Section One:
The historical
context
3.
The 1960s
_
a time of
change that 40% were still being taught in inadequate
buildings, that expectations were low, that they
As the 1960s started, the picture of education was were set less homework than those in grammar
one of considerable variation across the country, schools and that they were not receiving the
and sometimes even within small areas. Schools education they deserved. This report was not
were all different, there was little commonality of questioning the provision of three different types of
curriculum, and as people started to move around school, but did highlight the fact that some record
the country more to find work, moving school should be possible in terms of an ‘internal leaving
became a significant issue. This led to a perception certificate’ containing a ‘general school record’.
that the school system was divisive, was not serving This notion of a Record of Achievement was not to
the needs of all the students or of society surface again for almost another 20 years.
particularly well, and needed to change. And so at
a time when social standards and social freedoms Political ideology now swung between the
were being questioned and challenged, the Conservative view that Britain’s grammar schools
concept of comprehensive education was first and public schools were the envy of the world, and
explored. the Labour concerns that inappropriate use of this
divided system was failing too many of the
The Newsom Report, Half Our Future (1963) country’s children. So Labour went into the 1964
looked at the education of 13
_
16-year-olds of general election promising to abolish the eleven-
average and less than average ability and plus and develop the secondary school system on
recommended that they should receive more of the comprehensive lines, though the exact mechanisms
resources going into education. The report found for delivery were not at all clear.
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