Norwood (1943)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part I Secondary education
Chapter 1 Nature of secondary education
Chapter 2 Secondary education as it is
Chapter 3 Secondary education as it might be

Part II Examinations
Chapter 4 Existing examinations
Chapter 5 The reorganisation of examinations (i)
Chapter 6 The reorganisation of examinations (ii)
Chapter 7 The Inspectorate

Part III Curriculum
Chapter 8 The curriculum in general
Chapter 9 Physical education
Chapter 10 Religious education
Chapter 11 English
Chapter 12 History
Chapter 13 Geography
Chapter 14 Mathematics
Chapter 15 Natural science
Chapter 16 Modern languages
Chapter 17 Classics
Chapter 18 Art, music, handicrafts
Chapter 19 Domestic subjects
Chapter 20 Education for commerce
Chapter 21 Wales and the teaching of Welsh

Conclusions and recommendations
Appendix A Note on the Central Welsh Board
Appendix B List of witnesses
Index

Report of the Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council appointed by the President of the Board of Education in 1941

London: HM Stationery Office 1943

Chapter 3 Secondary education as it might be
[pages 15 - 25]

In this chapter we propose to set out our view of secondary education as it might be reorganised, and it will be convenient if we sketch first in general terms the main outline of our proposals, and discuss the proposals later at greater length.

Preliminary sketch

At the age of 11+, or earlier in some cases (1), a child would pass into one of the three types of secondary education which we have postulated, secondary grammar school, secondary technical school, secondary modern school. This first classification of pupils would necessarily be tentative in a number of cases, for the diagnosis of special interests and skills demanding a curriculum suited to them takes time. The next two years would be spent in what for convenience we call the 'lower school' of one of the three types of school, and during these years a generally common curriculum would be pursued, though within limits there would be some variation. During these years the special interests of the child would be studied and, if desirable, transfer would be recommended. After two years a review of all pupils in the lower school of all types of school would be made; promotion into the higher forms of the school in which a pupil found himself at 11+ would not be automatic, unless that were the right school for him. From the age of 13+ to 16+ a pupil would pursue a course of study suited to his abilities in the type of school which could offer it. This course would lead either to employment and to part-time continued education up to the age of 18+ or to whole-time continued education culminating in the university or in institutions offering opportunities for further study. We regard it as important that the doors to further study should be kept open along as many paths as possible, regard being had to the maintenance of the standard of such further study. The full secondary grammar school course we consider to extend to 18+, but we think it essential that pupils from secondary technical schools should have greater opportunity of going on to places of advanced study than at present, and we are anxious that pupils who have left at 16+ or so and in later years show ability to profit from full-time advanced study should be able to gain admittance to it; their case is borne in mind in later proposals relating to examinations. On educational grounds we are in favour of a break of six months, in which boys and girls between the ages of eighteen and nineteen years would render public service interpreted in a broad sense, and the recommendations which we make allow for such a period. Before this break comes pupils going on to universities and other places of advanced study would have taken the examinations necessary to secure admission and financial aid, and would take up residence after the period of service. Finally, we would envisage greater facilities for adult education much more widely conceived and distributed than at present, believing that without part-time education and adult education the work of the schools must necessarily be incomplete.

Such is the general outline of secondary education which we have in mind, and we go on to elaborate such features of it as fall within our terms of reference.

Age of entry upon secondary education

We have given much thought to the consideration of the right age for transfer to secondary education, having in view the special purpose which distinguishes the primary from the secondary stage.

The evidence placed before us and study of the views of those who have already considered similar evidence convince us that special interests and abilities do in fact often reveal themselves clearly by the age of 10+ or 11+. But this is not true of all children; in many instances the cast of mind, not sufficiently manifested by 11+, gradually reveals itself in the next two years or possibly later. It would be to the advantage of children whose interests and abilities were clearly revealed by 11+ that they should at once have an appropriate curriculum; on the other hand it would be wrong to force a particular kind of curriculum upon a child before he had shown that it was suitable for him. Accordingly any satisfactory plan for differentiating pupils must, in our view, fulfil at least four essential requirements; first, it must allow for early discovery of special abilities, no less than for late discovery, with a view to the provision of suitable curriculum and suitable method of treatment; secondly, it must proceed on the assumption that the discovery is dependent upon skilled observation over a period of time which may vary considerably with different pupils and the diagnostic methods employed; thirdly, it must leave room for the rectifying of errors of judgement or failure on the part of pupils to fulfil promise; fourthly, it must be carefully thought out without being rigid or mechanical and must allow within limits for individual choice.

