Welcome to the Boomerang Generation

ash28

CLAPTON wrote: »

Don't of course believe all you read in wikipeadia but it says:

A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination

and


Movement towards a comprehensive system
Although the Butler Act planned a parity of esteem between this and the other sections of the tripartite system, in practice the secondary modern came to be seen as the school for failures. Those who had "failed" their eleven plus were sent there to learn rudimentary skills before advancing to factory or menial jobs. Secondary moderns prepared students for the CSE examination, rather than the more prestigious O level, and although training for the latter was established in later years, less than one in ten students took advantage of it. Secondary moderns did not offer schooling for the A level, and in 1963, for instance, only 318 former secondary modern pupils sat A levels. None went on to university.
Secondary moderns were generally deprived of both resources and good teachers. The Newsom Report of 1963 reported on education for these children, and found that in some schools in slum areas of London 15-year old pupils were sitting on furniture intended for primary schools. Staff turnover was high and continuity in teaching minimal. Not all secondary moderns were as bad, but they did generally suffer from neglect by authorities.
The poor performance of the ‘submerged three quarters’ of British schoolchildren led to calls for reform. Experiments with comprehensive schools began in the 1950s, hoping to provide an education that would offer greater opportunities for those who did not enter grammar schools. Several counties, such as Leicestershire, eliminated their secondary moderns altogether. In 1965, the Labour government issued Circular 10/65, implementing the Comprehensive System. By 1976, with the exception of a few regions, such as Kent, Dorset, Buckinghamshire, Stoke, Slough, the Wirral and Ripon, secondary modern schools had been formally phased out.

That about sums it up where we lived. It was pretty poor.

ukcarper

ash28 wrote: »

The two I went to also in the 1960s - you couldn't take GCEs - you had CSEs or nothing - most left with nothing. Perhaps they were all different and I was just unfortunate in where we lived.

I think you must have been I know a few people my age with O Levels this was mid 60sin Surrey .

ash28

ukcarper wrote: »

I think you must have been I know a few people my age with O Levels this was mid 60sin Surrey .

Mid 1960s in Northumberland - definitely no GCEs - ours even had an "R" stream - I guess that was remedial - they didn't really do normal school work - they would have been statemented now and given the help they needed back then they were just all lumped together and left to get on with it.

Having said that - it didn't really hold me back and unlike a lot of my contemporaries at school I sat and passed the entrance exams for the Civil Service, it was classed as a good job back then although the pay was poor, I remember the exams well - 2 full days of tests in the Quaker Meeting Rooms in Newcastle - English (including grammar and essays), maths and current affairs - it was quite tough. That meant day release every week and because I under a certain age it was compulsory.

Then I joined the WRAF and got a bit more in the education department - for free.

And then it was through my employers - I did alright.

Where there's a will......

ukcarper

ash28 wrote: »

Mid 1960s in Northumberland - definitely no GCEs - ours even had an "R" stream - I guess that was remedial - they didn't really do normal school work - they would have been statemented now and given the help they needed back then they were just all lumped together and left to get on with it.

Having said that - it didn't really hold me back and unlike a lot of my contemporaries at school I sat and passed the entrance exams for the Civil Service, it was classed as a good job back then although the pay was poor, I remember the exams well - 2 full days of tests in the Quaker Meeting Rooms in Newcastle - English (including grammar and essays), maths and current affairs - it was quite tough. That meant day release every week and because I under a certain age it was compulsory.

Then I joined the WRAF and got a bit more in the education department - for free.

And then it was through my employers - I did alright.

Where there's a will......

We also had a R stream but we also had an A stream where the people though good enough for O Levels went. But as you say back then in was possible to get on quite well without them I left with 1 O level and was able to get an apprenticeship with a company prepare to train me and send me to college. I think that is the main advantage we had over the present day.

ash28

ukcarper wrote: »

We also had a R stream but we also had an A stream where the people though good enough for O Levels went. But as you say back then in was possible to get on quite well without them I left with 1 O level and was able to get an apprenticeship with a company prepare to train me and send me to college. I think that is the main advantage we had over the present day.

Our A stream of which I was a member meant you could take CSEs, if you were in B, C, D or R you took nothing - which was about 80% of the school.