0:00:02 > 0:00:04This is the story of the golden age of Britain's grammar schools
0:00:04 > 0:00:07in the decades following the Second World War,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10and their sudden, dramatic demise.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14That demise is at the heart of an educational debate that still rages today.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Grammar schools offered talented children from the poorest backgrounds
0:00:18 > 0:00:22the chance to go to some of the best schools in the country.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25It gave me the confidence to know
0:00:25 > 0:00:29that I could do whatever I set out to do.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32And being female didn't make any difference,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35being educated DID make a difference.
0:00:37 > 0:00:42The grammar schools created a generation of upwardly mobile high-flyers,
0:00:42 > 0:00:45who helped transform Britain.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48They owed much to their inspirational teachers,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51whose memory some still hold dear.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54The first major book I wrote,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56I dedicated to her.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00That was me, saying, "Thank you.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02"Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
0:01:04 > 0:01:06HE SOBS
0:01:06 > 0:01:07Make me cry!
0:01:11 > 0:01:16By 1964, there were 1,300 grammar schools in Britain.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20They educated a quarter of all secondary school pupils,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23and were at the height of their success.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25But in the '60s and '70s,
0:01:25 > 0:01:30a cultural revolution that aimed to create a more open and equal society
0:01:30 > 0:01:32swept away the grammar schools
0:01:32 > 0:01:35and the ladder to success they'd provided.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40To some, it seemed like an act of educational sabotage.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44The school was no longer able to deliver to future generations of boys
0:01:44 > 0:01:47the amazing opportunities that had been offered to us,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50and that seemed both stupid,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54and it seemed like vandalism, and it seemed like a tragedy.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57The grammar school was on the way out.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01# ..For the times they are a-changing... #
0:02:04 > 0:02:07The 1944 Education Act
0:02:07 > 0:02:10set out to create educational opportunities for all.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13There was to be a three-tiered state education system,
0:02:13 > 0:02:17with technical, secondary modern, and grammar schools,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20all geared to the different abilities of pupils.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25Gaining a place at grammar school, the most academic of the three,
0:02:25 > 0:02:27depended on passing the 11+ exam.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29For many working class families,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33a grammar school education offered a ladder of escape
0:02:33 > 0:02:36from the daily grind and struggle of manual labour,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39to the more secure world of the professions.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43This ambition held a special appeal for Neil Kinnock's family in south Wales.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48My family were coalminers and steelworkers.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50And they had as a glowing purpose,
0:02:50 > 0:02:56the ambition for success of the next generation.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00That was central to just about everything they thought of and did,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03the reason why they worked ridiculous hours.
0:03:04 > 0:03:10Parents' ambitions for their children often hinged on whether they passed or failed their 11+.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12Neil did so well,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16he won a free place at the top grammar school in Wales, Pengam,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19dubbed the Eton of the Valleys.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23My father got home from work at around 5:30.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26When he came through the door, I told him.
0:03:26 > 0:03:32And he and my mother were so evidently ready to burst with pride
0:03:32 > 0:03:35at the fact that...
0:03:35 > 0:03:40I'd made it, in terms that EVERYBODY could understand.
0:03:44 > 0:03:50For the first generation of children to benefit from the educational reforms of the 1944 Act,
0:03:50 > 0:03:55the exclusion of less able fee-paying pupils from the grammar schools
0:03:55 > 0:03:59meant that the proportion of working-class pupils attending them
0:03:59 > 0:04:01increased dramatically.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06Roy Strong went to Edmonton County Grammar in 1946.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11I came from a lower middle-class, white-collar district,
0:04:11 > 0:04:16and that was really the upper end of Edmonton County Grammar school,
0:04:16 > 0:04:18because it was on the Great Cambridge Road,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22and then you crossed to the other side, which was Edmonton, which was solidly working class.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27And those boys were often incredibly impoverished,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30and one would see teachers
0:04:30 > 0:04:34really go out of their way to help those people.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36I actually saw one or two teachers
0:04:36 > 0:04:40actually slip money to some of those impoverished bright people,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43and there was a sense of heroism,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46I think most of those teachers were committed socialists,
0:04:46 > 0:04:51seeing a golden dawn of opportunity for people who had been
0:04:51 > 0:04:57completely denied this way of ascending with their intellect,
0:04:57 > 0:05:02so, in a way, it was an heroic period.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07Jan Garbutt, the daughter of a bus conductor in Coventry,
0:05:07 > 0:05:09grew up in poverty.
0:05:09 > 0:05:15But in 1956, she did so well in her 11+ that she won a place at Barr's Hill grammar,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19the city's top grammar school for girls.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22I had never seen anything so beautiful
0:05:22 > 0:05:26as going through these gates and seeing this glorious school
0:05:26 > 0:05:29and to think that was where I was going to go, every day,
0:05:29 > 0:05:35to do things that I knew that I was going to enjoy, it was fantastic.
0:05:35 > 0:05:41And inside the building, the smell of the oak floors
0:05:41 > 0:05:45and the wood panelling of this beautiful, beautiful building,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48and the smell...
0:05:48 > 0:05:50I still retain that to this day.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52They say smells evoke memories, don't they,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55and the smell of the oak panelling
0:05:55 > 0:05:57and the wood of that glorious building
0:05:57 > 0:06:01evokes the strongest memories of my school days.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06Barbara Jones came from an impoverished mining family in Nottinghamshire.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09In 1949, she won a place as a boarder
0:06:09 > 0:06:14at the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Grammar School for Girls in Mansfield.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17With its emphasis on impeccable behaviour at all times,
0:06:17 > 0:06:21it was a world apart from her home life.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23Being a boarder was special.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26Manners had to be perfect, and we had to behave with decorum.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30Very Victorian values, and so, we would sit at the table,
0:06:30 > 0:06:32eating properly,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36with the correct knife and fork, with our mouths closed.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38If we needed something passing,
0:06:38 > 0:06:43other people on the table had to be aware of your needs, and pass it.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46You weren't allowed to say, "Will you pass me the salt, please?"
0:06:46 > 0:06:49They had to look after you, and we each had to do that.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54Grammar schools placed great importance on the wearing of school uniform.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57It created a sense of pride and belonging,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00as well as a new identity, rooted in the school.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03But poor families struggled to meet the costs.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07When Vincent Calder won a place at St Brendan's College in Bristol
0:07:07 > 0:07:11in 1954, his mother went to her local pawnbroker
0:07:11 > 0:07:13to help pay for his uniform.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15She suddenly arrives with the ring,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19she opened up her little purse, took out her ring,
0:07:19 > 0:07:21and it was her wedding ring.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25She must have done some research into the cost of the uniform,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28cos she said, "I need so much". I don't know how much.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32"Can you give it to me on this?"
