Manchester Grammar School, the largest and best known of the direct grant grammar schools^[1]

The status was introduced by the Education Act 1944 as a modification of an existing direct grant scheme to privately endowed schools. There were 179 direct grant grammar schools, which together with over 1200 grammar schools maintained by local authorities formed the most academic tier of the Tripartite System.

When this system was replaced with the Comprehensive System in the 1970s, the direct grant was phased out and the schools required to choose between becoming maintained comprehensive schools or fully independent schools. Forty-five schools, almost all Roman Catholic, joined the state system, and a few closed. The rest (including all the secular schools) became independent, and mostly remain as highly selective independent schools.

Origin of the direct grant

Until the end of the 19th century, few children received secondary education, which was available only at private schools. When the Board of Education was created in 1901 to fund early secondary schools, it also offered grants to private schools that met its standards, though many of the wealthier schools preferred to remain independent. After the Education Act 1902 introduced Local Education Authorities, secondary schools controlled by voluntary bodies could receive grant from either their Local Authority or the Board of Education, or both. In return they were required to meet the Board's regulations, and were subject to the same system of inspections as state-funded schools.^[2][3][4]

Under the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907, secondary schools in receipt of grant were required to admit a specified proportion of their intake, usually 25%, free of charge from state elementary schools. Suitable pupils were selected using a scholarship examination.^[5][6][7] In 1926, Circular 1381 required that schools choose a single source of grant: they could be "grant-aided" by the Local Authority, or receive a "direct grant" from central government.^[3][8] By 1932 there were 240 secondary schools receiving a direct grant, compared with 1138 aided by local authorities.^[6] By this time they were outnumbered by fully state-funded secondary schools, which continued to proliferate.^[4]

Direct Grant Scheme

Bradford Grammar School, a large secular boys school (now mixed)

The new scheme was a modification of proposals in the Fleming Report of 1944.^[9] A direct grant grammar school would provide 25% of its places free of charge to children who had spent at least 2 years in maintained primary schools, and would reserve at least a further 25% of places to be paid for by the LEA if required.^[10] The remaining ("residuary") places would attract fees, but no child would be admitted unless they had achieved the required standard in the eleven plus. The schools would be inspected by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, would have one third of their governing bodies appointed by the LEA, and would require the approval of the Secretary of State to raise fees or carry out building work.^[10][11]

Of the 231 secondary schools receiving direct grant in 1945, 196 applied to join the new scheme, with the rest becoming independent schools. In addition 31 grant-aided schools applied to join the scheme.^[12][13][14] Of these, 164 schools (including 4 formerly grant-aided schools) were accepted as direct grant grammar schools.^[12][15] The list was re-opened between 1957 and 1961, when 44 applications were received, of which 15 were accepted.^[13][16] There were thus a total of 179 direct grant grammar schools, alongside over 1200 maintained grammar schools.^[13][17]

Beside the Direct Grant Scheme, the Act also made provision for LEAs to fund places at independent schools in areas where there was a shortage of appropriate places in maintained schools. For example, there might be a lack of selective places, or of selective places in Roman Catholic schools. In the late 1960s, 56 independent schools had over 25% of their places funded by LEAs in this way, with 7 of them over 75% LEA-funded.^[18]

The schools

Culford School, one of only three mixed direct grant grammars

In 1966, when direct grant schools were at their height, they educated 3.1% of secondary pupils across England and Wales, while independent schools accounted for 7.1%. For A-level students, these proportions rose to 6.2% and 14.7% respectively.^[19] Before Culford School became coeducational in 1972, all but 2 of the schools were single sex, with a slight majority of girls' schools.^[20] There were 56 Roman Catholic schools, 14 Church of England and 6 Methodist.^[21] Many of the schools were in the north of England, with 46 in the historic county of Lancashire (including Manchester) and 18 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, while there were only 7 in London and 4 in Wales.^[22] In 1961, an average of 59% of pupils at direct grant grammar schools were state-funded, but the proportion also varied greatly between schools.^[11][23]

Direct grant schools had similar teacher/pupil ratios to the maintained grammar schools, as their fees were regulated to match costs at the latter schools. The proportion of teachers with first and second class degrees was slightly lower than in their maintained counterparts.^[24] The principal difference from the maintained schools was greater freedom from LEA influence.^[25]

Although there was much variation, these schools as a group were middle-class institutions, with many tending to move closer to the independent schools in social composition.^[26][27] On average, three-quarters of pupils came from white-collar homes, including 60% with fathers in management or the professions, while only 7% were children of semi-skilled or unskilled workers.^[28] The intake of the schools was also more academically selective than either maintained grammar schools or independent schools.^[29] Their results were certainly impressive, with 60% of their pupils staying on to age 18 and 38% going on to university, significantly higher proportions than either of the other groups of schools.^[30]

However there was considerable variation between these schools. According to the Donnison Report (discussed in the next section), direct grant grammar schools fell into four groups:^[31]

