Grammar schools - 1960s/1970s

We took 8 O levels, as the school considered this to be enough to give you a broad education and universities never asked for more than 7 ot 8 O levels. I know of schools where pupils had to sit 10 O levels, but surely studying so many subjects could put too much pressure in pupils and many would probably flunk a subject or two they weren't interested in.

Allira as far as the 60s goes I can only speak of my own experience. The O level option list at my school could allow you to drop one or 2 of the 3 sciences (that's not acceptable now btw), you could do history or geography or both. Some people did Art, some Home Economics, others did neither. I think you had to choose from about 8 different combinations of subjects.

Chardy

Allira as far as the 60s goes I can only speak of my own experience. The O level option list at my school could allow you to drop one or 2 of the 3 sciences (that's not acceptable now btw), you could do history or geography or both. Some people did Art, some Home Economics, others did neither. I think you had to choose from about 8 different combinations of subjects.

We had to do at least one science, I chose physics as the biology and chemistry teachers I had were a real let down and bored me with the subjects. You were also encouraged to take at leasrt one language and had to chose either history or geography, or both. Being a grammar school, there were no craft subjects( secondary moderns for those), but you could take a subject called technology, which was like applied physics.

I attended a school reunion for my first school- I've outlined the odd 13 plus system Cumberland had until 1984- which was a mixture of a secondary modern and a comprehensive with no sixth form and mostly CSE subjects. One of the comments that was raised was how snobbish some people became when they went to the grammar school and how working class kids who transferred were sometimes looked down on. A couple of us who lived in rented housing had this experience.

Mine was a Catholic grammar school.
It had a mix of families - lots of poorer and some wealthier.
Lots of Irish.
I don't remember any Muslim girls but we had some anglicans and several Jewish girls (whose families chose our school over other local grammar schools) one who I was friends with.

I think we were quite a mixed bunch.

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But surely most grammar schools were single sex?

NotSpaghetti

But surely most grammar schools were single sex?

In some areas they were, others not, probably due to the cost of maintainting two seperate schools. The grammar schools local to me were always mixed, even when they were fully selective.

Oh that's interesting.
The ones I knew (three of them) had both boys and girls schools operating separately (so six in total) -two had the boys and girls on entirely different sites.

growstuff

All the grammar schools in my area were single sex, so there was no question of giving more places to boys to make sure there was a 50/50 split.

Same here. There were no co-educational grammar schools in our county , they were all single-sex.

My kids were educated in Scotland where all state secondary schools are mixed, comprehensive ( non-selective) and run by the local council (no "academies").

butterandjam

growstuff

All the grammar schools in my area were single sex, so there was no question of giving more places to boys to make sure there was a 50/50 split.

Same here. There were no co-educational grammar schools in our county , they were all single-sex.

My kids were educated in Scotland where all state secondary schools are mixed, comprehensive ( non-selective) and run by the local council (no "academies").

Scotland was the first part of the country to ditch grammar schools and had completed the process by the early seventies. A lot had to with which party was running the LEA: Labour ones were far quicker to move to comprehensivs, which explains why grammar schools disappeared first in Scotland, South Wales and the North East. The areas where the handful of grammar schools remain are mostly Conservative.