0:07:33 > 0:07:36"That's your wedding ring", he said.
0:07:36 > 0:07:37"Yes, I know."
0:07:37 > 0:07:42He said, "I don't want to take your wedding ring. Is there anything else?"
0:07:42 > 0:07:44"It's all I have."
0:07:44 > 0:07:47With the money she borrowed on her wedding ring,
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Vincent's mother fitted him out with a full school uniform.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55When I put on the school uniform, first time...
0:07:56 > 0:08:00..God, you should have seen her face. It was amazing.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05I didn't even recognise myself, I'd never had new clothes, never.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08It was the first time I'd ever had new clothes.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11I'd always had hand-me-downs.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16And so I put on my school cap - the first one went over there.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Can't do it now. But I mean...
0:08:20 > 0:08:22..her face was a picture then.
0:08:22 > 0:08:28School colours were important in encouraging children to feel proud
0:08:28 > 0:08:30and identify with their school.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38In 1948, Bob McCartney, who lived on the Shankill Road in Belfast,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41started at the new Grosvenor High School.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43It took a while for us to get ourselves sorted out,
0:08:43 > 0:08:48and for the staff to equip us all with the same rugby jersey.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52And for a while, we were known,
0:08:52 > 0:08:54I suppose a bit patronisingly,
0:08:54 > 0:09:00as the Liquorice Allsorts, because of our multi-coloured gear.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03But that soon changed.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07The greater ambition for me was to play for the school team,
0:09:07 > 0:09:09so the first year I played for the under 13s,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13the second year the under 14s, the next year the under 15s,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17and then I played for two years in the first XV.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22There was a sense of "play up, play up and play the game".
0:09:22 > 0:09:24You know, of being straight,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28and fair, and honourable in your dealings.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33There was a spirit of optimism in the face of hardship
0:09:33 > 0:09:36during the decade after the Second World War.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39But despite the pride the new working-class pupils
0:09:39 > 0:09:43felt in their school, they could experience divided loyalties.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46This often triggered rebellion against the rules.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Like many other grammar schools, Pengam played rugby as opposed to soccer,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52a game that was frowned upon.
0:09:52 > 0:09:59If you were caught playing soccer with a tennis ball at lunchtime,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02you automatically went into detention.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04I loved both sports.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07I loved soccer because it was my father's sport,
0:10:07 > 0:10:11and he was a very, very accomplished footballer -
0:10:11 > 0:10:14he was a great all-round sportsman, actually -
0:10:14 > 0:10:20but rugby had caught my imagination as well, so I loved both sports.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25But I did, from the second and third form,
0:10:25 > 0:10:31play football with a tennis ball in the yard during lunchtime,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35in order to say "to hell with you" to authority.
0:10:36 > 0:10:41Working-class children were often pulled one way by the grammar school world,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44with its promise of success and upward mobility,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47and pulled another by loyalty to family and friends
0:10:47 > 0:10:52who had no such pretensions, as Vincent Calder discovered, to his cost.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57We had elocution lessons, and I'd never seen anybody like this,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01and he was making progress, it must have, because I came round,
0:11:01 > 0:11:03and I was with somebody once, and I was talking,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06and they said, "Oh, la-de-da!"
0:11:06 > 0:11:09And that really cut me to the quick,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12because I didn't want to be la-de-da.
0:11:12 > 0:11:19Enough was enough, I don't want to be separated from my brothers any more than I am, and my family.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22And I don't want to be la-de-da.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25And so, I immediately thought...
0:11:27 > 0:11:29..I'm not changing.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33They're not going to change me, I am not changing. I am who I am.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38But many working-class pupils did change.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41Praise from teachers and the promise of a better future
0:11:41 > 0:11:46were hard to resist, even if it did mean being cut off from your family.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53When Barbara Jones went home behaving very differently from her parents, they reprimanded her.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59I think it was worse because I was a boarder,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03had I have been an ordinary grammar school, day girl,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06I would have been going home to the normal home situation,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and I wouldn't have known any different.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12But it was very hard, and I wouldn't take it.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17But this was a conflict that there was.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19Here was somebody who was disobedient,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23and superior in their view,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26and they felt threatened by this,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29because I'd gone out of their comfort zone.
0:12:31 > 0:12:36And they treated it in the only way they thought was necessary,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39and that was to force me to comply.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42It didn't work!
0:12:44 > 0:12:48However, an even bigger problem was fitting in at school.
0:12:52 > 0:12:58Some were terrified of being exposed as inferior, like Jan Garbutt.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03Because I'd had such a narrow home background,
0:13:03 > 0:13:09I hadn't realised how restricted my vocabulary actually was,
0:13:09 > 0:13:14and I remember feeling very embarrassed in one lesson,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17I don't remember what they were talking about,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21but the aspect of pharmacy came up, and in my ignorance,
0:13:21 > 0:13:27I assumed that pharmacy was to do with agriculture.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32A comment was made about my ignorance of the fact.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34And...
0:13:34 > 0:13:36I was absolutely mortified,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41mortified to the point that this day, I can still remember
0:13:41 > 0:13:46where I sat in class at that time, which girl I sat behind,
0:13:46 > 0:13:49and the feeling that I had
0:13:49 > 0:13:53when I became aware that I'd made a faux pas in assuming that
0:13:53 > 0:13:59pharmacy was to do with agriculture, and not another word for a chemist.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03But for those with a special artistic or academic gift,
0:14:03 > 0:14:07the whole atmosphere of grammar school could be liberating
0:14:07 > 0:14:11and a welcome refuge from the cultural impoverishment of home.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15It enabled the young Roy Strong to flourish. Nevertheless,
0:14:15 > 0:14:20his father was keen for him to leave school at the earliest opportunity.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24My father attempted to take me from school when I was 14.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Both my parents had left school when they were 14.
0:14:27 > 0:14:34And he... By 14, it was clear that I had quite a high graphic skill,
0:14:34 > 0:14:39and he'd found a cartoonist on a newspaper who wanted an apprentice,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43but it was very heavily resisted by the school, I'm glad to say.
0:14:44 > 0:14:51One of Roy's principal allies was his history teacher, Joan Henderson.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53Roy responded with true devotion.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57When I was at school, I used to send her Christmas cards.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02Here's one of an 18th-century dandy, signed "R Strong, 3A".
0:15:02 > 0:15:05This must be a bit further on, it's...
