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Comment by dijit

4 days ago

For non-british readers; state-funded Grammar schools famously, were abolished.

(I’m being downvoted, but this just objective fact, and something my grandfather brings up commonly).

EDIT: according to a lot of HN comments; they still seem to exist but they aren't evenly distributed.

There certainly were none in my city.

Despite one being named a grammar school, it does not follow a grammar school curriculum: https://www.coventrypublicschools.org/schools/cgs

How messy.

17 comments

dijit

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simonbarker87  4 days ago

No they weren’t. There are still many (163 according to a very quick google search) selective schools in the UK with entrance based on taking the 11+ exam.

Edit to clarify they are state funded and not private.

  • jvvw  4 days ago

    Just to confuse things, some former grammar schools turned into private schools but kept 'grammar' in their name.

    But to confirm, there are still areas that have state grammar schools and have the 11 plus: Buckinghamshire, Essex and Kent spring to mind as the obvious ones in the South East.

    • MrJohz  4 days ago

      Birmingham also had a grammar school system that is state funded, although most are supported by a charitable foundation as well.

      This all became more complex again with the introduction of academies (twice, with different goals and subtly different setups) and free schools (although are those really a thing any more?) and I'm sure New New Labour will at some point add another category if school in the interests of simplicity...

  • dijit  4 days ago

    This is just incorrect information.

    > 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.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_school

    There are private schools that call themselves grammar schools (paid schools, not state funded) and some grammar schools still exist in Northern Ireland.

    But the system that defined what a grammar school is - has long since been abolished, and all free-access grammar schools were completely gone from my area before I was even born.

    —-

    EDIT: seems like the some state funded selective grammar schools exist but they are not exactly distributed evenly.

    So, I am wrong; and this situation is actually significantly more class-enforcing than it used to be. Amazing.

    • robertlagrant  4 days ago

      > all free-access grammar schools were completely gone from my area before I was even born.

      That's because you lived in an area that didn't have the 11+ exam. I did, and I went to a state-funded grammar school in the 1990s. It's still there, famously.

    • Nursie  4 days ago

      I have a friend who teaches at a state funded grammar, and that wikipedia article includes a whole section on Current British grammar schools, which are selective and state funded o_O

    • illwrks  4 days ago

      There are plenty free non-fee-paying Grammar schools all around London. There are some private fee paying schools that were historical Grammar schools and still have it in their name.

      The only issue is that Grammar schools are super selective these days, based on my own experience there are at least 10 applicants for every single place, as well as multiple rounds of tests to filter out children. In the end it’s a lottery of sort too as local councils decide who is awarded a place.

    • simonbarker87  4 days ago

      My neighbours kid took the 11+ two years ago to go to a state funded selective school in Warwickshire. 4 of my friends went to a grammar school (slate funded) in the 2000s and that school still exists in the same form it did back then.

      Most grammar schools are gone but there are far from none.

  • b800h  4 days ago

    The vast bulk of councils in the UK abolished the 11+ system. It does still exist in some places. Unfortunately, the system was ditched by the Labour government of 1976. Our current Labour lot are trying to do the same thing to our private schooling system.

NVHacker  4 days ago

One of the past Labour governments decided that there should be no new grammar schools created. So the existing ones continued to function but, as some closed down, their number diminished.