Comprehensive Schools

Before the Second World War, secondary education provision was both patchy and expensive. After the war secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland was provided free to at least the age of 14 and managed under the Tripartite System introduced by Conservative secretary of state for education Rab Butler. Children took the eleven plus examination in their last year of primary education and were sent to secondary modern, secondary technical or grammar schools, depending on their perceived ability. In the event technical schools were never widely implemented, and for 20 years there was a virtual bipartite system, with fierce competition for the available grammar school places, which varied between 15% and 25% depending on location.

Controversy around the eleven plus exam combined with increasing dissatisfaction with the education offered by the secondary modern schools led to experiments with comprehensive schools from the early 1950s. In some low-population areas - such as the town of Settle the creation of a tripartite structure was not physically viable and comprehensive schools had been gradually spreading across the country, from Anglesey to the West Riding.