pastoral letter by Archbishop Beck of Liverpool to his diocese on the subject of the reorganisation of the Catholic schools and the ideas expressed in it. The view that most Catholic secondary schools are too small to be reorganised in some suitable and efficient system of comprehensive schools does not seem to square with the facts as I know them.
In my recent book "The Comprehensive School: Guidelines for the Reorganisation of Secondary Education", I made an extensive survey of the research on the effects of size of school: on academic attainment, curriculum provided, attitudes inculcated and a sense of participation and of satisfaction achieved by pupils.
Much of the work can be seen in shortened form in articles I have written for Education (1966), Comprehensive Education (about 1968), Trends in Education (1971) and Forum (1975).
I would -like to reassure all parents of children attending smaller schools that these schools have much to offer for the intellectual development and emotional satisfaction of their children.
Equally, heads of direct grant schools have good reason to proceed with confidence to the reorganisation of their schools on comprehensive lines, and I believe, judging from my own experience when I transferred from grammar schools to comprehensive schools, that direct, grant school staffs will find much personal enlargement and many opportunities for greater service in schools where children of every range of ability are equally welcomed, Elizabeth Halsall Senior Lecturer in Comparative and Secondary Education, The University of Hull, Institute of Education. 173 Cottingham Road, Hull.