• The best known were "regional schools": large, highly academically selective day schools with large sixth forms, located near large cities. The majority were boys' schools belonging to the Headmaster's Conference, such as Manchester Grammar School, Bradford Grammar School, Leeds Grammar School, Haberdashers' Aske's School and Latymer Upper School.^[32] These schools achieved university admission rates that rivalled the older public schools, which in turn moved to raise their academic standards for admission, and to increase their focus of academic achievement.^[33][34] With their high profile, such schools formed the popular image of a direct grant grammar school, but they accounted for only about a quarter of them.^[31]

• There were 30 schools (23 for boys and 7 for girls) with a significant proportion (over 25%) of boarders. At 15 schools (all but one for boys) over half the pupils boarded.^[35] Boarding schools tended to be smaller and less academically selective than other direct grant schools, and to take a larger proportion of fee-paying pupils.^[36] Nearly three quarters of their pupils had fathers in management or the professions.^[37]

• Roman Catholic schools made up nearly a third of the direct grant schools (19 for boys and 37 for girls).^[38] They were predominantly day schools, though 10 of them took a small proportion of boarders.^[20] Their fees were about 15% lower than other direct grant grammars, and they tended to take a higher proportion of LEA-funded pupils.^[39] In 1968, 40 of these schools took over 80% of their pupils from their LEAs.^[40] They also tended to be more socially mixed, with 37% of their pupils from managerial and professional homes and 16% children of semi-skilled or unskilled workers.^[41] Lacking endowments and having lower fee income, these schools were less financially secure than other direct grant grammars.^[31]

• The remainder were non-denominational local grammar schools, often with an intake more able on average than in maintained grammar schools, but covering a broader range.^[42] These included the 23 schools of the Girls' Public Day School Trust (now the Girls' Day School Trust).^[43]

Comprehensive reorganisation

During this period, many parts of the world moved from selective education to comprehensive schools, catering for children of all abilities. Dissatisfaction with the Tripartite System grew during the 1950s, with concern over the harsh division of the school population at the age of 11, and the loss to the economy of the "submerged three-quarters" in secondary modern schools. Experiments with comprehensive schools spread from Anglesey to the Midlands and Yorkshire.^[44][45]

In 1964, a Labour government was elected promising "to reorganise the the State secondary schools on comprehensive lines". In the following year, the Department of Education and Science distributed Circular 10/65, requesting that Local Education Authorities prepare plans for such a reorganisation of their schools.^[46] The Circular also requested consultation between LEAs and direct grant schools on their participation in a comprehensive system. For this reason, direct grant schools were excluded from consideration by the Public Schools Commission set up in 1965, even though 152 of them would otherwise have fallen within its remit.^[47]

There was little progress in the local negotiations proposed in the Circular. Two schools, St Anne's Convent School, Southampton and St Anthony's School, Sunderland, agreed to convert to a fully comprehensive intake. A few others proposed minor adjustments, but the vast majority were unchanged. In view of this lack of progress, the Public Schools Commission was asked on October 1967 to add direct grant schools to its investigation.^[48] The Commission, now chaired by David Donnison, issued its second report in 1970, concluding that "Grammar schools of the traditional kind cannot be combined with a comprehensive system of education: we must choose what we want. Fee-paying is not compatible with comprehensive education."^[49] They recommended that the schools choose between being voluntary aided comprehensives and full independence, but the Conservatives came to power before any action had been taken.^[50]

In the early 1970s, Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Education Secretary, raised the level of grant, which had been lowered by the Labour government.^[51] Even so, five schools left the scheme between 1968 and 1974.^[52][53]

Abolition and legacy

Notre Dame High School in Sheffield, a former direct grant grammar for girls that is now a mixed comprehensive

Of the 174 direct grant grammar schools, 51 (two Church of England and the rest Catholic) applied to join the state sector, of which 46 were accepted.^[20][53][54] One accepted school, St. Joseph's College, Stoke-on-Trent, became independent instead.^[55] Some of these schools became sixth form colleges. Several have since merged or closed.^[56]

The remaining schools, including all of the secular ones, either closed or became independent when their grant was phased out as the remaining state-funded pupils left. This coincided with the mid 1970s recession, a difficult time for independent schools but doubly so for the former direct grant schools, which had just lost 25?50% of their intake. Many local boys' schools became coeducational to replace the lost places.^[57] However the independent sector soon recovered, and prospered without competition from state grammar schools.^[58]

An echo of the direct grant, the Assisted Places scheme was introduced by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1981, lasting until 1997.^[59] Approximately two-thirds of these places were held at former direct grant grammar schools.^[60][61] From 1993 a small number of Roman Catholic former direct grant schools entered the state sector as grant-maintained schools.^[62] A few others have subsequently become academies.^[63] Those that remain independent are typically highly selective, and have strong academic reputations.^[61] In 2001, they included 61 of the 100 highest performing independent day schools.^[64] No longer a bridge between state and private sectors, these schools have become part of a flourishing independent sector now sharply distinguished from the state system, a situation decried by the Sutton Trust as "educational apartheid".^[64][65]

Notes

References

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