Education in England is overseen by the Department for Education. Local government authorities are responsible for implementing policy for public education and state-funded schools at a local level. State-funded schools may be selective grammar schools or non-selective comprehensive schools. All state schools are subject to assessment and inspection by the government department Ofsted. England also has private schools and home education; legally, parents may choose to educate their children by any suitable means.
Birmingham City University is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic in 1971 and gained university status in 1992.
A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis of selection criteria, usually academic performance. The term is commonly used in relation to England and Wales, where comprehensive schools were introduced as state schools on an experimental basis in the 1940s and became more widespread from 1965.
This article is about education in Birmingham, England.
The specialist schools programme (SSP), first launched as the Technology Colleges programme and also known as the specialist schools initiative, specialist schools policy and specialist schools scheme, was a government programme in the United Kingdom which encouraged state schools in England and Northern Ireland to raise private sponsorship in order to become specialist schools – schools that specialise in certain areas of the curriculum – to boost achievement, cooperation and diversity in the school system. First introduced in 1993 to England as a policy of John Major's Conservative government, it was relaunched in 1997 as a flagship policy of the New Labour governments, expanding significantly under Prime Minister Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown. The programme was introduced to Northern Ireland in 2006, lasting until April 2011 in England and August 2011 in Northern Ireland. By this time, it had established a near-universal specialist system of secondary education in England, with almost every state-funded secondary school in England having specialised. This system replaced the comprehensive system which had been in place since the 1970s.
An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. 80% of secondary schools, 40% of primary schools and 44% of special schools are academies.
Exeter College is a general further education college in Exeter, Devon; it was first such college in England, and was the highest-ranked in the country in 2017. The college has its origins in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, founded in 1869, and first became an independent institution in 1893 as the Exeter Technical and University Extension College. After using various different sites, the college's preceding institution moved into its present main campus in 1959, and was established in its present form as the first English further education college in 1970. The majority of its present buildings were constructed from 2005 onward.
Outwood Academy Danum is an academy school serving the east of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. Students primarily come from the Intake and Wheatley and Wheatley Hills estates, with some coming from nearby Armthorpe. The academy's name is based on that of former schools and is a nod to the Roman history of the town as Danum is the Roman name for Doncaster.
St Augustine's RC High School is a coeducational Roman Catholic secondary school located in Billington, Lancashire, England.
A free school in England is a type of academy established since 2010 under the Government's free school policy initiative. From May 2015, usage of the term was formally extended to include new academies set up via a local authority competition. Like other academies, free schools are non-profit-making, state-funded schools which are free to attend but which are mostly independent of the local authority.
Aston University Engineering Academy is a university technical college (UTC) that opened in September 2012 in the Gosta Green area of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. Aston University is the lead academic sponsor of the UTC, along with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network. Business partners of Aston University Engineering Academy include E.ON, Goodrich Corporation, National Grid plc, PTC and the Royal Air Force.
Specialist schools in the United Kingdom are schools with an emphasis or focus in a specific specialised subject area, which is called a specialism, or alternatively in the case of some special schools in England, in a specific area of special educational need. They intend to act as centres of excellence in their specialism and, in some circumstances, may select pupils for their aptitude in it. Though they focus on their specialism, specialist schools still teach the full curriculum. Therefore, as opposed to being a significant move away from it, the specialism is viewed as enriching the original curricular offer of the school.
A comprehensive school, or simply a comprehensive, typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis of selection criteria, usually academic performance. In England and Wales comprehensive schools were introduced as state schools on an experimental basis in the 1940s and became more widespread from 1965. They may be part of a local education authority or be a self governing academy or part of a multi-academy trust.
SET Saxmundham School is a free school in Saxmundham, Suffolk, East Anglia, with approximately 222 pupils. It opened in 2012, replacing Saxmundham Middle School, with 105 pupils out of a total of 312 places available. It was rated "good" by Ofsted in May 2014. In March 2018 Ofsted carried out a short inspection of the school where it maintained its "good" rating. In a full inspection by Ofsted in January 2022 it was rated "inadequate". In June 2023 the Seckford Education Trust announced it would be closing the school in August 2024.
Exeter Mathematics School is a maths school located in Exeter in the English county of Devon.
Harris Academy Orpington is a non-selective secondary school and sixth form with academy status in Orpington in the London Borough of Bromley which joined the Harris Federation in September 2016.
Nottingham University's Academy of Science and Technology (NUAST) is an 11 to 19 free school with STEM specialist status in Nottingham, England.
Lancaster University School of Mathematics, also known as LUSoM, is a maths school located in Preston, Lancashire, England. As a maths school, it is a specialist mathematics free school sixth form college.
University of Liverpool Mathematics School is a coeducational maths school in Central, Liverpool, in the English county of Merseyside. It was opened by the University of Liverpool in September 2020 as the third specialist maths school in the country and the first in Northern England. It is located on the university's campus, in the Sir Alastair Pilkington Building, and offers a curriculum specialising in A-Level mathematics, physics and computer science.
Specialist schools, also known as specialised schools or specialized schools, are schools which specialise in a certain area or field of curriculum. In some countries, for example New Zealand, the term is used exclusively for schools specialising in special needs education, which are typically known as special schools. Specialist schools often have admission criteria making them selective schools as well.
