Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school
that does not select its intake on the basis of
academic achievement or aptitude. The term
is commonly used in relation to the United
Kingdom, where comprehensive schools were
introduced in the late 1940s to the early
1970s. It corresponds broadly to the German
Gesamtschule and to the high school in the
United States and Canada. Some 90% of Brit-
ish pupils are educated at comprehensive
schools.
Most
comprehensives
are
secondary
schools for children from the age of 11 to at
least 16, but in a few areas there are compre-
hensive middle schools, and in some places
the secondary level is divided into two, for
students aged 11 to 14 and those aged 14 to
18, roughly corresponding to the US "junior
high school" and "high school" respectively.
Since a comprehensive school teaches a
full range of subjects across the academic
and vocational spectrum, it is commonly un-
derstood that the school will need to be of a
large size and to take children from a wide
ability range. In principle it was originally
conceived as a "neighbourhood" school,
which all students in its catchment area are
meant to attend, irrespective of ability and
without, in most cases, any significant ele-
ment of parental choice.
Finland
Finland has used comprehensive schools
since 1970s, although the comprehensive
school is divided usually to lower compre-
hensive
school
(grades
1-6)
(ala-aste,
alakoulu) and upper comprehensive school
(grades 7-9) (yläaste, yläkoulu)
Germany
Further information: Education in Germany
Germany has a comprehensive school known
as the Gesamtschule. This can be attended as
an alternative to the three-school system.
Gibraltar
Further information: Education in Gibraltar
Gibraltar opened its
first comprehensive
school in 1972. Between the ages of 12 and
16 two comprehensive schools cater for girls
and boys separately. Students may also con-
tinue into the sixth form to complete their A-
levels.
Republic of Ireland
These schools were introduced into the Re-
public of I