ABSTRACT
Although several million children are now educated in separate primary schools of one kind or another, these have a comparatively recent and certainly a short history. This form of schooling was first accepted as official policy only some fifty years ago, in 1928. It then took some forty years to implement. Not until the mid-1960s were all children between the ages of five and eleven educated in separate ‘primary’ schools. No sooner was this achieved than new changes were brought about by new thinking and legislation. The Education Act of 1964 made possible the establishment of ‘middle’ schools covering the ages of nine to thirteen. To complicate matters further, only three years later, the Central Advisory Councils for Education for both England and Wales recommended that ‘middle’ schools for children aged eight to twelve should be the norm. Both
these options have been taken up by a number of local authorities, with the approval of the Department of Education and Science, largely to facilitate comprehensive secondary reorganization.
