ABSTRACT

The comprehensive system is variously described in terms of its educational goals and social aspirations. An educational monolith has emerged defensive in the presence of other beliefs and cultures. Voluntary aided schools required financial support of the Churches, who were required to meet 50" of the capital costs, external maintenance and provision of new school buildings. The overall purpose of 1944 Education Act was to establish a viable maintained system of education by formulating a broad context for all foreseeable future developments. Today the social and secular priorities of much educational thought illustrate a refusal to accept those different priorities which are manifested in Church schools but whose legitimacy in terms of the 1944 Act is not in doubt. Religion, ethnicity and culture are all elements which are indicators of differentiation which characterise British society today. The report of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on urban priority areas tells that the Church of England was traditionally middle class in character.