AIUI, we don't have perfect analogs. The closest for grammar schools would be a larger version of the selective high schools some areas have (e.g. Boston Latin,

AIUI, we don't have perfect analogs. The closest for grammar schools would be a larger version of the selective high schools some areas have (e.g. Boston Latin, Bronx Science, Thomas Jefferson High in Fairfax County, VA). A comprehensive or secondary modern is designed to teach all students not in a vocational track. So you do have to test into them, but IIRC it's not quite as rough as the competition to get into the specific ones I mentioned above. My experience here is from reading books that touch on the matter; those are not new books, and they were not new experiences at the time they were written. Mostly reflecting how they were perceived in the 1960s-70s. No doubt some things have changed, but that's a broad comparison.