Editing Grammar school (section)

===Victorian-era grammar schools===
[[File:Frances Mary Buss.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.5|alt=sepia photograph of a seated woman in conservative Victorian dress|[[Frances Buss]], founding head of [[North London Collegiate School]] (1850)]]
[[File:Dorothea_Beale.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.5|[[Dorothea Beale]], principal of [[Cheltenham Ladies' College]] as of (1858)]]

The 19th century saw a series of reforms to grammar schools, culminating in the [[Endowed Schools Act 1869]]. Grammar schools were reinvented as academically oriented [[secondary school]]s following literary or scientific curricula, while often retaining classical subjects.

The [[Grammar Schools Act 1840]] made it lawful to apply the income of grammar schools to purposes other than those defined in the original endowment eg. teaching of classical languages. <ref>{{cite web |last1=Gillard |first1=Derek |title=Grammar Schools Act 1840 |url=http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/acts/1840-grammar-schools-act.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114013526/http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/acts/1840-grammar-schools-act.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 November 2013 |website=www.educationengland.org}}</ref>  Such change however to the intentions of the original endowment required application to and consent of a court of law.  In mid C19 therefore, some schools started reorganising themselves along the lines of [[Thomas Arnold]]'s reforms at [[Rugby School]], and also the spread of the railways supported the success of new boarding schools, teaching a broader curriculum, such as [[Marlborough College|Marlborough]] (1843), [[Epsom College|Epsom]] (1855) and [[Framlingham College|Framlingham]] (1864).

The first girls' schools targeted at university entrance were [[North London Collegiate School]] (1850) and [[Cheltenham Ladies' College]] (from the appointment of [[Dorothea Beale]] in 1858).<ref name="Walford" /><ref name="Sutherland" /> Academically orientated girls' secondary schools were established in the latter part of C19. In locations with an older boys' grammar school they would often be named a "high school" .<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burstall |first1=Sara Annie |title=English High Schools for Girls: Their Aims, Organisation, and Management |date=1907 |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/englishhighscho00bursgoog |access-date=7 March 2025}}</ref>  Examples of the latter are [[Manchester High School for Girls]] (1874) and [[King Edward VI High School for Girls]] (1883).

Following the [[Clarendon Commission]], which led to the [[Public Schools Act 1868]] which restructured the trusts of nine leading schools (including [[Eton College]], [[Harrow School]] and [[Shrewsbury School]]), the [[Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton|Taunton]] Commission was appointed to examine the remaining 782 endowed grammar schools. The commission reported that the distribution of schools did not match the current population, and that provision varied greatly in quality, with provision for girls being particularly limited.<ref name="Walford" /><ref name="Sutherland" /> The Taunton Commission's report of 1868 proposed the creation of a national system of secondary education by restructuring the endowments of these schools for modern purposes. The result was the [[Endowed Schools Act 1869]], which created the Endowed Schools Commission with extensive powers over endowments of individual schools. It was said that the commission "could turn a boys' school in Northumberland into a girls' school in Cornwall". Across England and Wales schools endowed to offer free classical instruction to boys were remodelled as fee-paying schools (with a few competitive scholarships) teaching broad curricula to boys or girls.<ref name="Walford" /><ref name="Sutherland" /><ref>{{cite book
| series  = The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes
| year    = 1907–1921
| editor  = A. W. Ward |editor2=A. R. Waller
| title   = Volume XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two
| chapter = Chapter XIV. Education
| author  = J.W. Adamson
| chapter-url     = http://www.bartleby.com/224/
}}</ref>

[[File:GIRLS' COUMTY SCHOOL LAB.jpg|thumb|left|Laboratory, Brecon [[county school|County School]] for Girls in 1896]]
In the late [[Victorian era]] there was a great emphasis on the importance of [[self-improvement]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Baltz Rodrick |first1=Anne |title=The Importance of Being an Earnest Improver: Class, Caste, and "Self-Help" in Mid-Victorian England |journal=Victorian Literature and Culture |date=2001 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=39–50 |doi=10.1017/S1060150301291037 |jstor=25058538 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25058538 |access-date=5 March 2025}}</ref> Many schools established at that time emulated the great [[public school (UK)|public schools]], copying their curriculum, ethos and ambitions, and some took or maintained the title "grammar school" for historical reasons.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} 

Under the Free Place Regulations of 1907, an increased grant was made available to secondary schools that provided at least 25 percent of their places as free scholarships for students from public elementary schools. Grammar schools thus emerged as one part of the highly varied education system of England and Wales before 1944.<ref name="Spens Report"/><ref name="Sutherland"/>