State schools since the 1950s - Adrian Elliott

'My friends amused themselves shooting cigarettes out of each other's mouths with a slug gun' remembers a pupil of fifty years ago. A concerned HMI was told by the headteacher of a secondary modern in Tottenham School that 'my science staff can't handle girls', and a governor of a Bristol grammar averred that 'girls need music more than boys'. So much for the good old days. The accounts of people who attended school in the 1950s and 1960s reveal indiscipline, injustice and indifference. Bullying was endemic - by pupils and teachers. This book makes a convincing case that primary and secondary schools in England and Wales, have improved greatly over the past half century. Thoroughly researched and evidence-based, Adrian Elliott's findings challenge the public perceptions and pessimistic views so often proclaimed by the media. The exploration of the 'golden age' of selection and public examinations strongly challenges the persistent view that a return to selection would benefit the poorest children. Elliott examines whether schools are out of control, and whether out of school activities such as team games and orchestras are really disappearing and finds that neither is true. All this, plus international comparisons of school achievement, give the lie to the myth of declining standards in schools. Adrian Elliott writes from a perspective based on his own experience as a teacher, deputy head and headteacher of two large comprehensive schools for a total of 25 years, and later Ofsted inspector. And he draws also on his experience as a parent, an observer and even as a pupil. He gives us interviews with students, staff, heads, parents and governors. He examines underused sources of evidence such as HMI and GCE examiner reports, as well as official papers, from the post war period. He juxtaposes this with visits to schools today and concludes with a chapter on why so many schools are successful. Throughout, he argues that standards of teaching, learning and leadership in our schools have never been higher. This is a book for anyone interested in education and the school standards debate. And it is for teachers, headteachers, governors and parents, many of whom know that what they see in their schools bears no relation to the media scaremongering about schools today.