HIGH T
The election of a Labour Governuent will unquestionably mean that everywhere, throughout the length and breadth of this country, miant steps will be made forward in education, Cbviously Nottingham can be no exception,
Now the Labour Party stands absolutely committed to full, comprehensive secondary education. Hot only has national nolicy stated this in every manifesto (and indeed many Annual conferences) since 1945 but local party commitments are no less firm. For example, no later than March 1964, Nottinsham City Labour Party passed the following resolution:-
"This meetint congratulates the City Council Labour Group on the
success in the Bi-Lateral Secondary Schools, It requests the Labour
Group to prepare plans for a further advance in the re-orgunisation
of Secondary Sducation in order to eliminate all selection pro-
cedures and to move towards complete Comprehensive Secondary
Education," So urgent did the City Party see this resolution that it added:
"It believes that these vlans should be rendy for the 4964 Munic:
Elections,"
This was certainly a Little too much to expect, for the problems of changiug over to fully comorehensive education are not just organisational, It will be necessary to prepare the ground by careful explanation to parents of what is involved and by patient rerotiation with the teachers who alone can make the transition easy. There can be no doubt, however, that now a Labour finister is in charee of the Denartment of Hduc.tion and Science, the road forward can be sneedy and smooth,
That resolution of the City Party may need some exolanation to readers.... It uses technical tersas with which many parents are not familiar. The remainder ef ae article «ttempts an explanation, iistory is immortant here, “le have to cord that in the inter-war years and immediately following the war, “Nottinshas City Led to vrovide as mu sramrar schools as rieost other authorities. ‘hen the early TO50's 114 per cent of Nottinshan children found placeg in theo grammar school, tue average nercentage for the country as a whole was nearly 20 per cent i for some authorities over 50 ner cent, Obviously something drastic hed to be done to remedy this situation,
ay
At the same time as Fottinshamts lar in providine gramiuar school places was becoming an object of wzeneral concern, the selection examination, the now infaaous "eleven-plus" by means of which wvrivilesed children were chosen to go to the grammar school was beings sharvly attacked from all sides.
The tenporary solution of Nottinvhaa was as follows: Several very sood, new secondary modern schools hau he built after the war, These were now organised as bi-lateral schools. Bie Late ("tuo sides) schools as the tera suscests are schools ‘hich organise tuo a@ifferent types of courses (a) "modern" school courses and (b) GCE or, really, sramcar school courses. Tne bi-lateral orincinle works as follows, First, a small proportion of children are sélected at ten years of ace for the grammar schools. So eleven plus selection rennains., Truc, the famous inteLlizvence test has been renamed the "verbal reasoning! te ast (so great had the dis like of the intelligence test become). Truc, the ovinioris of the scholas
/continucd over.
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