Specialist schools in the United Kingdom

Specialist schools in the United Kingdom (sometimes branded as specialist colleges in England and Northern Ireland) are schools with an emphasis or focus in a specific specialised subject area, which is called a specialism, or alternatively in the case of some special schools in England, in a specific area of special educational need. They intend to act as centres of excellence in their specialism and, in some circumstances, may select pupils for their aptitude in it. Though they focus on their specialism, specialist schools still teach the full curriculum. Therefore, as opposed to being a significant move away from it, the specialism is viewed as enriching the original curricular offer of the school.

Devolution has led to different policies and concepts around specialist schools in each of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom. In England, a near-universal specialist system of secondary education has been established, with the majority of secondary schools (3,000 or 90%) specialising in one or more subjects as of 2019, while in Wales and Scotland a comprehensive system has been retained, with no specialist schools in Wales and few specialist schools in Scotland. There were 12 specialist schools in Northern Ireland as of 2015.

From 1993 (2006 in Northern Ireland) to 2011, specialist schools in England and Northern Ireland were granted additional government funding through the specialist schools programme. This programme limited the specialisms available to schools unless they had academy status, which is exclusive to England, and required them to raise money in private sector sponsorship before specialising. Since its discontinuation in 2011, the requirement of sponsorship and limitations on specialism have been lifted, but schools no longer gain extra funding for being a specialist school in those countries.