Pre-College: The Nuffield project

IN 1962, THE NUFFIELD FOUNDATION, one might say the British equivalent of the Ford Foundation, started a project to discuss, renew, and bring up to date the teaching of physics, chemistry and biology in British grammar schools. These schools take the top 20 to 40%, varying with locality, of the high‐school population, graded by academic ability. The initial project in physics was to offer schools and teachers a new curriculum for the standard course taken by many students. Unlike the one‐year courses in American high schools, the corresponding teaching in England is spread over five years in each science starting at age $11\frac{1}{2}$ and leading to external “Ordinary” or “O‐level” examinations at 16 or 17. The project has born fruit and is now extending into other levels of science teaching with a total endowment of over a million pounds from the foundation.

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