Comprehensive Achievements

de Tamsyn Imison, Ruth Heilbronn, Liz Williams

Schools in England are radically changing their organization and governance, casting aside the founding principle of the 1944 Education Act that education is a public service and abandoning the ideal of education as nuturing sense of community. This book presents a portrait of a successful comprehensive school, between the years 1980 and 2000. It illustrates how education could be broad-based, holistic, and creative, enabling children to love learning and develop as all-round people, in addition to passing examinations. More than fifty insider contributions contextualized by historical accounts tell the story of a thriving school based on non-selective principles. The voices are of the students, teachers, governors, and parents. Together they show how it is possible for a well-led school with well-chosen staff to hold firm to their professional and moral beliefs, and in doing so resonate with their pupils, parents, and the wider school community. This book is aimed at all those interested in education: parents, governors, teachers, teacher-educators, and policymakers. As a well-grounded case study of a non-selective school it belongs on the reading list of graduate and undergraduate degrees in education.