Grangemouth middle schools
| Established | 1975 |
|---|---|
| Closed | 1988 |
| Type | Middle schools |
| Location |
Grangemouth Falkirk Scotland |
| Ages | 10 (P6)–14 (S2) |
Two middle schools operated in Grangemouth between 1974 and 1988. Grangemouth is in the historic county of Stirlingshire in central Scotland and, following local government reorganisation in 1975, became part of the Falkirk District of the Central Region.
The Grangemouth middle schools were the only two such schools in the whole of Scotland. Grangemouth remains the only area of Scotland where experimentation in three-tier education was ever tried.
The first mooting of the possibility of three-tier education in Grangemouth came shortly after the publication of a Scottish Education Department circular in 1965 which invited local authorities to indicate how they intended to go about re-structuring their secondary education systems along comprehensive lines
Stirlingshire Education Authority undertook discussion with the Scottish Education Department to remove various legal obstacles to the setting up of the schools. It was not until August 1975 that the scheme was fully realised.
In common with England and Wales until 1964, there was no provision in education legislation for education provision to be made through anything other than a primary or a secondary school. Similarly, other legislation related to these definitions which were to be altered by Stirlingshire's experimental plans.
While in England and Wales, the government sought to classify all Middle schools as either primary or secondary, depending on their age ranges, in Scotland, the Education (Scotland) Act 1969 sought to remove the classification barrier by using the generic term "school education" for the full age range of compulsory education.
Scotland's educational legislation required that all teachers employed to teach secondary-aged pupils must be holders of the Teachers' Certificate for Secondary Education. If middle schools were to act as a bridge between the two sectors then it would be necessary to recruit primary school teachers to teach across the four year-groups of the proposed schools. An initial agreement was made in 1974 to make a specific modification to The Schools (Scotland) Code 1956 which allowed teachers with primary certification to "assist in leisure activities, hobbies and extra-curricular activities" with pupils, under the supervision of a holder of a secondary teaching qualification. Whilst this did not allow teachers freedom to teach across the age range, it did allow some integration to begin.
...
Wikipedia