Britain: An official handbook > 1977

BRITAIN 1977: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
low (the supply of places being inadequate to meet the demand for them)
though attendance, and particularly part-time attendance, has been increasing
very rapidly in recent years. Compulsory education begins at five when children
in England and Wales go to infant schools or departments; at seven they go on
to junior schools or departments. The usual age of transfer from primary to
secondary schools is 11 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but an increas¬
ing number of local authorities in England are establishing ‘first’ schools for
pupils aged 5-8 or 10 and ‘middle’ schools covering various age ranges between
9 and 14. In Scotland, the primary schools take children from 5 to 12, normally
having infant classes for children under 7> although in some areas there are
separate infant schools.
Secondary
Schools
England and Wales
The public or State system of education aims to give all children an education
suited to their particular abilities. About 70 per cent of the maintained secon¬
dary school population in England and Wales attend 3)°^9 comprehensive
schools which take pupils without reference to ability or aptitude and provide
a wide range of secondary education for all or most of the children of a district.
They can be organised in a number of ways including schools that take the full
secondary school age-range from 11 to 18; the middle schools whose pupils
move on to senior comprehensive schools at 12 or 13, leaving at 16 or 18; and
the comprehensive school with an age-range of 11 or 12 to 16 combined with a
sixth-form college for pupils over 16. Most of the remaining children receive
their secondary education in schools to which they are allocated after selection
procedures at the age of 11. Schools receiving pupils on a selective basis are:
about 740 grammar schools providing a mainly academic education (including
174 direct-grant grammar schools); some 1,216 secondary modern schools giving
a general education with a practical bias; a few secondary technical schools
offering a general education related to industry, commerce and agriculture;
and schools providing all three, or any two, types of education, in separately
organised streams and known as multilateral or bilateral schools.
In 1975 the Government introduced legislation designed to hasten progress
towards a fully comprehensive system of secondary education including the
phasing out of the direct-grant system. A number of direct-grant schools have
agreed to end selection and join the State comprehensive system, while others
have announced their intention of becoming independent (see below).
Scotland Secondary education in Scotland is almost completely organised on compre¬
hensive lines and in 1975, about 98-6 per cent of all pupils in education
authority secondary schools were in schools with a comprehensive intake.
The majority of schools are six-year comprehensive schools. Because of local
circumstances there are some comprehensive schools whose courses may
extend to four years or less and from which pupils may transfer at the end
of their second or fourth years to a six-year comprehensive school.
Northern Ireland In Northern Ireland there are grammar schools and secondary (intermediate)
schools, the latter being the equivalent of the secondary modern schools in
England and Wales. Some comprehensive-type schools exist, and arrangements
for transfer between the other types of schools are flexible. In 1976 the Govern¬
ment published a consultative document containing a feasibility study on the
reorganisation of secondary education.
Special Special education is provided for children who require it because of physical
Education or mental disability, including maladjustment, either in ordinary schools or