The problem of differentiation

This process of differentiation for the appropriate type of secondary education should begin in the primary stage where the teachers have the opportunity of forming a judgement upon their pupils. We would regard the judgement of the teacher - based upon observation of the classroom work, the general interests and certain qualities, as for example, power of sustained effort, shown by the pupil - as the most important factor to be taken into consideration in the recommendation of the appropriate education for him. Much valuable work has already been done on the problem of devising effective school records, the usefulness of which has been sufficiently demonstrated; there is, however, need for much further investigation of purpose and method in this field, and we wish to draw attention at this early stage both to the importance of school records and to the need for further thought upon them, since at more than one point in this report their importance is emphasised. Briefly, by a school record we mean a history of the child's development compiled by teachers who have known and taught him; it would contain an objective record of progress, with notes on special circumstances deserving to be taken into account; it would thus furnish a progressive judgement indispensable for decision as to his most appropriate education in the future, and it would guide those who were later charged with that education. Such a record, compiled by teachers trained to observe and to reflect upon their observations, we regard as the best single means at present available of discovering special interest and aptitude and general level of intelligence. Some teachers would wish to use as a supplementary method of arriving at a true judgement the tests which are generally known as 'intelligence' tests, 'performance' tests and the like. Hitherto tests differentiating type of ability have not been easy to devise, though there is some evidence that recent investigation may be more successful. If such tests are used with full consciousness of their experimental nature and their proper application, they may in our opinion be used to advantage in combination with the school record based upon the judgement of the teacher. To the methods which we have discussed we would add, if it be found necessary for purposes of differentiation, a purely qualifying test conducted in the pupil's own school in the ordinary school subjects which he has taken.

We suggest therefore that differentiation for types of secondary education should depend upon the judgement of the teachers in the primary school, supplemented, if desired, by intelligence and other tests. On the basis of these combined verdicts a recommendation should be made that a pupil should continue his education at the type of school appropriate to him, due consideration having been given to the wish of the parent and the pupil. We recognise that this method of selection cannot become fully operative until there is sufficient provision of secondary education of the various types.

A 'lower school'

However carefully devised and sympathetically carried out, differentiation at 10 or 11+ cannot be regarded as final. Opportunity must be given for the rectifying of mistakes, and for dealing with cases of late development or failure to fulfil promise. For this reason we advocate that for an average two years after entry to the secondary school the pupil should belong to a 'lower school', placed in the general control of a master or mistress responsible to the head master or head mistress. This master or mistress would be charged with special oversight of the work of the forms comprising the lower school; besides coordinating the teaching, in which he would share, he would have the special duty of observing the progress and development of the individual pupils; he would recommend that after due allowance of time pupils for whom the higher forms of that school could not offer a suitable curriculum should be transferred elsewhere. By the end of two years every pupil should have been sympathetically and skilfully reviewed, and at roughly the age of 13+ promotion of suitable pupils should be made into the higher forms. Such promotion should not be automatic or assumed as consequent upon entry to the lower school; it should be made only because, in the opinion of those qualified to judge, the curriculum of the higher forms offered a course of education suited to the needs of those promoted.

Thus by the use of the records of the primary school together with subsidiary tests, and by a period of observation and trial in the lower school, differentiation would become a process, in which time and opportunity would be given for study of the relevant considerations, rather than a snap judgement dependent upon performance in an examination.

In order to ease the transition from primary education to the appropriate secondary course and to enable transfer from one type of school to another to be carried out effectively, we would advocate that the curricula of the lower school in all types of school should be generally common. Some variation must be allowed. Pupils admitted to the secondary grammar school, for example, clearly should begin one or two foreign languages if their best interests are to be served; at the same time the grammar school should make it possible for 13 year old entrants to begin a foreign language, and for this some generosity as regards staffing would be necessary. Pupils who need the most concrete form of education possible in the modern school should have an appropriate curriculum, though there is no reason why a modern language should not be taught to the pupils for whom it is suitable. But we believe that the variety of course which each type of school should offer would allow a curriculum largely common to those in each school for whom the question of transfer is likely to arise, even when allowance is made for the differences in treatment of the same subjects which each type of school might consider appropriate.

Schools combining types of secondary education

Hitherto we have spoken of secondary grammar schools, technical schools and modern schools. We have urged that in amenities, buildings, playing fields and staffing ratio they should enjoy similar conditions. It is appropriate at this point to consider whether they should occupy separate buildings or whether there are circumstances which permit of one type of school being combined with another in the same building and under the control of one head master or mistress.

