The significance of the Welsh dimension: Pioneering of comprehensive education in Anglesey, circa 1930-1953

Olsson Rost, Kerstin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7309-9721 (2019) The significance of the Welsh dimension: Pioneering of comprehensive education in Anglesey, circa 1930-1953. The Welsh History Review, 29 (3). pp. 436-460. ISSN 0043-2431

Preview

Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (427kB) | Preview

Abstract

Despite Anglesey's pioneering role as the first local authority in England and Wales to introduce a fully comprehensive education system (1953), it has received little attention in the historiography. It has often been assumed that ‘economy and efficiency’ were the predominant driving forces behind this new education policy, but this article acknowledges the complexities of the re-organization process and illustrates how political intervention at the local level was influenced by discussions related to the fact that Anglesey was both a rural and a Welsh local authority. This additional dimension to the pioneering of comprehensive schooling in Anglesey sheds new light on the rationale of the comprehensive scheme.