Comps

Financial Times columnist turned teacher Lucy Kellaway takes a personal journey through the education revolution launched fifty years ago to replace grammars and secondary moderns with comprehensives. The ambition was noble: the same opportunities for every child. But the story of Comps suggests that when lofty ideals collide with reality, things don’t always turn out as planned.

Lucy visits two very different models of comp trying to reconcile the history and their local demands and priorities, and speaks to three of the most influential politicians responsible for shaping today's state secondary school system - Lords Baker, Blunkett and Gove. She also discovers the deep roots of the tensions and challenges facing today's comps in a journey through a rich archive that charts the evolution of the comprehensive system in the last fifty years.
Producer: Jonathan Brunert