Comment by 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.
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...
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.
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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.
Some counties in England still have state grammar schools and still follow the 11+ process. The 163 that the poster above you is referring to are state, selective, schools, rather than private grammar schools. There's a list linked in the Wikipedia page you linked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grammar_schools_in_Eng...
> 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.
I went to a state grammar school, graduating in 2012. They still exist. There's a map of them here: https://www.theexamcoach.tv/grammar-and-independent-schools/...
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.
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.
Key word being "most". I attended a state funded grammar school in the 2000s.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grammar_schools_in_Eng...
this, for example, is a state grammar school
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.