The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 was the major education legislation passed by the incoming Labour government led by

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of t ...

. This Act: * imposed a limit of 30 on

infant An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used t ...

class sizes. * abolished

grant-maintained school Grant-maintained schools or GM schools were state schools in England and Wales between 1988 and 1998 that had opted out of local government control, being funded directly by a grant from central government. Some of these schools had selective ad ...

s, introducing

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

status. * provided for a schedule of fully selective state schools (

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

s), and set up a procedure by which local communities could vote for their abolition. No grammar schools have yet been abolished using this mechanism. * prohibited the expansion of partial selection but allowed some

specialist school 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 specialis ...

s to admit 10% of pupils based on aptitude in their subject specialisms. * introduced super headteachers and Education Action Zones * introduced an Admissions Code and the office of Schools Adjudicator to enforce this Code and consider objections to admission arrangements. *introduced a right of appeal against the refusal of an admission authority to offer an applicant child a place at the relevant school. * expanded on the requirement that "each pupil in attendance at a community, foundation or voluntary school shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship" of a “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character” for community schools. * created the local ''School Organisation Committee'' to decide school organisation proposals (opening, merging, closing) and responsible for approving the local School Organisation Plan. The ''School Organisation Committee'' consisted of five voting groups: :#LEA, made up of elected members :#

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

Learning and Skills Council The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Marc ...

(often only vote on decisions affecting 16+ education) :#schools, by serving governors. * banned corporal punishment in all schools.

See also

References

Further reading