0:15:05 > 0:15:09Again, always costumed figures, always retreat to the past.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13The vital role teachers played at that grammar school, for me,
0:15:13 > 0:15:15was that they gave me what my family couldn't give me.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Because they couldn't, because they hadn't got it,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21they had not the education,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25they had not the inclination towards the arts,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28or any of the sort of things I was interested in,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30at all, really.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35And therefore, one suddenly came into contact with people
0:15:35 > 0:15:39who were, to use that word, cultured.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44But the skilled working classes had their own culture,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46and were very proud of it.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49For children who grew up in craft-based communities,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53like those which served the shipbuilding industry in Northern Ireland,
0:15:53 > 0:15:59the apprentice's skills had equal status to any academic knowledge learned at grammar school.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01There was absolutely no feeling -
0:16:01 > 0:16:05none whatever - that the grammar school boys
0:16:05 > 0:16:10were in any way superior to their contemporaries who were in work.
0:16:12 > 0:16:18And I can remember a chap who was an apprentice joiner
0:16:18 > 0:16:20in the shipyard,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24and there, after their third year of their apprenticeship,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27they had to produce a work piece.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31His work piece - almost medieval,
0:16:31 > 0:16:36which he had to offer to the man he was apprentice to, was a jawbox.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39And everybody thought it was so terrific,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42and he was so evidently proud of it.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47And... But you know, people like me admired him
0:16:47 > 0:16:49for what he could do.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Just as he might have admired us, who knows, for being smart,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56or having access to a bit of knowledge which he didn't share.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01In the '50s, the biggest threat to grammar schools and their values
0:17:01 > 0:17:06was the rise of the new and rebellious working-class teenage culture.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11Originating with the Teddy boys, and driven by rock'n'roll music,
0:17:11 > 0:17:16this promised a much more exciting world than book learning.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21Most of all, it offered freedom from the rigid school rules
0:17:21 > 0:17:23for boys like Vince Calder.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25We were alive with a vibrancy,
0:17:25 > 0:17:29which, when you sit in the class...
0:17:31 > 0:17:33..hands on the desk,
0:17:33 > 0:17:38or like this - you see me still do this, time and time again, fold arms.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41That was how you'd spend your day.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45Just imagine then, when you got out and you heard this music,
0:17:45 > 0:17:49that burst you out, and you came alive.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51# Well since my baby left me
0:17:51 > 0:17:54# Well I found a new place to dwell
0:17:54 > 0:17:56# Well it's down at the end of Lonely Street
0:17:56 > 0:17:59# At Heartbreak Hotel... #
0:17:59 > 0:18:02Heartbreak Hotel was the first record I ever bought,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05and that described how I was feeling.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10"Heartbreak Hotel". He sang that amazingly.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14And that was... The rhythms and sounds were there,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18this wonderful slow, drawn-out, agonising thing.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20It was describing my teens.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24I wanted to be somewhere else,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26and I didn't know where I wanted to be.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31The high ambitions of grammar schools for their pupils' future careers
0:18:31 > 0:18:37were becoming out of step with the real lives of the new working-class teenagers.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40Some simply could not afford to continue into the sixth form,
0:18:40 > 0:18:45especially teenagers from poor families, like Jan Garbutt.
0:18:45 > 0:18:51We all had to traipse into the headmistress' office, and discuss
0:18:51 > 0:18:55hopes for further education, and what we intended to do.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00When I told her that I'd been accepted on a hairdressing course,
0:19:00 > 0:19:06she was really quite dismissive of the whole situation,
0:19:06 > 0:19:12and sort of...didn't give me any encouragement.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16She knew my home situation, she must have done,
0:19:16 > 0:19:20known the type of situation that I was in at home,
0:19:20 > 0:19:22and that further education,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25certainly to university, was out of the question.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Jan became a hairdresser, and later manageress of a salon.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38Very few of the first generation of post-war working-class pupils
0:19:38 > 0:19:41who passed their 11+ and got to grammar school
0:19:41 > 0:19:44progressed to the sixth form, especially the girls.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51Barbara Jones's father was in no doubt that she had to start work.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54There was no argument about it, no discussion.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58That was it. So I had to get a job.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04But I didn't work in a factory, like all the other girls of my era did.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09One of the girls at school said that she'd applied for a job
0:20:09 > 0:20:14as a GPO telephonist, and I thought, "That sounds really posh!"
0:20:14 > 0:20:18"I don't know what a GPO telephonist is, but it sounds good!"
0:20:18 > 0:20:22So I applied, too, to become a GPO telephonist.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24By this time, I did know what it was,
0:20:24 > 0:20:26and I did become a GPO telephonist.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30But inspired by her grammar school education,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34Barbara later became a civil servant, and a feminist,
0:20:34 > 0:20:38committed to giving more opportunities to young people.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42The temptation of teenage independence
0:20:42 > 0:20:46prompted many working-class grammar school boys to leave,
0:20:46 > 0:20:48and start a job soon as they could.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55To buy into the lifestyle they wanted, they needed money.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00In 1960, Vince Calder left school,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03after deciding not to stay on in the sixth form.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08It was my chance to be who I wanted to be,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11not who somebody else wanted me to be.
0:21:11 > 0:21:17I was going to dress, I was going to go, do what I wanted to do,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21and all the discipline and all the restrictions that had been on me...
0:21:23 > 0:21:26..couldn't take it any more.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30The feeling of letting down his mother's grammar school
0:21:30 > 0:21:33hopes and ambitions continues to haunt Vince to this day.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38She wanted something special for me,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41and I know, I...
0:21:49 > 0:21:52Not when she was alive,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55it had to be after she was dead,
0:21:55 > 0:22:00that...what she wanted for me came through.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03After a string of casual jobs,
0:22:03 > 0:22:08Vince worked his way up to become an engineering designer.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13But for less well-off working-class children
0:22:13 > 0:22:17who overcame their initial resistance to the grammar school ethos of strict discipline,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20the sixth form opened up a very different world,
0:22:20 > 0:22:24with much more individual responsibility and opportunity.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27As Neil Kinnock discovered.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31I went into the sixth form, and my world changed.
0:22:31 > 0:22:37Teachers started treating me as a 16, 17-year-old,
0:22:37 > 0:22:42um, the whole tone of activity changed,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45um...
0:22:45 > 0:22:49There was...hardly any emphasis on discipline,
0:22:49 > 0:22:52and the head pulled a masterstroke.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56Instead of making me a sub-prefect,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59which was usual in the first year of the sixth form,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03he made me a full prefect immediately.
0:23:03 > 0:23:09On the basis that awarding me responsibility would produce a positive result.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Neil Kinnock never looked back.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16One of the leading political figures of his generation
0:23:16 > 0:23:21in Britain and Europe, he's been called the greatest Prime Minister we ever had.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Had I succeeded in my various efforts to leave school after the age of 15 -
0:23:26 > 0:23:30and they were repeated efforts! -
0:23:30 > 0:23:35I would have...so dismayed my parents,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39that they would have felt...betrayed, almost.
