The increase in the number of post-primary schools and the probable raising of the statutory leaving age to 15 make it expedient to consider whether or not a special leaving examination should be instituted for all schools under State control...We have a difference of opinion among experts.

Against them are the objections that they “tend to cramp the individuality of the schools, bring about a loss of freshness and elasticity, and tend to over-pressure; the value of the work done in the school, moreover, is apt to be estimated by the number of certificates obtained.”

50 years ago March 27, 1953

It would be a thousand pities if the inertia of established bodies prevented a wholehearted exploration of the possibilities of setting up in Britain an organisation similar to the highly successful Jeunesses Musicales on the Continent. Sir Robert Mayer has been pleading for this, and he has the support of Mr Bernard Shore, HMI, when he says that, while music in British schools is second to none, there are no means of following up this good work among those who have left school. It is difficult to see how such a scheme could be started without some initial financial support.

25 years ago March 24, 1978

The chaos that affected many schools last week as children took to the streets in protest at the teachers’ industrial action has quietened down.

Term ended this week with most children back at their desks. Although unsupervised by teachers, many pupils in Birmingham were eating school dinners again after a circular went out instructing headteachers to keep schools open in the lunch break. But the events of last week have left scars on the city. The Conservative-controlled Birmingham education authority and many teachers were badly shaken by the anarchy.