The phrase 'multilateral school' has frequently been used in the evidence offered to us orally and in writing. It is a phrase which few of our witnesses have used in the same sense. To some of them the larger Secondary Schools of today are already 'multilateral' in the sense that they offer alternative courses of study; others would carry further the diversity of courses so as to include curricula which would offer specialised courses in preparation for particular occupations; others again would extend the range of a multilateral school to include technical work such as is now undertaken in a junior technical school and also the curriculum appropriate to the existing senior schools The vagueness of the phrase has in our opinion been responsible for much confusion of thought and statement, and in the interest of clarity we propose to avoid it, even at the risk of using a clumsy nomenclature.

We consider it essential to the variety which secondary education should display that there should be alternative courses suited to the degrees of general intelligence and special abilities of its pupils; the secondary technical school presents a special problem with which we deal later. Thus, the secondary modern school should distinguish kinds of curricula or special methods of treating subjects to suit the varied interests and capacities of its pupils; the secondary grammar school should admit of alternative courses in which differing weight is laid upon languages or natural science or mathematics or whatever combination of subjects is desirable. Thus each school offers alternative courses which conform to its general type, and each may be described as a school with two, three or more courses. Such variety within the type we regard as highly desirable if the needs of its pupils are to be satisfied; but it is evident that variety cannot be preserved if the number of pupils falls below a minimum figure.

The question now arises whether types of school could be combined under one roof and one direction, so as to make a 'two-type' or 'three-type' school. As regards the secondary technical school, we would observe that the junior technical school has in the past owed its success to its very close association with local industry; such schools have been staffed by men who were in touch with local needs and sensitive to each change in the industrial requirements of the moment. Nothing should interfere with that relationship, and it is very doubtful whether it could be maintained unless the technical school were free to direct its own destiny. Apart however from the technical school, a two-type school combining grammar school and modern school seems to be satisfactory in certain circumstances. As has been pointed out, each type of school should not fall below a certain figure if it is to offer variety of courses within itself. On the other hand the tradition of English education has always valued human contacts and is not favourable to large schools in which the head master cannot have sufficient knowledge of each boy; thus a maximum figure is imposed beyond which expansion is undesirable, and in this connection it must always be remembered that there are far more pupils for whom a modern school is appropriate than there are pupils for whom a grammar school is appropriate. We envisage therefore that within the limits of these circumstances experiment will be made with a two-type school.

By the age of 13+ the main line of interest and ability displayed by the pupil would generally have declared itself, and he would find himself in a secondary technical or modern or grammar school. We propose to consider briefly the opportunities which we should like to see available to him there.

The secondary technical school

In assuming a 'lower school' of 11+ to 13+ in the technical school we are suggesting that the technical school of the future should undertake a responsibility which has not been borne by the junior technical school of the past. But we think the change desirable if the technical school is to gain a fair share of able recruits and if it is to develop the general education of a kind suitable for technical pupils. For in our view the technical school should give a general education, oriented no doubt from the age of 13+ towards the special technical courses which it offers, but broad in conception; and it should provide also the corporate life and the activities which are equally necessary for its pupils. Admittedly such a development would carry implications as regards buildings and staff, but without such development we do not see how technical education in this country can attract and cater for pupils in sufficient number, or equip them properly to take their place in industry and commerce and as citizens in the community.

The function of the secondary technical school should be primarily to give a training for entry into industry and commerce at the age of 16+ to meet the demands of local industrial conditions and, wherever possible and expedient, to offer facilities for advanced work from 16 to 18. At present such work is often best carried out in technical colleges, with which junior technical schools frequently maintain close relations. From our own point of view we feel it to be most important that a road to the technical faculties of the universities should be open for all who can fully profit from university studies. For some pupils the path will lie through advanced work in the secondary technical school itself, for others through the technical colleges. For other pupils who may develop an aptitude for particular branches of mathematics, science or other subjects for which provision is not made in the local technical college the required opportunity would be given by transference to the sixth forms of grammar schools where suitable instruction is available; and the opportunity should also be open for those who qualify by means of part-time education and evening studies. The whole question of university entrance is clearly concerned, and we have not been forgetful of the technical school pupil in the suggestions which we make in a later chapter.

We may add that at present the junior technical school is free from external examination, and the technical school of the future should in our opinion be equally free.

The secondary modern school

On the modern school would fall the task of providing a general education for the majority of the boys and girls in the country up to the age fixed for the limit of compulsory school attendance. It would thus carry on and expand the work of the senior schools which were springing up under the schemes of reorganisation initiated before the war. To consider its curriculum in detail is outside our scope, but in our view it would fulfil its role in the secondary education of the country if it provided curricula closely related to the immediate interests and environment of its pupils and adopted a method of approach which was practical and concrete.

