comprehensive school definition

Comprehensive school, in England, secondary school offering the curricula of a grammar school, a technical school, and a secondary modern school, with no division into separate compartments. Pupils are placed in A, B, or C “streams” according to their aptitudes and abilities. Comprehensives are similar to the large, multipurpose American high school, in which the ability grouping system is known as “tracking.”
The purpose of the comprehensive school is to democratize education, do away with early selection procedures, and provide equal opportunity for all children. In 1975 legislation was passed in the United Kingdom to hasten the transition to this system, reflecting the long-term policy of the Labour government to organize all secondary education on a comprehensive basis. Although some comprehensive schools have been quite successful, the transition has been slow, and the issue is complicated by mixed attitudes toward the long-revered public schools and strong residual devotion to the traditional grammar school system. Compare grammar school; public school.

“Comprehensive school.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comprehensive%20school. Accessed 17 Sep. 2020.
Comments on comprehensive school

Interesting new research rather kills the case for comprehensive schools – by killing off the underlying assumption made about children, society and academic success.
That underlying assumption is that the children are a tabula rasa. A blank slate which is then written upon by their education, perhaps also their socio-economic status. Danny Dorling, for example, has been most insistent that anyone could become a Professor of Social Geography, himself being a prime example of the contention, anyone has. This is not so:

Educational institutions of the following types classify as comprehensive schools:
Comprehensive schools
Comprehensive school level special schools
Comprehensive and upper secondary level schools
In the statistics on pre-primary and comprehensive school education, subject choices of students, special education, and students and qualifications of educational institutions comprehensive schools refer to educational institutions providing basic, general knowledge teaching to an entire age cohort (basic comprehensive school education, compulsory education school). All children of the compulsory school age of 7 to 16 must complete the comprehensive school. Completion of the comprehensive school takes nine years.

A health education- suggesting a planned health curriculum for students in grades K-12;
nutrition services- for encouraging balanced, appealing, and varied meals and snacks for students;

Note: a newer version of this document is available here.
The Comprehensive School Safety framework aims to reduce the risks of all hazards to the education sector. The update for 2017 brings into focus child-centered and evidence-based efforts to promote disaster risk reduction throughout the education sector and to assure universal access to quality education. This allows education sector partners to work more effectively and to link with similar efforts in other sectors.

References:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comprehensive%20school
http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/killing-the-case-for-comprehensive-schools
http://www.stat.fi/meta/kas/peruskoulu_en.html
http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/comprehensive-school-health-program/
http://www.undrr.org/publication/comprehensive-school-safety
http://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/international/curricula-and-exams/uk-overview