Direct Grant Scheme

A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in England and Wales that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted fees, some paid by the Local Education Authority and some by private pupils. On average, the schools received just over half of their income from the state.

The status was introduced by the Education Act 1944 as a modification of an existing direct grant scheme to privately endowed schools. There were 179 direct grant grammar schools, which, together with over 1,200 grammar schools maintained by local authorities, formed the most academic tier of the Tripartite System. They varied greatly in size and composition, but, on average, achieved higher academic results than either maintained grammar schools or independent schools.

State secondary education was reorganised on comprehensive lines in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The direct grant was phased out from 1975 and the schools were required to choose between becoming maintained comprehensive schools or fully independent schools. Forty-five schools, almost all Roman Catholic, joined the state system, while a few closed. The rest (including all the secular schools) became independent and mostly remain as highly selective independent schools.

In the 19th century, few boys and very few girls in England and Wales received secondary education, which was available only at private schools. During this time, secondary provision expanded and adjusted to growing demand. At the start of that century, some boarding schools like Eton College and Winchester College thrived educating the sons of the aristocracy, but most endowed grammar schools were in decline, their classical curricula seen as irrelevant to the industrial age. These schools were reformed under the Endowed Schools Act 1869, which also led to many endowments being diverted to the creation of girls' schools. In the meantime a range of other schools had appeared. After the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 and mid-century Irish immigration, Catholic teaching orders from Ireland and mainland Europe began to establish their own grammar schools. New proprietary schools were established, initially as , converting to charities if they were successful. One of the largest such companies was the Girls' Public Day School Company (later Trust), set up to provide an affordable academic education for girls, which had established 32 schools by 1894.

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