This article outlines the Labour Party's attitude to selective secondary education from the creation of the party in 1900 to the present day. It notes early calls for comprehensive schools; seeks to explain why the post-war Attlee government was so committed to the tripartite system of secondary schools; recounts the failure of the Wilson governments in the 1960s and '70s to legislate for a fully comprehensive system; describes the assault on the comprehensive ideal led by Tony Blair and Andrew Adonis; and concludes with an account of Labour's response to Theresa May's proposal to bring back the eleven plus.
To cite this article
DEREK GILLARD (2017) Labour and the Grammar Schools: a history, FORUM, 59(3), 381-395. http://doi.org/10.15730/forum.2017.59.3.381
