11+

No it was 1992! I think my memory is failing.

I did really well at grammar school when I look back at it.
However, I just couldn't wait to get away.

So keep me straight please, if you went to a secondary modern, did that mean you didn't do A Levels or go on to university? My Mum went to a secondary modern and I went to a comprehensive, but I didn't realise there was a difference between the two.

Well I have just answered my own questions by reading this entry on Wikipedia

Secondary modern school

Shocking, simply shocking. Thank goodness the situation is different this time around and the reintroduction of grammar schools cannot result in the same outcome.

I think the biggest advantage at my grammar school was that it was all girls. We were never given the idea that any subjects were unsuitable for girls, if you were good at a subject you studied it. And there was no favouritism towards the boys - because there weren't any.

DH went to a Secondary Modern and, as far as I can see, had no further education at all. He was good at science but they had a different teacher every year and only spent a year on each branch of science. He appeared to be good at French at one point, but there was no suggestion of anyone taking any exams so nobody really bothered.

By the way DD went to a comprehensive where she was able to take Latin, which she has since found very useful Latin grammar has filled in the gaps in her English lessons.

My granddaughter rang me tonight to tell us she has passed her 11 plus and while I respect all the opinions that have been posted on this thread ( we are all entitled to them) I am so happy and proud of her because she has worked so hard I wanted to share my news thanks

Congratulations tinaf1

Wilma
I went to S. M. We took GCSE's General Certificate of Secondary Education if my memory serves me right. I passed 6 and could have gone on to upper 6th for to take A levels, a couple of classmates went to uni but I got a job in a travel agents instead.
I don't understand what you find shocking about the Wickie article.

Well done to your DGD tinaf1 I was wondering how it went.

Been away, so missed this thread until today.,
I was a Grammar School girl, and proud of it. It was girls only, and all the better for that, I consider. No-one could have come from a poorer background than I did, but I was lucky enough to pass the 11+ and that was all that mattered.
As far as I am aware, it's still all that matters, isn't it? I know of nothing which says the poor and disadvantaged cannot attend them.
Long may they survive, because in my opinion they give a better education and better standards of behaviour and discipline.

ninathenana I too found the Wickie entry shocking and I thought I knew about sec moderns. I didn't know that lack of grammar school places meant that children of ability were sent to sec moderns during the "bulge years", or that Grammar schools received more funding. But the most shocking was the idea that secondary children no matter how able could not do A levels or progress to further education.
I wonder when you were at school? Wickie says "1963, for instance, only 318 former secondary modern pupils sat A levels. None went on to university."
Were you later? or perhaps one of a very few?

Thank you for the kind congratulation and I hope any other grandparents & parents who are waiting for their children / granchilden's results hope you all get good news

If that is how you wish to interpret what I said Wilma that is fine. That is your prerogative. However, I was certainly not bragging, neither am I in favour of grammar school over comprehensives. As I said before, I was purely trying to say that whatever school they go to their direction in life will be different and I stand by that. It is inevitable. That is life. I am however, like tinaf1, very proud of them both. Surely we all appreciate achievement, be it academic or otherwise?

DH and I, both from dysfunctional backgrounds for different reasons went to Grammar School and although financial reasons stopped us going on to full time further education we both went to day release college and did well. My DC are both products of Comprehensives, one has excelled and one hasn't. We are all individuals but my GS opened social opportunities for me I could never have had at the Sec modern I would have gone to.

Deeda at my all girls school the brighter girls were encouraged to go into the arts stream, the less bright, the science stream and the dullest the domestic stream.
I was equally good at arts and science but had to fight to do science.
Seriously, can any of you imagine me with a degree in theology teaching at a missionary school as my headmistress suggested?

Don't think the pearls would have gone down well in the jungle

trisher I sat my GCSE's in 1970 so those that sat A level would have done so 1971/2

When I went to the secondary modern school we took CSE's, certificate of secondary education. They were graded from 6 to 1. A grade one was equivalent to a GCE pass, but hardly any employers gave them any credence, and you could not take A levels as the school didn't have a sixth form. If you wanted to take higher education, you had to go to technical college, if you could get in. Secondary modern schools only equipped you for being a housewife! Well that's my opinion any way. I am quite proud of what I achieved given the school I had to go to.

trisher that's what I found shocking too. Plus the idea of 15 yr olds sitting on chairs for primary school children and that even if a pupil did manage to get O Levels, many Grammar schools would not let them transfer there to do A Levels.

It's clear that in later years changes were made to try and help more able pupils at secondary moderns, but it was a drop in the ocean. No wonder people wanted their children to go to Grammar school when the alternative was so unappealing.

I lived in Scotland, but I can see how lucky I was not to have been educated during the time of Grammar schools. I'm from a council estate and my parents worked hard all their lives, but I suspect the cost of keeping a child in a Grammar school would have been detrimental to the whole family. I would have hated to be one of the poor kids.

nanapug I do indeed celebrate achievement. Congratulations to both of your GC and I wish them well in the future.

I went to a sec mod that only did CSE and so had to change at 14 yrs to a sec mod that did O'levels and then into the grammar school 6th form.
I am very pro comprehensives as a result.
I got there in the end, but it was hard. It seemed stupidity to send an 11 yr old who intended taking A'levels to a school that not only didn't have a 6 th form but didn't do O'levels.

Thank you Wilma

I think by 1970 sec moderns were beginning to change because comprehensives were becoming more common. By 1975 most systems were comprehensive. Interesting history here www.timeshighereducation.com/news/comprehensive-schools-the-history/92186.article
I think the fact that children were beginning to take A levels and go on to university only emphasises the fact that there were children in secondary schools who would have been capable of achieving more if only they had been given the chance.
nanapug congratulations t your DGCs. I hope they are happy in their new schools.
One of the things I am greatly in favour of is Life-long education. I have a number of friends who went to university in their 40s, having left school at 15. I think they appreciated their degree course far more than I did when I was 18.

Looking back I realise that the big difference in the 50s was the lack of private schools. Although my primary school was in quite a poor area I think several children in my class would have been privately educated nowadays. The same was true of the grammar school; many of the girls came from professional or show business families who would probably opt for private education today.

Deeda I am not sure about the numbers, but in the 60s the percentage of private schools was about 8%. The lowest percentage was about 6% in the 70s and it's about 7% at the moment. Until 1975 some grammar schools were partly funded privately and partly funded by the state. Two thirds of these schools chose to become private schools.

My perception was that more children went to private schools - certainly if you failed the 11+ it was quite likely. They are so expensive these days that a lot of people are priced out. I certainly have a lot of friends who were privately educated who had to use state for their own children.
When I failed my parents looked at 2 options of private, but I wasn't an only child so they couldn't afford it.

I think around the 1940s many Private Schools had become Government-funded Grammar Schools. That was certainly true of the one I went to.
In Muswell Hill, N London, Tollington School for Boys, and the Tollington High School (girls) were eventually amalgamated in a newly built Comprehensive, which after several changes of name settled into being called Fortismere. My old school building is still part of the campus, being the Sixth Form department. On reflection, I'm rather glad they waited until I had left before introducing the girls - I think the culture shock would have been uncomfortable!

The school today has a enviable reputation for keeping house prices high in the surrounding area.

The Tollington Schools disappeared forty-six yeas ago - but we still managed to attract about 100 ex-pupils to the Annual Reunion Lunch a couple of weeks ago.