201965. |access-date=21 November 2024 |work=Isle of Man.com |date=16 February 2016}}</ref> [[Mellow Lane School]] a co-educational comprehensive school was established in 1948 in [[Hayes, Hillingdon|Hayes]] then part of the former county of [[Middlesex]]. In Wales the first comprehensive school was [[Holyhead High School|Holyhead County School]] in [[Anglesey]] in 1949.<ref name="chts26">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4202774.stm Comps – here to stay?], Phil Tinline, September 2005, BBC, accessed 12 August 2008.</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20051025/ai_n15717384| title=TEN QUESTIONS &#124; Independent, the (London) &#124; Find Articles at BNET| access-date=9 August 2008| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090428133054/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20051025/ai_n15717384/| archive-date=28 April 2009| url-status=dead}}</ref> Coventry opened two comprehensive schools in 1954 by combining [[grammar school]]s and [[secondary modern]] schools. These were [[Caludon Castle School]] and [[Woodlands Academy, Coventry|Woodlands School]]. [[Mount Grace School]], Potters Bar which opened in 1954 was purpose-built as a comprehensive. Another early example was the 1956 [[Ormiston Sandwell Academy|Tividale Comprehensive School]] in [[Tipton]]. The first, purpose-built comprehensive in the North of England was [[Colne Valley High School]] near Huddersfield in 1956. These early comprehensives mostly modelled themselves, in terms of ethos, on the [[Grammar schools in the United Kingdom|grammar school]], with gown-wearing teachers conducting lessons in a very formal style.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} The opening of [[Risinghill School]] in [[Islington]] in 1960 offered an alternative to this model. Embracing the [[progressivism|progressive]] ideals of 1960s education, such schools typically abandoned [[school corporal punishment|corporal punishment]] and brought in a more liberal attitude to discipline and methods of study.
[[File:The_New_Silverdale_School_Building_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1412045.jpg|thumb|[[Silverdale School]] is a coeducational comprehensive school with [[sixth form]] in Sheffield with [[Academy (English school)|academy]] status. Established as a [[Secondary modern school|secondary modern]] in 1957 and converted to comprehensive in 1969.]]

The largest expansion of comprehensive schools resulted from a policy decision taken in 1965 by [[Anthony Crosland]], Secretary of State for Education in the 1964–1970 [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government. The policy decision was implemented by [[Circular 10/65]], a request to local education authorities to plan for conversion from the prevailing [[Tripartite System of education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland|tripartite]] system. Following the post WW2 education reform introducing tripartite secondary education pupils, excepting those in areas with the early comprehensives, sat the [[11+]] examination in their last year of primary education and were sent to one of a [[secondary modern]], [[secondary technical]] or [[grammar school]] depending on their perceived ability. Secondary technical schools were never widely implemented and for 20 years there was a virtual bipartite system which saw fierce competition for the available grammar school places, which varied between 15% and 25% of total secondary places.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

In 1970, [[Margaret Thatcher]], the Secretary of State for Education in the new [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] government, ended the compulsion on local authorities to convert. 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 Thatcher than any other education secretary. By 1975, the majority of local authorities in England and Wales had abandoned the [[Eleven-Plus exam|11-Plus]] examination and moved to a comprehensive system. Over that 10-year period, many [[secondary modern]] schools and [[grammar schools]] were amalgamated to form large neighbourhood comprehensives, whilst a number of new schools were built to accommodate a growing school population. In the mid-1970s, the process of comprehensivisation peaked, leaving selective secondary state education (grammar schools, secondary modern schools, 11+) only with a small number of local education authorities. 

In 1976, the Labour Prime Minister [[James Callaghan]] launched what became known as the 'great debate' on the education system.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Berliner |first1=Wendy |title=Remembering the great debate: our schooling system needs a rethink |url=https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/apr/23/schooling-system-rethink-great-debate-education-spring |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=23 April 2013}}</ref> He went on to list the areas he believed needed closest scrutiny: the case for a core curriculum, the validity and use of informal teaching methods, the role of school inspections, and the future of the [[examination system]]. Comprehensive schools remain the most common type of state [[secondary school]] in England, and the only type in Wales. They account for around 90% of pupils, or 64% if one does not count schools with low-level selection.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} This figure varies by region.

Since the 1988 [[Education Reform Act 1988|Education Reform Act]], parents have a right to choose to which school their child should go, or whether to not send them to school at all and to [[Home education in the United Kingdom|home educate]] them instead. The concept of "school choice" introduces the idea of competition between state schools, a fundamental change to the original "neighbourhood comprehensive" model, and is partly intended as a means by which schools that are perceived to be inferior are forced either to improve or, if hardly anyone wants to go there, to close down. 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 quasi-market incentive to encourage better schools. Both Conservative and Labour governments experimented with alternatives to the original neighbourhood comprehensive.<ref name="chts26" />

Experiments have included:
* Partnerships where successful schools share knowledge and best practice with nearby schools
* Federations of schools, where a partnership is formalised through joint governance arrangements
* [[City Technology College]]s, 15 new schools where one fifth of the capital cost is privately funded
* [[Academy (English school)|Academy schools]], state schools not controlled by the local authority, which are allowed to select up to 10% of admissions by ability
* [[Free school (England)|Free schools]], state schools not controlled by the local authority, which are allowed to select up to 10% of admissions by ability
[[File:Manchester Academy in Moss Side, January 2014.jpg|thumb|[[Manchester Academy (secondary school)|Manchester Academy]] is a coeducational comprehensive school with [[Academy (English school)|academy]] status in [[Greater Manchester]]]]

Following the advice of [[Cyril Taylor (educationist)|Cyril Taylor]], former businessman, Conservative politician, and chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT), in the mid-1990s, all parties have backed the creation of [[specialist school]]s, which focus on excellence in a particular subject and are theoretically allowed to select up to 10% of their intake. This policy consensus had brought to an end the notion that all children will go to their local school, and assumes parents will choose a school they feel most meets their child's needs.