ABSTRACT
The English secondary school system is very different from that created in 1944 in terms of its institutional variety. Tomlinson (2004) listed the following institutions: grammar, foundation (formerly GM), foundation specialist, voluntary aided, controlled faith and specialist, community (LEA controlled comprehensive), community specialist and foundation special schools, community special academies, CTCs, pupil referral units, learning support centres, Beacon (to be phased out), leading edge (to be phased in), training schools, along with Gifted and Talented Programmes. In the state maintained sector in England and Wales there were about 24,000 schools, of which approximately 4,000 were secondaries in 2004. In addition there are just over 1,500 fee-paying schools, ranging from the often long-established, predominantly boarding, major and minor ‘public’, through to the ‘good grammar’ provision of organisations like the Girls’ Public School Day Trust (GPSDT) to a bewildering array of predominantly small, inexpensive and usually fundamentalist faith schools.
