The table illustrates the percentage of school children attending four different types of secondary school from 2000 to 2009. It is evident that the specialist, grammar and voluntary-controlled schools experienced declines in numbers of pupils, whereas the community schools became the most important providers of secondary school education during the same period.To begin, the proportion in voluntary-controlled schools fell from just over half to only 20% or one fifth from 2000 to 2009. Similarly, the relative number of children in grammar schools -- just under one quarter -- dropped by half in the same period. As for the specialist schools, the relatively small percentage of pupils attending this type of school (12%) also fell, although not significantly.
