Reference
E/SA1/4
Title
Comprehensive Reorganisation
Scope and Content
Comprehensive reorganisation of the education system was a growing national issue throughout the 1960s and was precipitated by Ministry of Education Circular 10/65 - "The Reorganisation of Secondary Education". The proposals involved discontinuation of the Eleven Plus examination, introduced in the 1944 Education Act, which sought to classify children by academic ability and send them to an appropriate school, either a Grammar, Technical or Secondary Modern School. Due to changes in government and the controversial nature of the proposals no Act was ever passed to implement the new proposals for comprehensive reorganisation. Instead, each Local Education Authority (LEA) was given discretion to adopt the new comprehensive proposals or to carry on with the system laid down by the 1944 Act. Ultimately very few LEAs opted to remain with the existing system, one of the few that did being Buckinghamshire.
Bedfordshire LEA decided to introduce comprehensive reorganisation in 1966, following a circular the previous year stating the aims involved. The Secretary of State for Education & Science accepted the reorganisation in principle on 20th May 1968. The county, other than Luton which, as Luton County Borough, ran its own education system, was divided into ten areas, each of which would contain at least one newly designated upper school [see below]. Each of these areas converted to the comprehensive system at a different time (ranging from 1971 to 1974), depending on the completion of new school building programmes.
The new structure for Bedfordshire LEA applied to all children in the county outside Luton who were not sent to private or public schools by their parents or did not attend a Special School by virtue of having a physical handicap or visual, hearing, behavioural or learning difficulties. Voluntary Aided or Voluntary Controlled Schools continued as part of the system, which was as follows:
* Lower Schools - for all children aged 5 to 9;
* Middle Schools - for all children aged 9 to 13;
* Upper Schools - for all children aged 13 to 16 with a sixth form for those aged 16 to 18 wishing to stay on at school to take A-Levels.
The change in the nature of the new Middle Schools was not immediate, since theirs was the biggest change, this is shown, for example, by the comprehensive reorganisation timetable for three schools in the Leighton/Linslade/South Bedfordshire Area, being an upper school and one each of its feeder middle and lower schools. The figures are the age ranges attending the school in the calendar year (as opposed to academic year) specified.
School 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
Aspley Guise 5-11 5-11 5-11 5-10 5-10 5-9
Lower School
Fulbrook Middle 11-16 11-16 11-13 10-13 10-13 9-13
School, Aspley Guise 14-16 15-16
Cedars Upper School, 12-18 13-18 13-18 13-18 13-18 13-18
Leighton Buzzard
The Areas into which the county was divided were as follows, the name(s) of the Upper School(s) for the area that were envisaged at the time being added in brackets after each entry:
Area 1 North Bedfordshire (Sharnbrook Upper School)
Area 2 Mid Bedfordshire (Redborne Upper School, Ampthill)
Area 3 West Central Bedfordshire (Hastingsbury Upper School, Kempston, Wootton Upper School)
Area 4 South Central Bedfordshire (Harlington Upper School)
Area 5 East Bedfordshire (Stratton Upper School, Biggleswade)
Area 6 South East Bedfordshire (Samuel Whitbread Upper School, Clifton)
Area 7 North East Bedfordshire (Sandy Upper School)
Area 8 South West Bedfordshire (The Cedars Upper School, Leighton Buzzard, Vandyke Upper School, Leighton Buzzard)
Area 9 South Bedfordshire (Northfields Upper School, Dunstable, Queensbury Upper School, Dunstable, Manshead Upper School, Caddington, Houghton Regis Upper School)
Area 10 Bedford (Pilgrim Upper School, John Howard Upper School, Bedford, Mark Rutherford Upper School, Bedford, John Bunyan Upper School, Bedford)
Level of description
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