Figure 1.--This photograph shows an English grammar school choir in 1950. I'm notsure about which school this was.

Both private and state schools in England organized choirs. We think that they were more common at private than state schools, but our information is still limited. Many private schools (both preparatory and public schools) had choirs. We believe that schoirs were more common at grammar chools than secondary modern schools. The grammar schools often tried to use the public (private) schools as their models. Thus choirs were often encouraged. This does not seem to have been the case in secondary modern schools. Hopefully our English readers will provide some background information here. We are less sure about comprehensives.