Transition

Extract

This September the transition from Grammar to Senior High School will be virtually complete. The transfer age is 14, and is, at the moment, by parental choice. We still have all boys, but receive our first intake of girls this year. Our first non-selective entry was in 1964, and all members of the mathematics staff, only one of whom had met them previously, have now taught the lower ability groups. We have had our problems, none insurmountable, and more of administration than of adaptation. Anyone embarking on a transition to Comprehensive education and needing advice is recommended to read Canon Eperson’s admirable article in the recent Gazette. Much of what he says we have learned by experience, and if I requote from Newsom, it is because the quotations are particularly apt.