Classification of pupils would necessarily involve differences in treatment and content of the subjects and in the pace at which they would be dealt with; environment, rural or urban, or special characteristics of locality would all affect the curriculum both as regards its make-up and the method of handling. The aim would be to offer a general grounding and to awaken interest in many aspects of life and citizenship before the pupil passed on to the specialised occupations which modern conditions demand with increasing insistence, and not to provide any special training for particular occupations. It is evident that, if such general education is to spring from the actual and real interests of the pupils - interests which are to a great extent dependent on environment - the utmost freedom must exist as regards curriculum and its treatment, which can be determined only in the light of the special circumstances of the school. We may add that we look forward to much fruitful growth and many experiments in this field of education.

The secondary grammar school

The secondary grammar school should offer to its pupils such courses as fall within the function of the grammar school as we have defined it in an earlier page. The appeal of such courses is limited to those whose real interests are satisfied by an introduction to the matter and methods of the main departments of knowledge valued primarily for its own sake. The full grammar school course should be regarded as continuing to the age of 18+, and a higher proportion of pupils should stay at school to that age than is usual in the existing Secondary Schools. While the grammar schools should send on a good proportion of its pupils to places of further study, whether universities or colleges of various kinds or professions, a large number of its pupils should enter commerce and industry. Specialised training, however, should not be undertaken in the secondary grammar school, save in special circumstances. The reasons for this are set out in a later chapter. In the sixth forms there should be courses which have particular vocations in view, as for example nursing or medicine, but such courses should be, as such vocations themselves require, not unduly narrow or specialised.

It is important that the standards of work in grammar schools should be maintained at a high level; for on the maintenance of standards in the schools depends in large measure the quality of the studies pursued in universities and other places of higher education. But the imposition of standards on the schools solely by external authorities we do not regard as the right way of achieving or maintaining a high level of education; it is productive of some definite harm, as we hope to show later, and by itself it fails to realise its object; if accompanied by other conditions, it becomes unnecessary. We look rather, first, to the admission of pupils who can profit by the kind of education offered in the secondary grammar school, and, secondly, to the teachers themselves and their readiness to grasp the opportunity of greater responsibility which our proposals about examinations offer to them.

There is, however, one point in the grammar school course at which external examination is appropriate, namely the point at which the school passes its pupil on to other institutions concerned with further study; ability to pursue such study with profit and success in meeting the severest tests may rightly be gauged by external standard at this point and it is the duty of those authorities, colleges and universities, state and local education authorities, which are concerned with the award of distinction and maintenance, to require evidence of fitness to profit. But such examination should be arranged so as to disturb the schools as little as possible; and there should be no confusion between qualifying and competitive tests, with resulting harm to the less able pupil.

Part-time education

For many pupils whole time secondary education will cease by the age of 15 or 16+. Many will be anxious to launch out into occupations and to gain contact with the world of affairs and real life. But in our view they should not suddenly be flung into employment without further regard for their welfare; they are still in need of a directing influence and a focus or point of interest if the effect of their previous education is to be made secure and if they are to be encouraged to become increasingly conscious of their responsibilities as members of a community. Up to the age of 18+ all should be brought under the influence of part-time education, the aim of which would be to carry further the main lines of interest which they had developed at school. For many the activities fostered would be largely of a recreational nature, and classes organised for this purpose would offer without unnecessary regimentation the sense of purpose which is particularly to be encouraged in pupils of this age. For some, greater stress would be laid upon classes designed to carry forward the studies pursued at school or to assist them to obtain a competent knowledge of the occupations which they had entered, and we should hope that through such classes a certain number of children of late mental development might 'find' themselves and eventually go on to whole-time study in colleges and universities. But for all up to the age of 18+ we would urge the need, first, of training in bodily health, through games and physical instruction and other organised activities, and, secondly, of training in English in the widest sense through classroom teaching, but still more through encouragement of reading, oral expression, dramatic work and debating. Into further detail we do not wish to enter; our purpose is served if we repeat that we regard part-time education as a necessary complement to the work of the secondary school; we look to it to ensure that the youth of the country shall receive such oversight as will enable them to pass through difficult years with an increasing sense of responsibility both to themselves and to the community.

A break between school and university

Some of our witnesses have put before us the value of a break between the end of school life and entrance upon university studies. They point out that students would take up university work with increased sense of the relevance and significance of its problems if they brought to bear upon them a wider experience drawn from the realities of life, and would enter upon their new studies with added freshness of mind.