0:23:39 > 0:23:45Because of the investment of hope, as well as material support,
0:23:45 > 0:23:46that they'd made in me.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52By the time I got to the sixth form, I was trying to paint Elizabethan miniatures.
0:23:52 > 0:23:59They're all of the Virgin Queen, looking like a mobile Christmas tree, covered in jewels.
0:23:59 > 0:24:05Roy Strong's interest in Elizabethan portraiture was guided by his dedicated history teacher,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07Joan Henderson.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11There was only one printed catalogue, 1898,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14and it was in what is now the British library.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18And she'd copied that in longhand.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21In longhand, so that I could have it.
0:24:21 > 0:24:28That is something incredible for a teacher to have done for a 16, 17-year-old.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31Roy Strong's career quickly blossomed,
0:24:31 > 0:24:33and after completing an art history PhD,
0:24:33 > 0:24:40in 1967, he became the youngest director of the National Portrait Gallery, at the age of 31.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45But Roy never forgot the huge debt he owed to his most inspirational teacher.
0:24:45 > 0:24:50I always remember the first major book I wrote
0:24:50 > 0:24:55on Elizabeth painting, The English Icon, I dedicated to her.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58And she came up and had lunch with me,
0:24:58 > 0:25:00then I was director of the Portrait Gallery.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05And that was her book, that was me saying "Thank you".
0:25:05 > 0:25:07"Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
0:25:11 > 0:25:13Make me cry.
0:25:17 > 0:25:18She gave me so much.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30By the early 1960s, the grammar schools, despite their problems,
0:25:30 > 0:25:33were helping to revitalise post-war Britain.
0:25:35 > 0:25:36Just a minute, please.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Could we make those quavers a little more clear?
0:25:39 > 0:25:40One, two.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45Children from less privileged backgrounds were given the opportunities
0:25:45 > 0:25:47that their parents could only have dreamt of.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51Upward social mobility was in full swing.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54Much of it was subconscious.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56There was a conscious level
0:25:56 > 0:26:01when you had to be familiar with this material in order to sit an exam.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06But at a subconscious level, you were absorbing feelings,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10and a taste for this subject,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13which was going to remain with you all your life.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18Bob McCartney went on to study law at Queens University Belfast.
0:26:18 > 0:26:24He later became a barrister, and leader of the UK Unionist party.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28There's that hackneyed phrase about, "What is education for?"
0:26:28 > 0:26:33Is it to enable you to earn a living, or is it to teach you how to live?
0:26:33 > 0:26:36Well, I think, in effect, it's both,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39but if you can earn your living
0:26:39 > 0:26:41doing something that you really love to do,
0:26:41 > 0:26:48and appreciating all the smells and senses and feelings, it's marvellous.
0:26:48 > 0:26:49Like a holiday!
0:26:49 > 0:26:53I enjoyed every moment of my legal career.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55For that reason.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02But by the early '60s, the fate of the majority of schoolchildren
0:27:02 > 0:27:05who didn't go to grammar school could no longer be ignored.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08They went to secondary modern schools,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12which became the only option after the technical schools
0:27:12 > 0:27:16imagined by the 1944 Education Act never really took off.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20Often underfunded, in dilapidated buildings,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24the schools were seen to be second class.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28I'm going to ask you some questions which are going to be similar
0:27:28 > 0:27:31to those which you will have in your examination.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33I want you to...
0:27:33 > 0:27:36The 11+, always seen as a major hurdle,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38now became ever more important.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Question number one...
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Not passing, and not getting into grammar school,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48meant being consigned to an inferior education.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51The system appeared more and more unfair.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57Sue Elliott was well aware of the importance of passing the 11+ exam
0:27:57 > 0:28:00she took in 1962.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02When that horrible
0:28:02 > 0:28:08little thin envelope arrived at our house,
0:28:08 > 0:28:14I knew that I'd failed, because that was how you knew.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18If you had a nice big fat envelope, it meant you'd passed,
0:28:18 > 0:28:23because that offered you all sorts of choices of local grammar schools,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26and told you all about lovely uniforms,
0:28:26 > 0:28:28and all the equipment you wanted.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30And if you had a little thin envelope,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33that meant that you were just told
0:28:33 > 0:28:38which local secondary mod you were going to, no choice. That was it.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41- Well, Janet, you're 11 years of age now, aren't you?- Yes.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44And therefore, you've left the primary school,
0:28:44 > 0:28:46and you've come to the secondary school.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Secondary modern school, you know that is what it is called, don't you?
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Yes. We're rather sorry Janet failed the 11+.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58Well, I hardly think that "failed" is the right word, Mrs Kitchen.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03Despite trying to convince parents and pupils to the contrary,
0:29:03 > 0:29:05everybody knew that failing the 11+
0:29:05 > 0:29:08meant failure on a much bigger scale.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13My mum and dad were devastated.
0:29:13 > 0:29:19They were very, very disappointed, I think, and upset.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23They'd always said to me, "You can only do your best,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27"and of course we'll still love you if you fail."
0:29:27 > 0:29:29But I knew in my heart of hearts
0:29:29 > 0:29:34that I had failed a very significant hurdle in life.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37And that one way or another this was going to
0:29:37 > 0:29:41affect my chances for the rest of my life.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45The winners amongst the new '60s generation
0:29:45 > 0:29:49would experience the final heyday of the grammar school system,
0:29:49 > 0:29:53which was graded from top to bottom on the basis of ability.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57Children who did well in their 11+ could win a scholarship to
0:29:57 > 0:30:00one of the best schools in the country if they also did
0:30:00 > 0:30:04exceptionally well in the school's entrance examination.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07One of the top girls' schools in the North-West
0:30:07 > 0:30:11was the Liverpool Institute High School for Girls.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15Edwina Currie won a scholarship there in 1958.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20The atmosphere was to encourage you to do your best.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24One of the tasks of these very good teachers, totally dedicated teachers,
0:30:24 > 0:30:28was to find out what was your best and push you in that direction,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31push you further than you might naturally perhaps want to go.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35So I arrived at the school with the other Margaret Bryce scholars
0:30:35 > 0:30:38to find we were skipping the first year, straight into the second year.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45From the word go, the brightest scholarship girls had to be high achievers.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48THEY GREET THE TEACHER
0:30:48 > 0:30:54That little group of special scholarship kids
0:30:54 > 0:30:58were made to feel special, and pushed much harder.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02Bien, Janet. Un port couteau.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Coming fifth or sixth was not good enough.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08It may be good enough for the others, but you're a scholarship girl,
0:31:08 > 0:31:10now you keep doing it.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14It was a privilege, but it was a responsibility.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18And words like duty just flowed, "You have a duty to do this.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22"You can't let anyone down, you can't let yourself down,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25"you're not going to let us down as teachers."
