It is a debate that has raged in Oxford for more than a decade. Do middle schools help or hinder our nine to 13-year-olds?

Is it better to send them to "big" school at 11 or keep them back until they are 13?

Can we blame poor achievement in Oxford's schools on the fact that pupils change school twice - at ages nine and 13 - instead of once, at age 11?

Now that we give National Curriculum tests to 14-year-olds, is it a good idea to make them change schools just two terms before they sit these exams? Or would results be better if pupils had longer to settle into their new schools?

And are some results below expectations because some pupils come from deprived areas of the city?

Oxfordshire County Council has drawn up controversial plans to abolish middle schools and replace them with a two-tier system of primary and secondary schools.

Three existing school sites could be sold to finance the plans, which would bring the city into line with the rest of the county. The people of Oxford have until December 24 to give the council their views on the proposals. Education committee members are to cast their votes on February 2.

In a special two-part report, Oxford Mail education correspondent Madeleine Pennell examines the issues.

Tomorrow, we look at the case for and against a switch to the two-tier system. But today, we ask: What exactly is being proposed? *How the three-tier system all started Oxford has had its present three-tier system of middle schools fully in place since 1976.

The city adopted the middle school system at the same time as it replaced grammar and secondary modern schools with comprehensives.

The three-tier system was chosen because at the time it fitted the size of buildings available better than a two-tier system, and it avoided creating schools with split sites.

Before local government re-organisation in 1974, Oxford City Council was in charge of education and actually made the decision to switch as early as 1967. The change was phased in between 1973 and 1976. Some have argued that the move to a three-tier system was one of the last acts of defiance by the council before it handed over responsibility for education to the county.

But this is denied by Baroness Janet Young, who was chairman of the education committee that made the crunch decision.

She says: "It was not made in a fit of pique. We did not know we were going to lose responsibility for education. We would not play about with education like that. "The reason was that the council abolished the 11-plus and there were two schemes for the comprehensive system. One would have created a sixth form college and 11-16 schools on split sites. I am very disapproving of split sites and sixth forms."

Janet Todd, who was also on the committee at the time, says: "We had far more children in Oxford in those days. We were having real difficulties fitting the children in. The great advantages of middle schools were that they were better equipped than primary schools and had more specialist teaching." *The big issues parents want to answer *How much will the proposed changes cost?

The total cost of the reorganisation will be between £9.2m and £14.5m, but Oxfordshire County Council estimates it will be able to get money from the Government and developers, leaving the cost to the council at between £7.5m and £11m.

*Who will be affected by the switch to a two-tier system?

All of Oxford's 14,150 pupils will be affected in some way by the reorganisation. Initially about 9,500 pupils in first and middle schools would be affected by building work needed to create primary schools. This work would take place between 2001 and 2002.

Once the buildings were ready, there would be a transitional year starting in September 2002, with first schools keeping their eldest pupils for an extra year, middle schools losing their lowest year and upper schools remaining the same.

Meanwhile, a building programme on secondary schools - affecting 4,650 pupils - would take place in the same year. From September 2003, first schools would take pupils up to age 11 - and be renamed primary schools - while upper schools would reduce their entry age to 11, cutting out middle schools altogether.

*Would there be any disruption to my child's education?

By doing the building work before the change, Oxfordshire County Council officers predict a smooth transition. No child would have to make any extra change of school. *For the chop? Schools that would definitely disappear in the switch to two-tier are:

Donnington Middle School

Temple Cowley Middle School

Milham Ford Girls' Upper School

In addition, a question mark hangs over:

Headington Quarry First School

St Augustine of Canterbury

Story date: Thursday 04 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.