Selective Schools - United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Most schools in the UK are now comprehensive schools, which are non-selective. However there are still 164 grammar schools in several counties of England, which select pupils either on the basis of an Eleven Plus examination, by an internally set and moderated examination, or by both. There are a number of selective schools in Scotland and Wales, some of ancient foundation.

Some formerly Grant Maintained schools were selective by means of exams, tests, interviews; or a combination of all three. Two notable examples of highly-selective Grant Maintained schools were The John Fisher School in Surrey and The London Oratory School in Fulham, London.

These Local Education Authorities continue to maintain a fully selective education system:

• Bexley
• Bournemouth
• Buckinghamshire
• Kent
• Kingston
• Lincolnshire
• Medway
• Poole
• Reading
• Slough
• Southend
• Sutton
• Torbay
• Trafford
• Wirral

Several other LEAs have a mainly non-selective system but a few selective schools exist alongside their comprehensive counterparts, these are; Barnet, Birmingham, Bromley, Calderdale, Cumbria, Devon, Enfield, Essex, Gloucestershire, Kirklees, Lancashire, Liverpool, North Yorkshire, Plymouth, Redbridge, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Wolverhampton, Telford and The Wrekin.

There are also a smaller number of partially selective schools in England.

In Northern Ireland, a similar system of grammar schools is being dismantled by the Northern Ireland Education Order, which is going through Westminster.