0:31:25 > 0:31:27I think I've changed my mind a bit.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31I think the poem isn't really statements of fact...
0:31:31 > 0:31:36The top boys grammar school in the country was Manchester Grammar.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39There was fierce competition to win a scholarship to MGS
0:31:39 > 0:31:43but that was just the beginning of a relentless system of testing
0:31:43 > 0:31:48and class positions, designed to push every pupil to the limit.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51Michael Wood started there in 1959.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53It was incredibly exciting,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57because Manchester Grammar School changed everything.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01The beginning was scary, and they had fortnightly tests.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03Known as fortnightlies!
0:32:03 > 0:32:07And you sit in the class according to where you did
0:32:07 > 0:32:10in the exam for each fortnight.
0:32:10 > 0:32:16And the first fortnightly was just sheer terror to me.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19I had never done any languages, for example.
0:32:19 > 0:32:26And I came, not bottom, but well into the 20s in a 32-person class.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28There was some...
0:32:28 > 0:32:32I definitely detected a kind of attitude on the part of the teacher
0:32:32 > 0:32:35that "You should do better, Wood."
0:32:37 > 0:32:38At Harrow County,
0:32:38 > 0:32:43the school film, Makers Of Men, spelled out the school's message.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47The new boys, as first formers, enter the school on their very first day,
0:32:47 > 0:32:51feeling perhaps more than a little overawed by the occasion
0:32:51 > 0:32:54and acutely aware that in this school
0:32:54 > 0:32:57only the best will satisfy the demand.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00The school measured its success by the number of pupils
0:33:00 > 0:33:05who went on to Oxbridge, and by a long list of illustrious alumni.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09When Michael Portillo won a scholarship there in 1964,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12he knew what he was up against.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16Competition was the very essence of the school, it's what drove it.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18We all wanted to succeed so much.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21The glittering prize was ahead of us.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24The glittering prize particularly was to go to university
0:33:24 > 0:33:25and to go to Oxford and Cambridge.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29As though to rub it home, in the hall where we assembled every morning,
0:33:29 > 0:33:33there was a thing called the honours board which recorded all the boys
0:33:33 > 0:33:37over the generations who had managed to get to Oxford and Cambridge.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40Each term we would see the names of boys that we knew
0:33:40 > 0:33:44added in gold paint on to this beautiful wooden board.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48Harrow County school was so successful,
0:33:48 > 0:33:50its results were beginning to match
0:33:50 > 0:33:53those of its famous public school neighbour.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56Public schools like Harrow continued to educate
0:33:56 > 0:33:59the children of Britain's wealthiest families.
0:33:59 > 0:34:04In these exclusive fee-paying schools, privilege was entrenched.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06But by the early '60s,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09grammar school pupils were winning half of all Oxbridge places.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13The aura of the public schools, however, persisted.
0:34:13 > 0:34:20The school was set up in the shadow, literally, of Harrow School.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22Despite all that our grammar schools did for us,
0:34:22 > 0:34:27I don't think they ever made us quite as effortlessly confident
0:34:27 > 0:34:31or even as effortlessly charming as those public schoolboys.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36Grammar schools also developed their own pecking order.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39The highest achieving schools recruited from children
0:34:39 > 0:34:42who got the best results in their 11+.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44- Good morning.- Good morning, sir!
0:34:44 > 0:34:48But all grammar schools went out of their way to encourage
0:34:48 > 0:34:52the virtue of excellence in every aspect of school life.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57Roy Greenslade went to Dagenham County High.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00The implications of not being in
0:35:00 > 0:35:03the premier league of grammar schools was not lost on Roy
0:35:03 > 0:35:05or his contemporaries.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08We were being educated on the understanding
0:35:08 > 0:35:13that we could do useful jobs and we wouldn't do jobs like our parents.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16But at the same time there was an understanding
0:35:16 > 0:35:19that we weren't a first-rank grammar school
0:35:19 > 0:35:22that could look to getting many people to university,
0:35:22 > 0:35:24and there weren't as many universities.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29Dagenham County High wasn't the best grammar school in Essex,
0:35:29 > 0:35:31but they knew what they were good at.
0:35:31 > 0:35:37One of the things about Dagenham was that football was the great leveller.
0:35:37 > 0:35:43There was this enormous pride around County High - "OK, we are very aware
0:35:43 > 0:35:46"that we are not quite up with Romford Royal Liberty,
0:35:46 > 0:35:49"or Hornchurch Grammar, or Ilford County High -
0:35:49 > 0:35:51"they seem to be a class apart.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53"But, my goodness, we can play football
0:35:53 > 0:35:56"and we can do it elegantly and brilliantly."
0:35:59 > 0:36:04School sports were used not only to promote a spirit of achievement
0:36:04 > 0:36:07within the school but also in interschool competitions.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11This gave Bob Miller, Roy Greenslade's friend
0:36:11 > 0:36:14from Dagenham High, a chance for his place in the sun.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20My saving grace at that grammar school was that I was good at sport.
0:36:21 > 0:36:27Sports, if you was not academically bright and therefore
0:36:27 > 0:36:32when you got streamed they put you into, in my case, the D stream,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35where you had to work at all the academic subjects,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38some of which I liked, some of which I didn't,
0:36:38 > 0:36:42there was always the fallback onto sport.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46Of course, sport gave me the opportunity to represent Dagenham
0:36:46 > 0:36:50at a district level and, in some cases, later on,
0:36:50 > 0:36:52Essex at county level.
0:36:52 > 0:36:58And all of this actually raised your status in the school
0:36:58 > 0:37:00and for yourself, it raised your own self-esteem.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06Sporting achievement helped many grammar schools create
0:37:06 > 0:37:08a strong sense of pride and identity,
0:37:08 > 0:37:11wherever they were in the academic league table.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17When Paul Boateng arrived at Apsley Grammar School in 1966,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20he was the only black boy in the school.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23The headmaster was keen for him to do well.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25I will never forget my first day.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29I had a brilliant headmaster called VJ Wrigley.
0:37:29 > 0:37:35So he takes me by the shoulder, gets me into some borrowed whites,
0:37:35 > 0:37:40and then we go over to the cricket team and he says,
0:37:40 > 0:37:42"This is the school's great hope.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46"We are now going to sort out the county in cricket."
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Unfortunately, he hadn't discussed this with me,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52because I'm from Ghana, not Guyana,
0:37:52 > 0:37:56and we don't do cricket in Ghana, we do football!
