comprehensive school
noun /ˌkɒmprɪˈhensɪv skuːl/
/ˌkɑːmprɪˈhensɪv skuːl/
(also also informal comprehensive)
- (in the UK) a large state secondary school for boys and girls of all abilities aged 11 or over. Comprehensive schools were introduced in the 1960s to replace the system of dividing children between more academic grammar schools and less academic secondary modern schools.