Oink

Yes, we had girls at our school.

iaink

Me too, in the 6th form anyway I'd left by then for a mixed school down south by then....

Souvy

Nor me. I missed it by a year and ended up in a sodding comprehensive.

Novocastrian

There's no need to wash the dirty laundry in public you know.

Steve_P

You mean they don't have the 11+ any more?

Just as well I was borderline wrote it a second time and failed.

Ended up in a GCE class in a Secondary Modern.

Left at age 15 never wrote any GCE's.

Oink

I suspect the schooling experience of most people on here, was a direct result of Tony Crosland's quasi-religious quest to, in his own words, "destroy every ******g grammar school in England, Wales and Northern Ireland."

Novocastrian

Nonetheless hockey in England appears to be thriving.

bsmith

He's a bit before my time, but didn't he also have a lot to do with getting rid of the Polytechnics?

jimf

Its up to each local authority to decide if they have the 11+. Predictably those that do have the "best" and "worst" state schools in the country.

New labour would have liked to have gone for the grammars but settled for soft targets like fox hunting instead.

I went to a comprehensive which was streamed anyway so I never quite understood what the fuss was about. In fact it was in one of the authorities which set up a first/middle/high system to permanently erase any association with transfer at 11.

Novocastrian

Err, no. Rather with establishing them.

Maggie got rid of them by declaring that they were really universities after all so as to deflect EU criticism of the low university enrollment in britain.

bsmith

...I could vaguely remember his name having something to do with Polytechnics, but that would make more sense.

Oink

He was a bit before my time also.

As Novo pointed out, he was instrumental in setting up vocational higher education. As direct result of increasing working class demand for higher education, a loose following of the recommendations of the Robbins report, and Wilson's hard on for technology, polytechnics were seen as vital portals that could accommodate demand and help Britain out of its reliance on manufacturing old stuff. They also didn't really want loads of bright 'oiks' competing with thick posh kids for their classics courses.

jimf

Was in John Major's time wasn't it?

bsmith

Oink

While technically yes, the impetus was Thatcher's and Keith Joseph's and its spirit was embodied in the 1988 Education Reform Act.