0:37:56 > 0:38:02So I'm afraid I wasn't the great black hope of Hertfordshire cricket.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05But what I was good at, and the headmaster soon cottoned on to this,
0:38:05 > 0:38:10because he encouraged dissent and debate within his class,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14the general knowledge class which he insisted on teaching himself,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18I became captain of the school debating team,
0:38:18 > 0:38:21and we won all sorts of trophies.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24- ALL:- And lead us not into temptation...
0:38:24 > 0:38:27There was no debate, however,
0:38:27 > 0:38:31as to which schools were at the bottom of the educational league table in the 1960s.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38# A-a-a-aah-men. #
0:38:38 > 0:38:43The secondary moderns taught around two-thirds of all Britain's children.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46- Good morning, girls. - Good morning, Miss May.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51These children lived in a totally different world
0:38:51 > 0:38:53to the grammar schools.
0:38:55 > 0:39:01We all, at this school, which was actually a pretty big school,
0:39:01 > 0:39:03we just felt we were different.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07We didn't have anything to do with the grammar school kids -
0:39:07 > 0:39:10we didn't play them at games, we didn't have joint productions,
0:39:10 > 0:39:17we didn't meet them in any social or educational context at all.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21But not all secondary modern schools failed their children.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25Many aspired to give the best possible education to their pupils.
0:39:25 > 0:39:30I suspected that the standard of teaching that we got
0:39:30 > 0:39:37wasn't as good as that that the pupils at grammar school got.
0:39:38 > 0:39:44But the head teacher at my secondary mod was ambitious -
0:39:44 > 0:39:48he was ambitious for the school, he was ambitious for us.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53He encouraged people to take exams.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58It was a pretty good school of its type, really.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04Could you give those out for me, Brenda, please?
0:40:04 > 0:40:08Despite the brave attempts of some secondary modern schools
0:40:08 > 0:40:10to escape from the stigma of failure,
0:40:10 > 0:40:14the segregation of children was becoming a major political issue.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17The 11+ selection process
0:40:17 > 0:40:20and its consequences were becoming unacceptable.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23May I have your attention, please?
0:40:23 > 0:40:27Early experiments with large, modern comprehensive schools
0:40:27 > 0:40:32which accepted all pupils in their area, whatever their ability,
0:40:32 > 0:40:34were proving successful.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37The Labour party led by Harold Wilson,
0:40:37 > 0:40:40the first grammar school boy to achieve high office,
0:40:40 > 0:40:43wanted the whole country to go comprehensive
0:40:43 > 0:40:46and made it an election issue in 1964.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50When I first went to my grammar school it was at exactly the time
0:40:50 > 0:40:52of the October 1964 general election.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56So, as soon as I got there, we were thrown into a mock election in the school
0:40:56 > 0:41:02and I became the first year assistant to the Labour Party candidate.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06And I remember I gave him the first piece of political advice I ever gave.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10I said, "I've been talking to all the boys and you are going to lose,
0:41:10 > 0:41:16"you're going to be crucified on this policy of comprehensivisation of the schools.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19"In this grammar school this goes down so badly."
0:41:21 > 0:41:25The dream of a new and fairer education system appealed to many parents,
0:41:25 > 0:41:28including middle-class parents who had suffered
0:41:28 > 0:41:31the indignity of their children failing the 11+.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34We understood that there were two powerful criticisms
0:41:34 > 0:41:36of the grammar schools.
0:41:36 > 0:41:37One was that you had to pass an 11+
0:41:37 > 0:41:41so your fate hung on your performance on a single day.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44And the other problem was that those who went to secondary modern school
0:41:44 > 0:41:47did not have the opportunities that we had,
0:41:47 > 0:41:49didn't even have proper opportunities.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53This was an issue the new Secretary of State for Education, Anthony Crosland,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57made a priority after Labour's 1964 election victory.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01The first thing we are doing, we're trying to get rid of something
0:42:01 > 0:42:05that's become an absolute curse to children in this country.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07We're getting rid of the 11+.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09I think today almost all parents agree with us
0:42:09 > 0:42:14that selection is bad, it's a chancy business, and it's unjust.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18You can't divide children up at the age of 11
0:42:18 > 0:42:21into 20% going to a superior education
0:42:21 > 0:42:25and 80% to whom we say, "We're sorry, you're not up to it."
0:42:25 > 0:42:29The new cultural icons of the '60s, like the Beatles,
0:42:29 > 0:42:33three of whom were Liverpool grammar school boys, embraced a vision
0:42:33 > 0:42:37of a different world that questioned the old conventional values.
0:42:37 > 0:42:38# Shake it up baby now
0:42:38 > 0:42:40# Shake it up baby
0:42:40 > 0:42:42# Twist and shout
0:42:42 > 0:42:43# Twist and shout... #
0:42:43 > 0:42:47The grammar school was in danger of becoming out of touch
0:42:47 > 0:42:49and irrelevant for the young generation.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52But some schools rose to the challenge.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56Somehow, in that particular time in the '60s,
0:42:56 > 0:43:01the grammar school that I went to, anyway, was able to open up
0:43:01 > 0:43:05and accommodate the excitement and the passion,
0:43:05 > 0:43:07and the dissension of the times,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10in ways that were very, very constructive.
0:43:10 > 0:43:12# Your sons and your daughters... #
0:43:12 > 0:43:16Grammar school boys like Paul were swept along with
0:43:16 > 0:43:18the tide of student protest in the late' 60s,
0:43:18 > 0:43:23adopting the new political heroes with their promises of revolutionary change.
0:43:23 > 0:43:28# ..the times they are a changing. #
0:43:30 > 0:43:33One of the most unlikely heroes was Chairman Mao,
0:43:33 > 0:43:38whose Little Red Book sold more than a billion copies around the world.
0:43:38 > 0:43:43We had gone down to London and we had brought 100 Little Red Books,
0:43:43 > 0:43:46Chairman Mao's lexicon.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49And the following Monday, we came to school.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53Immediately after assembly, started selling them.
0:43:53 > 0:43:59And during the lunch break, and waving them. I'll never forget that!
0:43:59 > 0:44:05And the headmaster sort of looked at us, raised an eyebrow,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07and passed on.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11That was his way of dealing with rebellion.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13And actually, it was very clever.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15Because if he had tried to seize them
0:44:15 > 0:44:18or had in some way indicated disapproval,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21that would have made us even more rebellious
0:44:21 > 0:44:22and given us a cause.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25He knew how to deal with it, but, in a way,
0:44:25 > 0:44:29he was much more pleased that we were taking an interest.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32The passion for history Michael Wood developed
0:44:32 > 0:44:36at Manchester Grammar School created its own controversies.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41It was a passion he continued to explore
0:44:41 > 0:44:44as a successful TV historian and writer.
