If comprehensive education had not been introduced in Sheffield in the 1960s then King Edward Vll School would not have become a co-educational school at that time. It is possible that it would never have become one.

The massive re-organisation of the City’s tri-partite system of grammar schools, secondary modern schools and technical schools created the opportunity for a complete re-think of how the city’s schools should be run.

The comprehensive re-organisation of Sheffield‘s school was phased with the north and east of the City being re-organised first. Starting with a new purpose built comprehensive in 1960 that was named Myers Grove, then Hinde House in 1963 and then the first changes to a grammar school when Firth Park admitted its first cohort of unselected pupils in 1964.

There was little opposition to these changes in what were strong Labour held wards, in fact there was much popular support for comprehensive education from families who felt the old system of selection at 11 years of age robbed them or their children of decent educational opportunities. At that time 80% of British children left school at 15 whilst in the USA 80% of children left school at 18, so the the tri-partite system was increasingly judged not fit for purpose in a changing world.

In January 1965 the Council started to grasp the political nettle of how to re-organise the south west of the City. Here were well established and successful grammar schools including High Storrs and Abbeydale, both of which had boys and girls on the same site. The thorniest problem for the Labour Council was what to do about KES their most successful school, where they expected bitter and sustained opposition to their comprehensive plans from parents and the staff. By February 1965 King Edward’s parents had organised the Sheffield Parents’ Association for Secondary Education and ran a very well thought-out campaign against the Council’s proposals to turn this very high performing school (it claimed to be the most successful state school in England and never called itself a grammar school) into a non-selective comprehensive school.

Perhaps because the Council could not face too many fights with the staff and parents at KES, or perhaps just because of the school’s reputation, they agreed that King Edward’s would remain as a boy’s only school in this building, and it would be complemented by a brand new girls-only comprehensive school on a site on Darwin Lane that was currently near completion. These changes in the south west were planned to come into force in 1970 and were passed by the City Council in April 1965.

Under a new Chair of the Education Committee, Coun. Peter Horton, a fervent advocate for comprehensive education, the Council had a re-think in 1967 because they were concerned that there were too many secondary/middle schools proposed in the City and it was not an effective plan in either financial or administrative terms. They also revised the date for completing their comprehensive scheme throughout the city and brought it forward one year to September1969.

Peter Horton was tasked to find ways of reducing the number and he got it down from 35 to 31 schools. One of the schools affected was King Edward’s, where it was decided that instead of two separate schools, one for boys on Glossop Road and one for girls on Darwin Lane there would be one co-educational school on two sites. Meanwhile the new Crosspool School, based on the Darwin Lane site, had started life as a co–educational secondary modern school in the autumn term of 1965 (It had previously been Western Road School in Crookes since 1901). This new school would have a brief independent life before it would combine with KES in 1969. The primary school that remained in Crookes would be renamed Westways.

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So in this somewhat inglorious manner King Edward Vll School became a co-educational school.

Starting in January 1966, the new KES Headmaster, Russell Sharrock, welcomed the fact that he would soon be running a co-educational school and had already appointed a woman teacher, Mrs. J.M. White, a Durham graduate, the first woman to teach at KES since 1952 when the wartime female staff had all finally retired.

Half the pupils at the new Crosspool School (1965-69) were, of course, girls and the younger ones would eventually become KES pupils in 1969 without moving from their new Darwin Lane buildings.

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Then in 1968 the unbelievable happened. The Conservatives gained control of the Council for the first time since 1933 and the KES parents and staff believed the cavalry had arrived in the nick of time. They were now certain that the comprehensive scheme would be abandoned and KES would continue as a boy’s only elite grammar school. After all, through all the rows between the school and the Labour Council in 1926-7, 1944-5 and later in 1985-86 the Conservatives on the Council had always supported the school’s position against the “Socialist” councillors who tended to regard KES as a “Tory” school. However, the parents and staff were to be hugely disappointed as the Conservative Group now in charge at the Town Hall were divided on comprehensive education as were their supporters. Even in the “tranquil highlands” of SW Sheffield more children went to secondary modern schools than grammar schools, whilst families could be divided with one child going to a grammar school and another at a secondary modern. Also so much of the comprehensive re-organisation had already happened in the north and east of the city.

Led by Coun. Frank Adams, an Old Edwardian and a supporter of comprehensive schools, the Conservative Group did nothing and then lost the local election in May 1969. Against all expectations the Labour Party were back in power and never lost control of the Council again until 1999, and then to the Liberal Democrats not the Conservatives, who slowly declined into extinction in Sheffield politics.

Labour now speeded up the comprehensive plans that had been in abeyance for a year. The date for becoming fully comprehensive throughout the city was confirmed as September 1969 and it was also confirmed that KES/Crosspool would be a co-educational school.

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The City Council, the staff and the parents probably expected that the only girls at KES in that first year would be the existing Crosspool girls, plus a new unselected intake arriving at the age of 11 mainly from the surrounding suburbs, many of whom (40% at least) would most likely have passed the 11+ examination if it was still being held.

However, Russell Sharrock and the Deputy Head, Arthur Jackson, had other ideas and agreed that they would try and recruit academically able girls to the Sixth Form and gained permission to recruit up to 20. In the event they recruited 13 and many went on to University including Oxford, although in the Autumn Term of 1969 almost all of the girls at KES were getting their education at the Darwin Lane site that would later be called Lower School.

As for Crosspool School it was now consigned to history as the combined school took the name King Edward VII School, Russell Sharrock was confirmed as the Headteacher, whilst KES staff, all men, filled almost all the positions of significance in the new co-educational comprehensive school.

J.C.Cornwell

October2019