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Glite Dictionary
secondary modern school

secondary modern school

8.2
A former British school teaching mainly practical and job skills instead of academic subjects
  • noun
  • /ˈsɛkəndəri ˈmɒdərn skuːl/
  • Archaic
translation icon : escuela moderna secundaria
  • At the secondary modern school, students learned practical trades such as carpentry and plumbing.

And it wasn't really until I went to secondary modern school because I was not academic.

Examples

  • Similarly, there were very few boys with externalizing behavior in the academically elite private/grammar secondary schools, while such boys were slightly overrepresented in the vocationally oriented secondary modern schools.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The first-ever public testing of school students was conducted there in 1850 (Lindgren 1990; College 1856) when over 20,000 secondary modern school pupils were examined (Chapman 1985).

    Academic text (1993)

  • And it wasn't really until I went to secondary modern school because I was not academic.

    Team Coco

  • Many students who struggled with traditional subjects flourished in a secondary modern school that emphasized hands-on skills.

  • The secondary modern school provided an alternative education path for those interested in vocational training.

Synonyms

vocational school
vssecondary modern school
5 3.0

A school where students learn practical skills for a specific job

is that but a former British secondary type focused on practical education

Surface Forms

secondary modern school singular
secondary modern schools plural

Morphology

secondary + modern + school

Knowing 'secondary' + 'modern' + 'school' lets a learner infer this is a kind of secondary school with 'modern' as a modifier, so the basic compositional structure is clear. However, the specific historical British sense (a former vocational rather than academic school) is conventional and not predictable from the parts, so learners will likely misinterpret it as merely a 'modern' secondary school.

Etymology

Secondary modern school was a name used in Britain after a test called the 'eleven-plus'. Children who did not pass went to a secondary modern school that taught practical, everyday skills instead of academic ones, so the name came to mean a school for training for trades and 'practical' work.