0:44:46 > 0:44:481066 was the last occasion
0:44:48 > 0:44:53on which England was conquered by a foreign invader.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56And the Normans took over not a provincial backwater
0:44:56 > 0:45:00but an older and in some respects a superior civilisation.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03The real inspiration for Michael
0:45:03 > 0:45:06was his history teacher at MGS - Cuthbert Seton.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08We had a real point of disagreement -
0:45:08 > 0:45:12he was really into Norman history and he loved the Normans,
0:45:12 > 0:45:15and I was into Anglo-Saxon history
0:45:15 > 0:45:17and I thought the Norman conquest was a catastrophe.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19We'd sometimes argue about this.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23In my last year, which was the anniversary of the Norman Conquest,
0:45:23 > 0:45:291966, 1066, there was a big magazine Sunday Times colour thing
0:45:29 > 0:45:34by Field Marshal Montgomery, who was a great national hero in those days,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37arguing that the Norman conquest had been a good thing
0:45:37 > 0:45:42and the Anglo-Saxons were provincial, boorish long-haired drunkards
0:45:42 > 0:45:45and only got civilisation through the Normans.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48And I, sitting in Cuthbert Seton's history class,
0:45:48 > 0:45:52wrote a reply from King Harold himself, you see.
0:45:52 > 0:45:57And I sent this to the Sunday Times and they published it that week.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59The long and short of it was he invited me
0:45:59 > 0:46:02to the House of Lords to debate these things,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06and I met Clement Attlee and it was an absolutely fantastic day.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09You can imagine, for a northern grammar school kid
0:46:09 > 0:46:13whose only trip to London had been to see United in a football match.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19Grammar schools lower down the pecking order
0:46:19 > 0:46:21also had high ambitions for their pupils.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25Even the most difficult ones.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34Rebellious sixth former Roy Greenslade had got into trouble
0:46:34 > 0:46:38for a money-making scam he operated in the school library.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42The headmaster called me in and he said,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46"Look, what do you want? What do you really want?"
0:46:46 > 0:46:50And I said, "Well, actually, I'd like to be a journalist."
0:46:50 > 0:46:54And he scoffed in that really annoying way
0:46:54 > 0:46:58and said, "You'll never be on The Times."
0:46:58 > 0:47:01And I thought, "I don't want to be on The Times, really!"
0:47:03 > 0:47:08But Roy's headmaster had no intention of writing him off.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12What Mr Granger, God bless him, did,
0:47:12 > 0:47:16was that he went to the local careers officer,
0:47:16 > 0:47:21asked if anything was around and smoothed my path on to the local paper,
0:47:21 > 0:47:24literally found me a job so that he could get rid of me,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26which I am eternally grateful for.
0:47:26 > 0:47:32Roy went on to become a journalist, media commentator and author.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36He's now professor of journalism at City University, London.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42Bob Miller left Dagenham County High without passing any of his O-levels.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44He came from a traveller background
0:47:44 > 0:47:48and started working on the markets with his family.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52I was working at a shellfish barrow with my grandfather on a Sunday morning
0:47:52 > 0:47:55and there was this queue, I remember,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59on this particular Sunday, waiting for their shrimps and winkles
0:47:59 > 0:48:02and in it was my careers officer,
0:48:02 > 0:48:05and everyone was coming out worse the wear for drinks
0:48:05 > 0:48:08and he said, "I've got an interview for you."
0:48:08 > 0:48:11I said "Oh, good, lovely. Where's that?"
0:48:11 > 0:48:17He said, "Grays Police Station, they're looking for police cadets."
0:48:17 > 0:48:21Well, you could have heard a pin drop on the queue
0:48:21 > 0:48:23and my grandfather said, "Police force?"
0:48:23 > 0:48:26"You've got to be effing joking, in't ya?".
0:48:26 > 0:48:29"Yeah, I think it would be good for you, Robert.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32"They play lots of sport. Right up your street. I'm sure you'll do well.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35"I'll give you the details if you pop in the office on Monday."
0:48:35 > 0:48:38Well, that was it. Monday, I went in,
0:48:38 > 0:48:40and the following Saturday, I took the exam
0:48:40 > 0:48:43and joined the Essex Police as a police cadet.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46Bob became a detective chief inspector.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49In later life, he studied for a degree at the Open University
0:48:49 > 0:48:54and in 2006, became founder and chairman of the TS Eliot Society.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00New horizons were opening up for grammar school pupils
0:49:00 > 0:49:04but even in a city like Liverpool, which was at the forefront of change,
0:49:04 > 0:49:08the opportunities were far more limited for girls than boys.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10At the Liverpool Institute for Girls,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13one of the brightest students was Edwina Currie.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16She felt suffocated by her background
0:49:16 > 0:49:20and her only hope of escape was to go to university.
0:49:20 > 0:49:25To go on to uni was a big ambition for a girl,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28and I found myself constantly having to dream up reasons
0:49:28 > 0:49:30why I wanted to do it.
0:49:30 > 0:49:36The real reason I wanted to go to university was to get away from home
0:49:36 > 0:49:40and to do it in a way that would not disgrace my parents
0:49:40 > 0:49:45so it was very parallel to those girlfriends that got pregnant
0:49:45 > 0:49:49to get away from home, to have their own home,
0:49:49 > 0:49:50but I wasn't going to do that.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55And I had to justify myself.
0:49:57 > 0:50:02Edwina sat the Oxbridge entrance exam and interview.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05She was confident of passing but needed to make a big impression
0:50:05 > 0:50:09to win the scholarship she needed to pay her way.
0:50:09 > 0:50:14It was just amazing. The whole experience is seared into my brain.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19When I got home, the phone was ringing.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22"Liverpool Telegram Office here.
0:50:22 > 0:50:28"It says, 'St Anne's College, scholarship offered, reply immediately.' "
0:50:33 > 0:50:35"Do I congratulate you?"
0:50:39 > 0:50:41God, it's all those years ago.
0:50:50 > 0:50:52I had my ticket to ride.
0:50:56 > 0:50:57Never looked back.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03After her career as a Conservative politician ended,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06Edwina became a novelist and television personality.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12By the late '60s, grammar schools were on the way out.
0:51:12 > 0:51:17The Labour government persuaded and pressured them to go comprehensive.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21More than half amalgamated with local secondary modern schools.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24It was hoped the large comprehensive schools would create
0:51:24 > 0:51:29a grammar school education for all, but all too often,
0:51:29 > 0:51:33they inherited the low ambitions of the secondary moderns.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36One of these was Sue Elliott's secondary modern,
0:51:36 > 0:51:39which became a comprehensive in her final year.