With this point of view we have all sympathy. We have no doubt that the widening of experience and first-hand contact with a broader field of activity would have a beneficial influence, from the educational point of view, upon the outlook and sense of purpose of university students. But in the existing layout of examinations it has been difficult to make opportunity for such a period. The arrangements for examinations which we propose in a later chapter allow for a period of six months during which university entrants would be free from examinations. We leave this period free, first, because we believe the value of such a break has been increasingly realised of late years and would have been more often insisted upon in the past if examinations had not stood in the way; secondly, because we are bound to take into account the possibility of some form of public service being undertaken after the war by all pupils from secondary grammar schools in their nineteenth year. As regards the second point, we have no knowledge of any plans which may be contemplated, nor are we concerned with considerations of military preparedness or any aspect of the international situation. Our position is this. From an educational point of view the value of the service which boys and girls of 18 are now giving to the country can be seen, even on the partial assessment now possible, to be very great. If after the war some form of public service were to be required, we can foresee similar educational values resulting from a period of six months given by boys and girls drawn from varying circumstances of life to work of national importance - in industry and agriculture, at sea, in the social services and in similar fields no less than in the armed forces. Such a period so spent might do much to fuse the country into a single whole with a common purpose and a common understanding. For these reasons we have left room for a period of six months free from examinations.

Universities and colleges

The proposals which we make in a later chapter for the selection and assistance of students going on to universities depend upon our conception of university life and work and the role which the university should play in a national society. In our view the university should contain students from all sections of the community capable of profiting to the fullest degree from its intellectual and social life and of making the fullest contribution to it. We do not believe that it is to the interest of the nation that entrance to universities should be of a purely competitive nature, regard being paid solely to achievement in a written examination. It is essential that high standards should be preserved throughout the universities, but we would not limit these standards to intellectual promise or achievement but include also such qualities as leadership, sense of responsibility, initiative - in short, qualities of character. We are anxious not to encourage any plan which will lower standards of intellectual achievement or qualities of character in university students, and we do not wish to make any proposals which would overstock the country with university graduates of mediocre capacity and attainment for whom suitable work in after-life would not be available. Continental countries have learned by bitter experience the dangers of such unemployment, and the lesson should not go unheeded in this country.

Before leaving the subject of universities we record our conviction that residence in a college or hostel, at any rate for the major portion of the course, is essential to the fullest university life. It is often more important that hostels should be increased or enlarged than that more places should be provided in lecture rooms. We regard the encouragement of a more common life, together with an extension of the tutorial system to which residence would contribute, as among the most urgent needs in the development of the newer universities.

The university will best be enabled to fulfil its function in the life of the nation if it brings together within its walls men and women drawn along many channels from all sections of the community and possessing endowments of intellect and character of a high order. Methods of selection must be devised to achieve this end and from the very nature of the end in view must be flexible and human. Pecuniary assistance, from whatever source it is derived, should be enough to enable the student to share to the full in the general life of the university, nor should there be any need for him to accumulate from various sources grants or awards till the requisite sum is reached. Proof of fitness in the sense described above and proof of need should entitle the student to the assistance considered appropriate.

We have spoken of universities; the same principles regarding selection, maintenance of standard and award of assistance should apply also to other courses of further education normally entered by students at the age of 18 or 19+.

We have given the outlines of a possible reorganisation of secondary education; we have traced it from the primary school to the university. Under such a reorganisation all children would have the opportunity of the education best suited to them; for variety of type and alternative courses within the type are essential to any satisfactory system of secondary education. The reorganisation implies the raising of the school leaving age, the expansion of technical education and the enhanced importance of the modern school. To the three types of school parity of conditions should be accorded; parity of esteem must be won by the schools themselves. Such a reorganisation offers equivalence of opportunity to all children in the only sense in which it has valid meaning, namely, the opportunity to receive the education for which each pupil is best suited for such time and to such a point as is fully profitable to him. The appropriate courses of secondary education are followed by part-time education for those who leave at 15 or 16, or by whole-time education for those who stay at school beyond the statutory leaving age.

We realise that reorganisation on the lines proposed could not be brought about in a day; increased supply of teachers trained in the right way for their new tasks and the building of schools alone present formidable difficulties. It is also obvious that, if full time education from 16 to 18 is to be a real possibility for boys and girls who come from poor homes, some system of maintenance allowances not ungenerously devised will be found necessary. But this is a complicated problem of administration which we have not thought it our duty to enter upon in detail. What we have done is to put forward an ideal and in the light of this ideal we have considered the terms of reference.

Footnote

(1) 11+ is a term of art; it means that the able child would go on at 10+. the average child at 11+, and some children would more appropriately go on at 12+.