Editing Grammar school (section)

===Tripartite System===
{{main|Tripartite System}}

The [[Education Act 1944]] created the first nationwide system of state-funded secondary education in England and Wales, echoed by the Education (Northern Ireland) Act 1947. One of the three types of school forming the [[Tripartite System]] was called the grammar school, which sought to spread the academic ethos of the existing grammar schools. Grammar schools were intended to teach an academic curriculum to the most intellectually able 25 percent of the school population as selected by the [[11-plus]] examination.
[[File:Framlingham_College.jpg|alt=|thumb|[[Framlingham College]], a former direct-grant grammar school]]
Two types of grammar schools existed under the system:
<ref name="statistics">{{citation
| title      = Grammar school statistics | author = Shadi Danechi
| publisher  = House of Commons Library | date = 3 January 2020
| url        = http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01398/SN01398.pdf
| access-date = 13 June 2023
}}</ref>
<ref name="New Anatomy">{{cite book
| title      = The New Anatomy of Britain
| author     = Anthony Sampson
| author-link = Anthony Sampson
| publisher  = [[Hodder & Stoughton]]
| location   = London
| year       = 1971
| pages      = 139–145
| quote      = a few direct-grant schools have acquired a special reputation. The most famous of them is Manchester Grammar School
| title-link     = Anatomy of Britain
}}</ref>
* State-maintained grammar schools, which reached a peak in 1964 with 1,298 in England and Wales.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Danechi |first1=Shadi |title=Grammar School Statistics |journal=House of Commons Library Briefing Paper |date=3 Jan 2020 |issue=1398 |pages=4–5 |url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01398/SN01398.pdf |access-date=13 June 2023}}</ref> Though some were quite old, most were either newly created or built since the Victorian period, seeking to replicate the studious, aspirational atmosphere found in the older grammar schools.
* [[Direct-grant grammar school]]s of which there were 179. They took between one quarter and one-half of their pupils from the state system, and the rest from fee-paying parents. They also exercised far greater freedom from local authorities, and some were members of the [[Headmasters' Conference]]. These schools included some very old schools encouraged to participate in the Tripartite System. The most famous example of a direct-grant grammar was [[Manchester Grammar School]], whose headmaster, [[Eric James, Baron James of Rusholme|Lord James of Rusholme]], was one of the most outspoken advocates of the Tripartite System.<ref>Sampson (1971), p. 143.</ref>

Grammar school pupils were given the best opportunities of any schoolchildren in the state system.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hitchens |first1=Peter |title=The golden age of the grammar schools |journal=The Spectator |date=21 Sep 2021 |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-golden-age-of-the-grammar-schools/}}</ref> Initially, they studied for the [[School Certificate (UK)|School Certificate]] and [[Higher School Certificate (UK)|Higher School Certificate]], replaced in 1951 by [[General Certificate of Education]] examinations at [[GCE Ordinary Level (United Kingdom)|O-level]] (Ordinary level) and [[Advanced Level (UK)|A-level]] (Advanced level). In contrast, very few students at [[secondary modern school]]s took public examinations until the introduction of the less academic and less prestigious [[Certificate of Secondary Education]] (known as the CSE) in 1965.<ref>''[http://www.qcda.gov.uk/6210.aspx The story of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911091932/http://www.qcda.gov.uk/6210.aspx |date=11 September 2009 }}'', [[Qualifications and Curriculum Authority]].</ref> Until the implementation of the [[Robbins Report]] in the 1960's expanding [[higher education]], pupils from [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public]] and grammar schools effectively monopolised access to universities. These schools were also the only ones that offered an extra term of school to prepare pupils for the competitive entrance exams for [[Oxford University|Oxford]] and [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]].

According to [[Anthony Sampson]], in his book ''[[Anatomy of Britain]]'' (1965), there were structural problems within the testing process that underpinned the eleven plus which meant it tended to result in secondary modern schools being overwhelmingly dominated by the children of poor and working-class parents, while grammar schools were dominated by the children of wealthier middle-class parents.<ref>Sampson, A. ''Anatomy of Britain Today,'' London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1965, p.195</ref> The Tripartite System was largely abolished in England and Wales between 1965, with the issue of [[Circular 10/65]], and the Education Act 1976. Most maintained grammar schools were amalgamated with a number of other local schools, to form neighbourhood [[comprehensive school]]s, though a few were closed. This process proceeded quickly in Wales, with the closure of such schools as [[Cowbridge Grammar School]]. In England, implementation was less even, with some counties and individual schools successfully resisting conversion or closure.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Jörn-Steffen |last1=Pischke |first2=Alan |last2=Manning |title=Comprehensive versus Selective Schooling in England in Wales: What Do We Know? |date=April 2006 |journal=NBER Working Paper No. 12176 |doi=10.3386/w12176 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite report
 |title=The impact of the structure of secondary education in Slough 
 |author=Ian Schagen 
 |author2=Sandy Schagen 
 |date=November 2001 
 |publisher=[[National Foundation for Educational Research]] 
 |url=http://www.emie.ac.uk/publications/other-publications/downloadable-reports/pdf_docs/slsfinalreport.pdf 
 |access-date=19 October 2009 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104074511/http://www.emie.ac.uk/publications/other-publications/downloadable-reports/pdf_docs/slsfinalreport.pdf 
 |archive-date=4 January 2012
}}</ref>

The Direct Grant Grammar Schools (Cessation of Grant) Regulations 1975 required direct grant schools to decide whether to convert into comprehensives under local authority control or become [[Private schools in the United Kingdom|private schools]] funded entirely by fees. Of the direct grant schools remaining at that time, 51 became comprehensive, 119 opted for independence, and five were "not accepted for the maintained system and expected to become independent schools or to close".<ref>{{cite hansard |title=Direct Grant Schools | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1978/mar/22/direct-grant-schools | house=House of Commons | date=22 March 1978 | column_start=582W | column_end=586W }}</ref> Some of these schools retained the name "grammar" in their title but are no longer free of charge for all but a few pupils. These schools normally select their pupils by an entrance examination and sometimes by interview.

By the end of the 1980s, all of the grammar schools in Wales and most of those in England had closed or converted to comprehensive schools. Selection also disappeared from state-funded schools in Scotland in the same period. Although almost all former grammar schools ceased to be selective, there are comprehensive schools that chose to maintain the descriptor "grammar" in their nomenclature.{{efn|{{cslist |[[Appleby Grammar School]] |[[Batley Grammar School]] |[[Beverley Grammar School]] |[[Bingley Grammar School]] |[[Enfield Grammar School]] |[[Hutton Grammar School]] |[[Ilkley Grammar School]] |[[Kirkby Stephen Grammar School]] |[[Mirfield Free Grammar School]] |[[Penistone Grammar School]] |[[Prince Henry's Grammar School, Otley]] |[[Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne]] |[[Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn]] |[[Ramsey Grammar School]] |[[Steyning Grammar School]] |[[Tadcaster Grammar School]] |[[Watford Grammar School for Boys]] |[[Watford Grammar School for Girls]] |[[William Hulme's Grammar School]] }}}} Most of these schools do however operate some form of selection in their admission process, due to oversubscription. There is also a small group of formally [[Partially selective school (England)|partially selective schools]] which select a cohort of pupils based on academic ability. The tripartite system (reduced to grammar and secondary modern schools) does survive in certain areas, such as Kent, where the eleven-plus examination which divides pupils into placement in grammar or secondary modern school is known as the [[Kent Test]].