0:51:39 > 0:51:45My higher education options were pretty constrained really.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48Nobody mentioned university to me.
0:51:48 > 0:51:54I loved drama and I desperately wanted to do drama.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58"No, I don't think drama school, no.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00"No. We don't send anybody to drama school.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03"How about teacher training college?
0:52:03 > 0:52:07"You could do a drama course at teacher training college? How about that?"
0:52:08 > 0:52:11Despite this lack of encouragement and opportunity,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14Sue went on to become a writer and television executive,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17serving on the board of London Weekend Television,
0:52:17 > 0:52:21but a residue of insecurity remained.
0:52:21 > 0:52:27I feel disadvantaged and have felt disadvantaged on many occasions
0:52:27 > 0:52:30when everybody else around me is joining in,
0:52:30 > 0:52:34but I'm thinking, "Oh, God, I don't quite know what to say"
0:52:34 > 0:52:39and "Will I say the right thing?" and "Will they think I'm stupid?"
0:52:39 > 0:52:43The Conservatives came to power in 1970
0:52:43 > 0:52:47under an ex-grammar school pupil, Edward Heath.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51His Education Secretary, another ex-grammar school pupil,
0:52:51 > 0:52:52was Margaret Thatcher.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56She was determined to reverse the demise of the grammar school
0:52:56 > 0:52:59but the move to comprehensives had acquired so much momentum,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02it proved unstoppable.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Most middle-class Tory voters supported the change,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08not wanting to risk their children failing the 11+.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11However, grammar school boys like Michael Portillo
0:53:11 > 0:53:14didn't like what they saw.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17As I was reaching the end of my grammar school education,
0:53:17 > 0:53:20the word was out that the school would become comprehensivised.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23Pretty surprising. We had a Conservative government,
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Margaret Thatcher was Education Secretary, the local authority was Conservative.
0:53:27 > 0:53:29But it was going to be comprehensivised.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31They did it in a brutal way,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34cos we had this outstanding sixth form of 300 boys,
0:53:34 > 0:53:37so they decided to chop off the sixth form
0:53:37 > 0:53:41and leave it as a school just for 11 to 15, 16,
0:53:41 > 0:53:44so all the masters who were used to teaching A-level
0:53:44 > 0:53:47and people to go to Oxford and Cambridge
0:53:47 > 0:53:48were scattered to the four winds.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52Michael Portillo won a scholarship to Cambridge,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55then switched allegiance from Labour to Conservative,
0:53:55 > 0:53:59rising to be a Cabinet minister before turning to broadcasting.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04He still deeply regrets the loss of his old school.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09The school was no longer able to deliver to future generations
0:54:09 > 0:54:13the amazing opportunities that had offered to us,
0:54:13 > 0:54:17and that seemed both stupid and it seemed like vandalism
0:54:17 > 0:54:19and it seemed like a tragedy.
0:54:19 > 0:54:23The end of the grammar school was sealed by a new Labour government
0:54:23 > 0:54:27in 1974, with a renewed commitment to comprehensivisation.
0:54:27 > 0:54:33The 1976 Education Act compels local education authorities
0:54:33 > 0:54:37to introduce comprehensive education.
0:54:37 > 0:54:39Grammar school boys like Paul Boateng,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42who was in his final year at Apsley Grammar School,
0:54:42 > 0:54:46were unaware of the significance of these sweeping changes.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50There was a sense that something was going to change very clearly
0:54:50 > 0:54:55and there was a sense, which the teachers clearly felt, of loss,
0:54:55 > 0:55:00but we were so full of the expectation of life to come,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04so it was only later, frankly, that we realised
0:55:04 > 0:55:08that we had been part of an end of an era.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11Paul Boateng became a Labour MP
0:55:11 > 0:55:14and Britain's first black Cabinet minister.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18He is now a member of the House of Lords.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21The legacy of my school stayed with me for many years,
0:55:21 > 0:55:24and when I became a Privy Councillor
0:55:24 > 0:55:27and a right honourable, quote unquote,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30for me the most touching part of all of that
0:55:30 > 0:55:34was the letter I received from my old headmaster.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41And... I actually find it quite hard even now to talk about that.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44With enforced comprehensivisation,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47most of the direct grant grammar schools
0:55:47 > 0:55:49like Manchester Grammar School
0:55:49 > 0:55:53left the state sector and became fee-paying public schools.
0:55:53 > 0:55:58For those like Michael Wood, who had benefited from a grammar school education,
0:55:58 > 0:56:00reform seemed inevitable,
0:56:00 > 0:56:03but getting rid of the grammar schools was the wrong solution.
0:56:03 > 0:56:08I had very mixed feelings when Manchester Grammar ceased to be a direct grant
0:56:08 > 0:56:13cos people of very ordinary backgrounds did achieve at Manchester Grammar School.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16It was more meritocratic perhaps than egalitarian.
0:56:16 > 0:56:22But when somewhere has been that good as an educational institution,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25obviously you feel...
0:56:26 > 0:56:30..sadness and a sort of disquiet at the dismantling of the system,
0:56:30 > 0:56:34which is what I felt then, even though I thoroughly approved
0:56:34 > 0:56:39of the idea that those opportunities should be available to everybody.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42and I remember, cos all of my friends in Wythenshawe,
0:56:42 > 0:56:47who I used to play football with, at the age of 11 they got cut off,
0:56:47 > 0:56:51and they went to a secondary mod or a tech, you know.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54And it wasn't fair.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59Many comprehensive schools have provided Britain's children
0:56:59 > 0:57:02with a better education than they would have received
0:57:02 > 0:57:06in secondary moderns and some grammar schools in the past.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11But the standards of excellence once achieved by the best grammar schools
0:57:11 > 0:57:14have been hard to match, resulting in an ever-widening gap
0:57:14 > 0:57:17between state education and the public schools.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24The legacy of the grammar schools and their rise and fall
0:57:24 > 0:57:27is still politically very divisive.
0:57:27 > 0:57:29We benefited so much.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32We almost took it for granted that we would benefit
0:57:32 > 0:57:34because we were the clever ones.
0:57:34 > 0:57:39But everybody has a contribution to make in a modern democratic society.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42That was missing when all we had was grammar schools.
0:57:42 > 0:57:48The tragedy of comprehensives is in many parts of the country, it's still missing.
0:57:48 > 0:57:53And the only kids who are getting a decent education are the ones whose parents can pay for it.
0:57:54 > 0:57:59I may be a Tory but I'm a Scouse Tory, and I feel that's deeply wrong.
0:57:59 > 0:58:04To have a country in which only money buys a good education
0:58:04 > 0:58:07is deeply, deeply wrong.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27Subtitling by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:27 > 0:58:30E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk