On its transfer to University of London in 1932, the Institute of Education was removed from London County Council (LCC) control. It became a central activity rather than a School of the University and its management was placed in the hands of a Delagacy appointed by the University Senate. This was composed of the Vice Chancellor, the Chairman of Convocation, and Principal of the University, the Director of the Institute, the Head of the Training Department at King's College, two members nominated by the LCC, two members of the Institute Academic Board, five representatives of the University Senate and five other co-opted members. In 1935 representation of the Institute's Academic Board was increased to four members. In March 1949 a new administrative structure was established to take the place of the Institute of Education Delegacy and the Training Colleges Delegacy. The first Chairman of the Delegacy was Lord Eustace Percy. He was succeeded in 1937 by W.R. Halliday, Principal of King's College London.
Born in 1915, Ian Michael was appointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malawi in 1964. Ian Michael also undertook research into the history of the teaching of English. Between 1979 and the 1990s he published English: from the Sixteenth Century to 1870 (1987); Early Textbooks of English (1983) and a number of papers based on his research.
The origins of ISCO may be found in the the small Careers Advisory Bureau (CAB), run by the educational agents Messrs. Truman & Knightley from the 1920s onwards. In 1933, an Public Schools Section of the CAB was instituted, run by a Captain Pullein-Thompson. It was advised by a committee of headmasters Following the outbreak of war, the Public Schools Section of the CAB removed themselves from Truman & Knightley and formed the Public School Employment Bureau (PSEB) in 1939. This entity became a company limited by guarantee in 1942. The end of the war and the increasing numbers of public school leavers meant that the resources and staffing of PSEB were stretched to the limit. In 1947, an enquiry by a committee of the Headmasters' Conference, led by Sir George Schuster, came to the conclusion that PSEB needed to be radically overhauled. The new goals were to widen the range of help given to boys, improve contacts with schools and businesses, encourage schools to wrok out training schemes for 18 year olds, and assist careers masters by sending them prepared and classified information regarding openings throughout the whole country. The new organisation, known after May 1950 as the Public Schools Appointment Bureau (PSAB), was given a national structure and staffing, and was led by a Council composed of headmasters and representatives of school governing bodies. Regional offices began appearing in 1951, and PSAB provided a systematic placement service, various courses and summaries of training schemes. Though membership grew during the 1950s and early 60s, by the later part of the decade it had slowed due to the wish of students to attend higher education, economic fluctuations, and a lack of new schools eligible to join the scheme. PSAB responded by working more closely with parents, for example implementing the Parents Participation Scheme (later the Careers Guidance Scheme), where parents contributed money in exchange for packages of guidance, information and access to courses. In 1972, PSAB was renamed ISCO, the Independent Schools Careers Organisation, and the criteria for membership was relaxed to allow in non-HMS schools. Growth was maintained during the 1980s with the introduction of Morrisby tests and the computerisation of careers guidance. Joan Hills was the ISCO office manager from 1948 to the 1980s This information was taken from an unpublished work by Mike Hicks, 'Careers Work and Independent Schools 1920 - 2000: Eighty Years of Vocational Guidance', to mark the 50th Anniversary of ISCO. Mike Hicks is a member of the ISCO Council.
1943-46 : University of Bristol. Hons. 1st. Cl. Physics
1946-47 : Oxford, L.S.E. and S.O.A.S. Colonial Officers' Course
1948-50 : District Officer, Tanganyika ( now Tanzania )
1950-51 : Operative, Fry's Chocolate Factory, Bristol
1951-52 : University of Bristol. P.G.C.E. ( Dist.)
1952-55 : Asst. master, Bristol Grammar School
1955-59 : Head of Science, Sir Thomas Jones Comprehensive School, Amlwch, Anglesey
1959-67 : Founding Headmaster, Vyners Grammar School, Ickenham, Mddx.
1967-70 : Lecturer, Exeter University Dept. of Education
1970-74 : District Inspector, Camden-Westminster ( ILEA )
1974-79 : Senior Staff Inspector Secondary ( ILEA )
1979-85 : Chief Inspector ( Schools ) ( ILEA )
1985-90 : Gen. Sec., Quaker Social Responsibility and Education, Friends House
Born in Belgium, Joseph Lauwerys (1902-1981) came to England with his parents in 1914. After taking degrees in chemistry and physics at King's College, London, Lauwerys worked from 1927 to 1932 as a physics master at Bournemouth and at Christ's Hospital School. In 1932 he joined the staff of the Institute of Education, University of London, being in turn Lecturer in Methods of Science (1932-1941), Reader in Education (1941-1947), and Professor of Comparative Education (1947-1970). In 1970 he became the first Director of the Atlantic Institute, Nova Scotia. During his career he held many visiting professorships around the world and travelled widely as a consultant and observer of educational conditions. In particular, from 1944-1945 he was Director of Commission of Enquiry on Special Educational Problems, Conference of Allied Ministers of Education and, from 1945-1947, as an adviser and consultant, he played an important role in the establishment of UNESCO. He was also heavily involved in many different organisations for promoting international co-operation and understanding and comparative education, including the World Education Fellowship. For almost twenty years he was an editor of the World Year Book of Education. Building on his science background, Lauwerys also pioneered new aspects of science teaching and curriculum reform, emphasising how science should be a part of mainstream culture, and promoted the use of new educational media, including film and radio.
Katherine Bathurst, the daughter of the Rev. Frederick Bathurst, Archdeacon of Bedford, was born on the 10th May 1862 in Diddington, Huntingdonshire and educated at home, in Brighton and Dresden; taught at the Morley College for Working Men and Women and also French at the Honeywell Road Evening Continuation School, 1894-1895; attended classes and lectures in economics at the London School of Economics, 1895; appointed the third female school sub-inspector by the Board of Education (Miss R.A. Munday and Miss S.J. Willis, had been appointed in 1896), September 1897. She was initially attached to Chief Inspector Rev Francis Synge in the East End of London but they had a difficult working relationship and, in November 1897, she was transferred to the Lambeth district, first under HMI Mr W.E. Currey and then the Rev. Charles D. Du Port, with Miss Munday.
In February 1899 Katherine Bathurst was posted to the Cardiff and Barry districts under Mr A.G. Legard, Chief Inspector of Wales. Two out of three teachers in the area were women and they had requested a female inspector. During 1899-1900 she visited infant schools in the area and criticised running conditions and exercise drills in her reports. She and Legard encouraged the introduction of the kindergarten system into infant schools in the district. Bathurst also took an interest in special schools and secured regular dinners for young children in the Cardiff Blind School. During this period she made a representation to Sir George Kekewich, Secretary of the Education Department, concerning the working conditions of sub-inspectors.
In 1901 Bathurst asked for a transfer and was posted to Oxford where she worked under HMI Edmond Holmes. She entered into a number of disputes with Holmes and Board of Education officials concerning Holmes' editing of her reports, her claims for expenses and diary entries. In February 1904 she was put 'on probation' for six months following a complaint by the Oxford Education Committee.
In March 1904 the female inspectors were taken out of the regular inspectorate. Their new role was to be specialist 'Women Inspectors' under a divisional inspector. Two were to be based in London, one in the Midlands, one in Yorkshire, one in Wales. Bathurst was to be based in Manchester under HMI E.M. Sneyd-Kynnersley. They were to report on the education of 3-5 year-olds in public elementary schools, looking into the social background of the children, school organisation, teaching and discipline. Their role was to collect information, not to inspect or to give advice. A standard 'Form 61', with prescribed questions, was issued for completion on each school visit.
Bathurst visited as many schools as she could within her probation period and estimated she had inspected 91 schools and 30,000 children. She reported that the school premises were ill-ventilated, overcrowded and unhygienic, the desks were too high for small children and children were made to stand while reading and to exercise with dumb-bells. She argued that harsh discipline and a strict curriculum were unsuitable for 3-5 year olds and proposed a kindergarten system, with play space and hammocks for sleeping until the age of 6. She proposed that certified teachers should be replaced by qualified nurses with the Froebel Certificate.
Encouraged by Sir John Gorst, Bathurst submitted her preliminary report before the end of her probation period and before it was requested by the Board of Education, knowing it was likely to result in her dismissal. Sir John Gorst (1835-1916) was an MP and his wife was the cousin of Bathurst's mother. He was interested in questions of child labour and the social conditions of children and gave advice on the contents of the report and on the covering letter before Bathurst submitted it on 16th August 1904. The Board of Education criticised it for making recommendations outside the remit of the investigation, rather than presenting collected data in accordance with the prescribed questions laid out in Form 61. Bathurst was asked to resign as from 7th February 1905 and, meanwhile, to complete her report as originally requested.
Again with encouragement from Sir John Gorst, she submitted her completed report and a supplementary report on her resignation. The supplementary report attacked the system of inspection and included specific names and details as examples. After some debate, both reports were included in the series of Women Inspectors' Reports published by the Board of Education in September 1905. Bathurst's report was prefaced and footnoted by the Board to counter some of her statements and specific names and examples were omitted. There was general press and education press coverage of the Reports and particularly of Bathurst's and the Board of Education's comments. Bathurst carried on the dispute through letters and articles in the press.
After her resignation she continued to take part in debates on the system of school inspections and infant school education. She later became involved in the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT). In 1932, when she sent her papers to the NUWT, she was living in the Isle of Wight.
The Archive of the Board of Education Inspectors' Association was named after Jack Kitching who was an HMI (Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools) from 1973-1982 and subsequently Honorary Archivist of the Association. Founded in 1919 as a direct consequence of the application of Whitleyism to the Civil Service, the Association was affiliated to the Association of First Division Civil Servants and its executive acted as the staff side of the Inspectorate Whitley Committee. Its main concerns were therefore salaries, pensions and conditions of service, although it also dealt with the function and activities of HMIs. In 1945 it changed its name to the Association of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools and in 1973 it amalgamated with the Association of First Division Civil Servants. It wound up its activities in 1992 on the creation of the Office for Standards in Education.
Born in London, 1923; worked in the Ministry of Information typing pool as a temp to the Soviet section, later becoming co-ordinator and editorial assistant, [1939-1945]; worked with a range of bodies promoting women's issues; worked for the National Assembly of Women, 1952; worked for the fundraising office of a charity for handicapped children; took GCEs, and later a BEd in psychology, at London's Sydney Webb College, 1960s; schoolteacher, mid-1970s; Barking and Dagenham Schools' Psychological Service, [1975]-1987; retired, 1987; died 2003. Rose Kosky was a member of the Communist Party from the 1930s until the 1980s, when she joined the Labour Party.
The Barking Reading Project was a project by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, [1975-1979], which aimed to help teachers to teach children with reading difficulties in the classroom rather than referring them to external experts. The specialist teachers working on the project came from Barking and Dagenham Schools' Psychological Service, they were: Jo Addington, Freda Cookson, Beryl Cooper, Kathy Conway and Rose Kosky. The scheme they devised was aimed at children aged 7+, who had failed to learn letter sounds completely and were unable to use them quickly in blending tasks.
The London Association for the Teaching of English was formed in March 1947 by a number of teachers of English and others interested in the subject.The purpose was to provide a society in the London area for all interested in the teaching of English. Its objective was to provide a live forum for the exchange of ideas, for the practical study of problems connected with English teaching and for the dissemination of the results of group and individual work. Teachers from all types of schools and training colleges were invited. The inaugural meeting was held on June 3rd 1947 at the London Institute of Education. In September 1963 the National Association for the Teaching of English was formed and LATE became a corporate member. By the 1960s membership included teachers of English of all levels, in primary and secondary schools, day and training colleges and universities.
In 196[3] the Association's aims were:
(i) To undertake education research by means of group investigations, or by any other method, according to the nature of the problem
(ii) To campaign in educational field for such reforms as are considered necessary in the interests of education in and through English
(iii) To provide an opportunity for the communication of experiences and conclusions drawn from them
(iv)To give members an opportunity of hearing authoritative speakers on topics of importance and interest to teachers of English
(v)To furnish all members with full reports of meetings, conferences and study groups
(vi)To publish such results of our work as merit wider dissemination
(vii)To participate in the work of the National Association
LATE's work involved the creation of study and discussion groups which met and reported to the Association, and created books for schools; holding of two weekend conferences and several day conferences a year which often formed the starting point for a group study; holding of evening meetings twice a term with either speakers from the Association or an address by a 'distinguished speaker'. They were particuarly interested in composition, comprehension and poetry, and campaigned in the area of examinations. Reports of conferences were published and sold.
At writing (May 2010) LATE was still active. Their website is http://www.late.org.uk
The aims of the London History Teachers' Association were: to promote meetings of interest to history teachers in secondary schools; to further the interests of history teachers by exchanging experience of syllabus and method, by attempting to place the results of research and revision at their disposal and by providing opportunity for them to meet each other informally and socially; to experiment in liaison work between university and school; to investigate the problems, scope and content of history teaching and to organise a body of opinion, to collaborate with other interested groups and to consult with examining boards. Membership was open to anyone interested in the teaching of history in secondary schools. In 1975 it was felt that the pioneer role of the Association in encouraging in-service education and been increasingly pre-empted by other bodies, that there were increased pressures on teachers in terms of time and energy, and difficulties in public transport which all resulted in poor attendance. The Association therefore decided to cease formal meetings and instead to continue for social activities only. During the course of its activities, it held lectures and meetings on a wide range of subjects and its records give an insight into the opinions and concerns of history teachers during the period. Guest speakers addressed a variety of practical, philosophical and political issues affecting the teaching of history. Topics ranged from 'What is a good textbook?', 'The training of a history teacher', 'Archaeology in schools' and 'The use and production of television programmes for history' to '"A world outlook": its educational implications'. The Association was chaired by Margaret Bryant and Jim Henderson of the University of London Institute of Education.
Martin Lightfoot (1942-1999) was educated at St. Christopher's School in Letchworth, Tiffin School in Kingston and Downing College, Cambridge University, where he read English. Having spent some years as a Director of Penguin Books Ltd and Managing Director of Penguin Education, during which time he was also a key supporter of the National Association for the Teaching of English, in 1974 Lightfoot was appointed as Deputy Education Officer (Services) at the Inner London Education Authority where he was responsible for relations with the Inner London Boroughs and the Greater London Council and community and race relations issues. In 1977 he became Director of the Schools Council Industry Project, conducted jointly with the Confederation of British Industry and Trades Union Congress. From 1981-1983 he served as Specialist Adviser to the Select Committee on Education, Science and Arts where he was responsible for the drafting of reports, including on secondary examinations and curriculum, school meals and on 16-19 education. Lightfoot then took up an academic post at Brunel University, where he was a Senior Research Fellow, Director of the Centre for the Study of Community and Race Relations (1984-1988), and Co-Director of the Education Policy Centre. At Brunel, Lightfoot lectured on law and public services in the Departments of Law and Government, and taught education policy and management, community and race relations, education policy and public service organisation on postgraduate courses in Public and Social Administration. His research projects included 'Expectations of higher education' (c.1980s) during which the perspectives of undergraduates, graduate employers, academic staff, politicians and administrators were examined and 'Recreating Education: London and Education Reform' (1990-1991), which was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and examined the process of setting up education authorities in the Inner London boroughs subsequent to the break-up of the Inner London Education Authority. During his time at Brunel, he also acted as a consultant to the London Borough of Southwark during its preparations to take over educational administration from the Inner Lonodn Education Authority. He retired from Brunel University in 1990 and then worked as an independent educational consultant. During 1992-1993 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Policy Studies, Institute of Education, University of London.
The London Parents Ballot Campaign (LPBC) was set up as a sub-committee of the Parents Central Consultative Committee of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), which represented the 3,000 or so elected Parent Governors of ILEA schools. It was run by Thomas Gretton (Chair), Corinne Julius (Secretary) and Diana Simpson (Treasurer), along with scores of volunteers. The Campaign was intended to ask the opinion of parents about the transfer of responsibility for education services from the ILEA to local authorities. The abolition of the ILEA was included in the 1988 Education Reform Bill, but had not been mentioned in any of the consultation documents. The LPBC was an attempt to canvass the views of parents before the Bill passed to the House of Lords. An initial press conference announcing the campaign was held on the 8 February 1988, and the Ballot took place in the last two weeks of March. The Campaign was funded through voluntary contributions from parents, businesses, unions and London boroughs; as well as fundraising events, culminating in a gala performance at the Albery Theatre. The ballot was supervised by the Electoral Reform Society, and provided one vote for each of the 280,000 children in London schools. It closed on the 31st of March, and revealed a 55 per cent return and a 94 per cent vote against the government's ILEA abolition proposals. The ILEA was abolished in March 1990.
Louis Arnaud Reid (1895-1986) studied philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and from 1919 to 1926 lectured in Aberystwyth and Liverpool. From 1932 to 1947 he was Professor at Armstrong College, Newcastle, and in 1947 became the first Professor of the Philosophy of Education in Britain, at the University of London Institute of Education, a post which he held until his retirement in 1962. After his retirement, among other activities, he continued to teach students in the Art and Design Department of the Institute of Education. He was closely involved with the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain and wrote and lectured widely on aesthetics and the arts.
Bruce Martin (b 1917) studied at Cambridge and then with the Architectural Association. Following World War Two he worked in the Architects' Department of Hertfordshire County Council. The County Architects Department was formed in 1946 with C.H. Aslin as County Architect and Stirrat Johnson-Marshall as his Deputy. On the instigation of the County Education Department and under the influence of its famous Education Officer, John Newsom, it immediately embarked on what became known as 'The Hertfordshire experiment': a large building programme designed to provide many new primary schools for the County. In order to meet this challenge The Architects' Department used many pioneering techniques, including the pre-ordering of building materials, and the use of prefabricated construction. It also employed innovative educational ideas, which were associated with the move to 'child-centred' schools. The programme received widespread coverage in the architectural press. As part of the team responsible for the design and construction of primary schools in the County, Martin worked alongside Mary Crowley, A.R. Garrod, W.D. Lacey, David Medd, Oliver Carey, Anthony Cox and W.A. Henderson. Many of this group went on to become influential figures in the 'new school building' movement. The 1947 Primary School Programme of the County Council included the design of ten new primary schools: The Burleigh School, Blindman's Lane, Cheshunt; Essendon; Mill Lane Junior Mixed Infants School, Bushey; Strathmore Avenue Infant School, Hitchin; Bedford Road Junior Mixed Infants School, Letchworth; LCC Estate Junior School, Oxhey; Oliver Road Junior Mixed Infants School, Hemel Hempstead; and Little Green Lane Junior School, Croxley Green. In the following years he was also involved in the design and construction of Morgans Road Junior Mixed Infants School, Hertford.
The Reverend Michael Burden (b 1936) attended Banks Lane Council School and Stockport School; schoolmaster at Prestatyn and Heaton Moor College, 1954-1956; attended Selwyn College, Cambridge University, where he changed his course from Natural Sciences to Theology, 1956-1959. Ridley Hall Theological College, 1959-1962; Assistant Curate at Ashton-upon-Mersey, 1962; Chaplain at St Peter's Junior School in York, 1965-1970; Head of Religious Education and Careers at Beverley Grammar School, 1970-1974; Rector at Walkington, 1974-1977; Head of Community Studies at Sir Leo Schultz High School in Hull, 1977-1982; Priest-in-charge of Holy Trinity, Berwick upon Tweed, 1982-1992.
Michael Duane (1915-1997), teacher, headmaster and lecturer, was best known for his 'progressive' educational views, his belief in inclusivity and a multi-racial approach, his encouragement of informal relationships between staff and pupils and his opposition to corporal punishment.
(William) Michael Duane was born on the 25 January 1915 in Dublin, Ireland. After moving to England, he was educated at the Dominican School at Archway, North London; St Ignatius' Grammar School in Stamford Hill, London. In 1938 he graduated from Queen Mary College, London, with a degree in English Language and Literature. He trained as a teacher from 1938-1939 at the Institute of Education and afterwards took up his first teaching post at Dame Alice Owen's Grammar School, Islington, until 1940 when he started war service.
In 1941 he was promoted to Second Lieutenant and in 1942 became the Captain of the HQ Tank Squadron of the 8th Armoured Corps. He was subsequently the Staff Captain to the 20 Armoured Brigade, 6th Armoured Corps.; Staff Officer to General Richard O'Connor, Commander of the 8th Armoured Corps.; Liaison Officer to General Miles Dempsey, Commander of the 2nd Army and to Field Marshal Montgomery. In 1945 he became a Major of the 8th Corps. District, during the occupation of Germany. During the war he was mentioned in dispatches and was awarded two Belgium Medals, the 'Chevalier De L'Ordre De Leopold II Avec Palme' and 'Croix De Guerre Avec Palme'. He was demobilised in 1946 and returned briefly to Dame Alice Owen's Grammar School.
From 1946-1948 he lectured at the Institute of Education on the English Method; to teachers under the emergency scheme; and at the Workers Education Association. In September 1948 he was appoint the Head of Beaumont Boys' School, St Albans. In 1949 he became the Head of a newly opened school, Howe Dell Secondary School in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Duane's headship of Howe Dell was marked by controversy and the school closed shortly after he resigned in 1951. From 1951-1959 Duane was Head Master of Alderman Woodrow Secondary Boys' School, Lowestoft.
It was in 1959 that he took the headship of Risinghill School in Islington, a post which was to make Duane a famous figure. Risinghill opened in 1960 after the amalgamation of four pre-existing schools and under Duane's headship became the subject of much public and media attention and controversy focused on his non-authoritarian approach. There were difficulties with the London County Council and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools, Risinghill was closed in 1965 and Duane became a peripatetic lecturer mainly based at Garnett College in London.
From the 1960s he wrote and lectured widely on the topic of education. In 1995, for example, he published 'The Terrace: An Educational Experiment in a State School' (London: Freedom Press, 1995) about a joint scheme established by Royston Lambert, Head of Dartington School and Sir Alec Clegg, Director of Education for the West Riding of Yorkshire at Northcliffe Comprehensive School, Conisbrough, Yorkshire to provide non-school education for fifteen-year olds after the raising of the school leaving age in 1972-1973. Michael Duane died in January 1997.
David Medd OBE (b 1917) studied with the Architectural Association and qualified as an architect in 1941. He worked for Hertfordshire County Council Architect's Department from 1946 to 1949 and then went to work for the newly formed Architects and Building Branch of the Ministry of Education. In 1949 he married the architect Mary Crowley, with whom he worked in both Hertfordshire and at the Ministry. They were responsible for designing some notable educational buildings and for furniture and equipment design, and were influential in shaping the philosophy of the Architects and Building Branch at the Ministry. Both held strong views on child-centred learning. David Medd lectured and wrote numerous articles on architecture and educational buildings. He also travelled widely, undertaking consultancy work abroad and reporting on school buildings in many different countries.
The Mother Goose Award was established in 1979 for 'the most exciting newcomer to British children's book illustration'. Its aim was to encourage children's book illustrators at the beginning of their careers by drawing serious critical attention to their work and to encourage children's book publishers to continue to foster new talent in the field of illustration for children. It was sponsored by Books for Children.
Mimi Hatton was born in 1915. During World War Two, she was an infant teacher at St Mary Cray Junior and Infant School in Kent, and set up home teaching groups for the children when school was suspended for fear of bombing. The school was evacuated to North Wales in 1944, and there Miss Hatton set up schools in Tabernacle vestries, a disused sawmill and a disused science laboratory.
In 1946 she wrote to the Foreign Office offering her services as a teacher to the children of families of the occupying forces in Germany, and became a teacher with the BFES in 1946. She embarked to Germany on 18th December 1946, and initially taught at the BFES School in Bad Zwischenahn from 1947-1949. She then served successively as the Head of Oldenburg School, 1949-1950, and the BFES Bad Oeynhausen Nursery, Infant and Junior School, 1950-1952.
In 1952, she become headmistress of a school for educationally sub-normal girls in Kent (Broomhill Bank), a position she held for two years. In 1954, she was taken on by Devon County Council to run a similar school in Devon, Maristow House in Lord Roborough's estate on the banks of the river Tavy.
When she was first appointed, Maristow was semi-derelict, and she supervised its restoration to a usable condition. She then set about furnishing it for use as a boarding school, and hired all the staff. She ran the school until it closed in 1976, after being taken over by Plymouth City Council. At this point, she took early retirement, aged 61. Although primarily a girls school, in its later years it took in day boys up to the age of eleven.
Throughout her period at Maristow, Lord Roborough, as Chairman of the school governors, became a close friend, and she was regularly a guest at head of table at family dinners.
The Moot was a private discussion group convened in 1939 by Joseph Houldsworth Oldham (1874-1969) in order to consider postwar social reconstruction within a Christian framework. It was composed of eminent philosophers and intellectuals such as T.S. Eliot, Karl Mannheim, R.H. Tawney and Sir Fred Clarke. Membership overlapped with the Council of the Churches on the Christian Faith and the Common Life. Individual members circulated papers for comment by correspondence and for discussion in meetings held three or four times a year..
Margaret Read (1889-1991) was an pioneer in applying social anthropology and ethnography to the education and health problems of developing countries. Having studied at Newnham College Cambridge, from 1919 to 1924 she undertook missionary social work in Indian hill villages. From 1924-1930 she lectured on international affairs in Britain and the United States. During the 1930s she studied anthropology at the London School of Economics (LSE), did ethnographic field research in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland and lectured at LSE. In 1940 Margaret Read was awarded a Chair at the Institute of Education, University of London and became Head of the Department of Education in Tropical Areas, a post which she held until her retirement in 1955. Read was influential in shaping the British Government's attitude to post-war colonial education and was a close personal friend of Sir Christopher Cox at the Colonial Office. After her retirement, she undertook consultancy work, notably for the World Health Organisation and held a number of visiting professorships in Nigeria and the United States.
John Daniell Morell (1816-1891) was a physician with an interest in psychology and philosophy. He was also a writer of books on English language and grammar.
Prepared by Vandercom, Stanton & Co, solicitors
No information available at present.
Pastoral head in an Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) comprehensive school; ILEA co-ordinator of the Schools' Council's Sex Differentiation Project; advisory teacher, director of the SCDC/EOC Equal Opportunities Project; senior inspector in the London Borough of Ealing; project Manager of the Schools Make A Difference (SMAD) project; in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham; Professor of Professional Development in Education, University of Keele; Associate Director of the International School Effectiveness and Improvement Centre, Institute of Education, University of London. Senior Associate of The Leadership for Learning Network at the University of Cambridge and adviser for The London Challenge.
In 1990, Sir Claus Moser gave the Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in which he drew attention to the need for 'an overall review of the education and training scene: a review which would be visionary about the medium and long-term future facing our children and this country; treating the system in all its inter-connected parts; and last, but not least, considering the changes in our working and labour market scenes.' His call for a Royal Commission was rejected by the government. Instead, the National Commssion on Education was established as an independent body set up in July 1991 under the auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and with sponsorship from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Its remit was to consider all phases of education and training throughout the whole of the United Kingdom and to identify and examine key issues arising over the next 25 years. The Commission's terms of reference were: 'In the light of the opportunities and challenges that will face the United Kingdom in a changing world over the next 25 years, to identify and consider key issues arising from: the definition of educational goals and assessment of the potential demand for education and training, in order to meet the economic and social requirements of the country and the needs and aspirations of people throughout their lives; and the definition of policies and practical means whereby opportunities to satisfy that demand may be made available for all, bearing in mind the implications for resources and institutions and for all of those involves in the education and training system; and to report its conclusions and recommendations in such manner as it may think fit.' The Commission identified seven key issues and established working groups, consisting of two Commission and two external members, to look into each of them: 1. Effective schooling 2. Schools, society and citizenship 3. The teaching profession and quality 4. Higher and further education in the twenty-first century 5. Preparing for work today and tomorrow 6. Better ways of learning 7. Resources It also undertook a wide variety of other activities including seminars, formal and informal discussion meetings, surveys, lectures and visits. It gathered advice and opinion from individuals and organisations by means of written and oral evidence, commissioned new research and analysed existing statistics and literature. Several prominent educationists and other public figures served on the Commission. The Commissioners were: John Walton, Lord Walton of Detchant, House of Lords (Chairman); John Raisman, British Telecom (Deputy Chairman); John Cassels, National Economic Development Office (Director); Averil Burgess, South Hampstead High School; Betty Campbell, Mount Stuart Primary School, Cardiff; David Giachardi, Courtaulds plc; Christopher Johnson, Lloyds Bank; Helena Kennedy, Barrister; Alistair MacFarlane, Heriot Watt University; Margaret Maden, County Education Officer, Warwickshire; Claus Moser, Wadham College, Oxford; Jenny Shackleton, Wirral Metropolitan College; Richard Staite, Beeslack High School, Penicuik, Lothian; Jeff Thompson, University of Bath; David Watson, Brighton Polytechnic; Peter Wickens, Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd.
Nicholas Hans (1888-1969) was born in Russia and studied, and later lectured, in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Odessa during the turbulent decades following 1905. He participated in political life in Odessa during and after the 1917 Revolution, serving as a member of the City Council from 1918. In 1919 Hans left Russia for England and took up studies in the Department of Education, King's College, London. In the 1920s he began to work on the Year Book of Education, continuing this work until the outbreak of World War Two. During the War he worked as a civil servant in the Censorship Department of the Ministry of Information. In 1946 he was appointed as lecturer at King's College, becoming a Reader in Comparative Education in 1948. During this time he collaborated with Joseph Lauwerys at the Institute of Education in supervising higher degree students and arranging overseas trips, and he continued these activities after his retirement in 1953. He wrote and published on a wide range of topics, including comparative education, educational policy in Russia, and the history of Russian and eighteenth century education.
Nathan Isaacs (1895-1966) was a metallurgist and was awarded the OBE for the contribution he made to this field during World War Two. However, he also took a scholarly interest in the fields of philosophy, psychology and metaphysics, and was particularly interested in the work of Jean Piaget and in theories of child development and of the teaching of science to children. He lectured and wrote widely on these topics. He married the psychologist and educator Susan Fairhurst in 1922 and was closely involved with her work in the Malting House school experiment. After her death in 1948 he married Evelyn Lawrence, who had also worked at the Malting House School, Cambridge. They were both deeply involved with the National Froebel Foundation, an organisation devoted to promoting the ideas of the educationist, Friedrich Froebel.
Born, 1930; Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith; national service in the Royal Signals; attended St Catherine's College Cambridge, 1953-1956; tutor at Wandsworth School, 1956-1968 (Senior Geography Master, 1967-1968); Director of the Thameside Research and Development Group, Institution of Community Studies, 1968-1969; Housemaster at Elliot School, Putney, 1969-1970; Chairman of the Barons Court Labour Party, 1961-1963; contested Warwick and Leamington as a Labour candidate,1964; sat on the Hammersmith Local Government Committee of the Labour Party, 1966-1968; co-opted member of the Greater London Council (GLC) Planning and Transport Committees, 1966-1973; elected MP for Acton, 1970-1974 and Newham South, 1974-1997; Secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party Education Group, 1971-1974.
Peter Cornall (b 1930) trained as a teacher at the University of Oxford, qualifying in 1955, and went on to teach in comprehensive secondary schools in Oxfordshire (Chipping Norton), 1955-1959 and London (Crown Woods School, Eltham, 1959-1964). After three years as an education officer in Wiltshire (1964-1967) he became headteacher of comprehensive schools in Nottinghamshire (West Bridgford Grammar School, 1967-1972 ) and the Isle of Wight (Carisbrooke High School, 1972-1981). As County Chief Inspector of Schools in Cornwall (1981-1991) he created a full advisory service and promoted curriculum development and school review. He retired in 1991. Throughout his career Cornall retained an unswerving commitment to comprehensive secondary education. During 1992-1993 Cornall was Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Leicester, researching into 'value-added' and he remained a school governor and trustee of the Centre for the Study of Comprehensive Schools for several years.
The Polytechnics Council for the Education of Teachers was founded in 1976 to provide a national forum for the exchange of information, opinions, experiences and ideas on teacher education as it concerned polytechnics. Each polytechnic sent a senior member of staff as a representative to the Council which discussed policy formation and a wide range of other issues.
Richard Stanley Peters was born in India in 1919. As a child he was sent to live with his grandmother in England where he attended boarding school. From 1933-1938 Peters attended Clifton College, Bristol, and then proceeded to study for an Arts Degree at Queen's College, Oxford University from 1938-1940 (he was awarded a war degree in 1942). In 1940 he joined the Friends Ambulance Service and was drafted to London during the Blitz. From 1944 to 1946 he was Classics Master at Sidcot Grammar School, Somerset.
In 1946 he was granted a Studentship (to study Philosophy and Psychology) at Birkbeck College, where he also worked as a part-time Lecturer. Peters graduated with a BA in 1946 and a PhD in 1949. He was then subsequently a Lecturer (1949-1958) and Reader (1958-1962) in Philosophy at Birkbeck. In 1962 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy of Education, Institute of Education, a post that he held until his retirement in 1982.
Among other roles, Peters was Visiting Professor of Education, Harvard University, 1961; Visiting Professor, Australian National University, 1962; Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of London, 1971-1974; Member of the American National Academy of Education, 1966; Chair, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.
The Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain was founded in 1964 under the presidency of Professor Louis Arnaud Reid. Its aim was 'to promote the development and teaching of the rigorous philosophical study of educational questions'. The Society is still active at the time of writing. It holds an annual three-day conference at New College, Oxford, as well as a variety of local branch meetings and conferences. The Society publishes the Journal of Philosophy of Education and IMPACT, a series of policy-related pamphlets.
Bridget Horatia Plowden (1910-2000) was the daughter of Admiral Sir Herbert W. Richmond, naval historian. She was educated at St. Alfred's School, Hampstead, and at Downe House School, Berkshire. She married Edwin Plowden, later Baron Plowden in 1933. She was active in many fields, including as a Director of Trust Houses Forte Ltd, 1961-1972, a member of the Inner London Education Authority Education Committee, 1967-1973, a Governor and Chairman of the BBC, 1970-1975 and Chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, 1975-1980. She was involved in a wide variety of voluntary organisations, notably in the fields of primary and pre-school education. She was Chair of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England), 1963-1966. As such she also chaired its Committee of Enquiry into Primary Education whose influential report, Children and Their Primary Schools, was published in 1967.
The Programme for Reform in Secondary Education was established in 1975 as a pressure group campaigning for the principle of 'a fully comprehensive system of secondary education'. It held conferences, meetings and workshops, published pamphlets and a newsletter and participated in debates in the press and broadcast media. Among those influential educationists involved in the group's activities were Harry Rée, Maurice Kogan, Caroline Benn, Gabriel Chanan, Margaret Maden and Maurice Plaskow. It officially wound up its activities in 1994.
REfIT (Religious Education from Information Technology) was formed in November 1997 to look at the future of RE and IT, and discuss how information and communications technology would affect the teaching of RE. The original idea for the REfIT came out of a series of discussions under the aegis of the RE Futures Project set up on the 10th anniversary of the PCfRE (Professional Council for Religious Education) in 1995. From the communications module of the Futures Project came the recommendation for an RE and IT project. It was agreed that Farmington would look for funding and that the PCfRE would run the project. The Dulverton Trust agreed to provide £20,000 over three years, and REfIT was born. The aim of the REfIT Project was to 'develop and encourage the effective use of IT'. The participants wished to establish a network of those involved in ICT for RE; encourage the dissemination of classroom teaching materials; monitor and disseminate new technical developments; explore the potential European dimension of IT in RE; and consider 'the ethics, morals and spirituality of IT as a part of the whole school curriculum'. Led by the Project Director Jeremy Taylor, the fifteen-strong Project Team consisted of primary and secondary teachers, lecturers, examiners and IT experts. The project set up a website which held a database of interested teachers; case studies of RE lessons taught using ICT; articles on the use of ICT in RE; and the 'RE Web', a mapping of RE resources on the Internet. A CDRom was produced containing teacher information, classroom resources, case studies and the 'Children Talking' database. REfIT also formed links with numerous national bodies, including the DfEE, QCA, Ofsted and the TTA. there were also strong links with BECTa (British Education and Communications Technology Agency). Its members made significant contributions to conference, wrote articles for relevant publications, and set up courses to diseminate its work and ideas. The Project was extended for an extra year, holding its final meeting in November 2002. The REfIT website is at http://refit.ucsm.ac.uk/start.html.
Margherita Rendel (b 1928) studied history and law at the University of Cambridge and held posts in central and local government, including in Hertfordshire County Council and the Ministry of Labour and National Service, before combining teaching in further and adult education with research for a PhD thesis on 'The Administrative Functions of the French Conseil d'État' at the London School of Economics, which she completed in 1967. She was a lecturer in comparative government at the University of Exeter, 1960-1961 and in Sep 1964 was appointed as Lecturer in Educational Administration at the University of London Institute of Education. In Mar 1973 she was seconded to the Higher Education Department of the Institute and in 1975 became Research Lecturer in Human Rights and Education. In 1976 she qualified as a barrister. Her research interests focused around discrimination against women, especially in higher education, and the examination of this within a human rights framework, and she has published widely on these subjects. She was involved in many initiatives in these areas, presented evidence to parliamentary committees, served on various committees and was actively involved in wide range of national and international organisations including the Fabian Society and Labour Party, the Parliamentary All-Party Equal Rights Group, the Status of Women Committee, the Women's Group on Public Welfare, the Fawcett Society, the National Joint Committee of Working Women's Organisations, the Association of Tutors in Adult Education, the British Institute of Human Rights, the British Sociological Association, the International Political Science Association and the Royal Institute of Public Administration. After her retirement from the Institute she retained the title Reader Emerita in Human Rights and Education and has continued her research and writing.
Not much is known about the early life of Russell Scott (c. 1873-1961) but it is clear from this collection of papers that whilst at Balliol Collge, Oxford, he was a member of the hockey team and founded the Oxford branch of the Fabian Society. It was at a talk held by the Society that Scott first met George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950). In 1907 he became interested in universal languages and started to learn Esperanto. However between 1908 and 1930 he became somewhat sidetracked by Ido, an offshoot of Esperanto. Scott had a varied career as a language teacher and was the first headmaster of the junior department of Bedales School. In 1912 he emigrated to the United States of America, where he was Professor of French at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. He returned to England in 1920 and also worked as an examiner for the Oxford and London Examination Boards. During the early part of 1950 he became actively interested in the use of Sprechspur (Speech-Tracing) in Germany for teaching young children to read. It was a phonetic alphabet originally devised by Felix von Kunowski (1868-1943) in 1927. In the same year Scott wrote to Shaw, as he was aware that Shaw had made a provision in his will to provide funds to encourage further research into a universal alphabet. Unfortunately however, Shaw died later that year without naming an alphabet of his choice. Scott spent the next seven years trying to persuade the Public Trustee that the Kunowski alphabet was the only possible choice. In 1955, Scott founded the Phonetic Alphabet Association, as a result of the situation concerning Shaw's will, its aim was to introduce Speech-Tracing into British schools. He was the nephew of C.P Scott of the Manchester Guardian and used this relationship extensively in order to get articles and letters concerning the Sprechspur system published. He also wrote, in Esperanto, an International Language for Scouts which was published in 1952. He was an active promoter of international languages and alphabet reform, contributed funds to the World Federation Movement and was a supporter of World Citizenship, and was also a member of the Simplified Spelling Society. Scott died on the 2nd of January 1961, aged 88.
Bernarr Rainbow (1914-1998) trained at Trinity College of Music and was appointed Organist and Choirmaster of High Wycombe Parish Church and Senior Music Master at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe in 1944. In 1952 he became Director of Music at the teacher training College of S. Mark and S. John in Chelsea, transferring to Gypsy Hill College of Education in 1972 and then becoming Head of Music at Kingston Polytechnic. He retired in 1978. Rainbow researched, wrote and published extensively on music education and historical musicology, becoming a distinguished scholar of the history of music education and gaining three postgraduate degrees from the University of Leicester. He wrote a biography of John Curwen (1816-1880), the inventor of the tonic sol-fa method of singing, and founded the Curwen Institute to promote his work. He was President of the Campaign for the Defence of the Traditional Cathedral Choir which resisted the introduction of women and in 1996 he established the Bernarr Rainbow Award for School Music Teachers.
Rosemary Sassoon (b 1931) specialises in the educational and medical aspects of handwriting. In 1988 she completed a PhD from the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading on 'Joins in children's handwriting, and the effects of different models and teaching methods'. She spent two years researching and designing a typeface that used letterforms which children found easy to read. The subsequent design is the Sassoon Primary typeface. Since 1987 Sassoon has, in partnership with Adrian Williams, developed a range of font products for reading and handwriting education in schools. These typefaces are now used worldwide for both the teaching and reading of handwriting. Publications: 'Computers and Typography' (Contributing Editor); 'The Art and Science of Handwriting'; 'The Acquisition of a Second Writing System'; 'Signs, Symbols and Icons' (written in conjunction with Albertine Gaur); 'Handwriting of the Twentieth Century'; 'The Designer'.
A charitable Trust, the Schools Curriculum Award was established in 1982 by the Society of Education Officers and the editorial advisory panel of Education 'to celebrate curriculum design and teaching'. With an emphasis on the achievements of the individual school, it aims to put 'the school at the heart of the community' and 'to identify and celebrate schools which have established a broad and balanced curriculum enriched from the local community and environment'. It is open to all schools in the United Kingdom, those put forward being visited by voluntary assessors, and has held five rounds to date. Works of art were commissioned by the Trustees from which successful schools could make their choice of award. It also administers the Jerwood Award for individuals or institutions who had made a significant contribution to the theory and practice of education.
The Schools Council was established in 1964 by the Secretary of State for Education. It took over responsibility for curriculum and examinations previously undertaken by the Secondary Schools Examination Council and the Curriculum Study Group. In 1969, with a revised constitution, it became a registered charity and, in 1970, an independent body financed in equal parts by government and local education authorities. A wide range of educational bodies, including teachers' organisations, were represented on the Council. In 1983-1984 its work was taken over by the Schools Curriculum Development Committee and the Secondary Schools Examination Council. In 1984 it went into voluntary liquidation. It was a non-directive body intended to provide leadership in curriculum, examination and assessment development. Its work was undertaken by committees and working parties responsible for different programmes. It commissioned much research into these areas and published a large quantity of reports.
Susan Isaacs (1885-1948) née Fairhurst, trained as a teacher and gained a degree in philosophy from Manchester University in 1912. Following a period as a research student at the Psychological Laboratory, Cambridge, she was Lecturer at Darlington Training College, 1913-1914, and then lecturer in logic at Manchester University, 1914-1915. Between 1924 and 1927 she was Head of Malting House School, Cambridge, an experimental school which fostered the individual development of children. Isaacs also trained and practised as a psychoanalyst. In 1933 she became the first Head of the Department of Child Development at the Institute of Education, University of London, where she established an advanced course in child development for teachers of young children. Between 1929 and 1940 she was also an 'agony aunt' under the pseudonym of 'Ursula Wise', replying to readers' problems in child care journals. She married twice, firstly to William Brierley and secondly (in 1922) to Nathan Isaacs.
Brian Simon was Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Leicester. He was best known for his 4 volume history of the English education system from 1780-1990 (a standard text today), and his continued campaigning for comprehensive schooling. Simon came from a privileged background. His parents were great civic figures in Manchester. His father, Ernest Simon, head of the family engineering firm, was made first Lord Simon of Wythenshawe for public services. His mother, Shena, served 50 years on Manchester's education committee, working to improve the state system. Among close family friends was RH Tawney, also strongly committed to secondary education for all. As a schoolboy, Simon had encountered German fascism at first hand, having been sent in the early 1930s to Kurt Hahn's progressive school at Salem, which was already under Nazi attack. During his time at Trinity College, Cambridge, Simon was part of the generation which, horrified by fascism, turned to communism. Allegations that Simon recruited Guy Burgess for the KGB were refuted by him. His communist beliefs, unlike those of many of that generation, survived the war and the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. Simon wanted to become a teacher and following the Second World War, in 1950, he went to Leicester University School of Education, where academics were doing field work devising a comprehensive school system. He was to stay at Leicester for the rest of his professional life until his retirement in 1980. Simon wrote a draft autobiography, which was published in a shortened version as A Life In Education (1998). Today he is recognised as a great educationalist by those who work in the field.
Publications:
Studies in the History of Education, 1780-1870 (1960), later retitled The Two Nations and the Educational Structure
Education and the Labour Movement, 1870-1920 (1965),
The Politics of Educational Reform, 1920-1940 (1974)
Education and the Social Order, 1940-1990 (1991).
R T Smith was an HMI in Wiltshire.
Arthur Sporne (1890-1977) was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk 1890 as the youngest child of William Sporne, grocer, and Hannah Morley, five of whose eight children, including Arthur, went on to become teachers. From 1893 he attended a 'British' [and Foreign Schools Society] elementary school, where his brother was a pupil teacher, and then a 'Church' [of England] school, before moving to King's Lynn Grammar School. He trained as a teacher at Sheffield Training College c1908-1910. From 1911 he worked at the Joseph Lancester Elementary School in Ealing, as well as having short periods of experience at Fulham Reformatory and of war service during World War One. Following military service, Sporne returned to teaching at the Joseph Lancaster School until 1924 at which date the school was transferred to the Grange School, Ealing. The school was evacuated to Stoke Mandeville during the Second World War. After the War he taught at Selbourne School where he specialised in the teaching of mathematics. He retired in 1954 after which he wrote, and coached school phobics.
Founded in 1968, the Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment (STOPP) was a pressure group which campaigned for the abolition of corporal punishment in schools and other institutions in the United Kingdom. It lobbied government officials, parliament, the churches, local education authorities, teachers' organisations and other bodies, wrote constantly to the press and published surveys and reports. It also investigated individual cases and supported families taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights. After corporal punishment was abolished in all state-supported education in the UK in 1986, the Society wound up its affairs. The Children's Legal Centre carried on its remaining casework and the residue of its funds were transferred to the group End Physical Punishment of Children (EPOCH).
Harold Silver (b.1928) has written researched and written extensively on educational history and policy. He and his wife, Pamela, have also collaborated on research projects and co-authored articles, reports and books. Between 1980 and 1983 Harold Silver, then Principal of Bulmershe College Reading, and Pamela Silver undertook a research project funded by the Social Science Research Council entitled 'British and American educational strategies against poverty in the 1960s and 1970s'. This work was expanded in subsequent years and the results were eventually published as An Educational War on Poverty: American and British Policy-making, 1960-1980 (Cambridge University Press, 1991). This book analysed the role of education in the American 'war on poverty' from 1964, and in Britain from the appointment of the Plowden Committee on primary schools. It examined attempts in the two countries to use education to break the 'cycle of disadvantage'. During the course of their research, the Silvers not only drew on a large number of written sources, but also conducted taped interviews with a wide range of individuals, such as educationists and policy-makers, in both the United States and Britain.
After a career in teaching, historical research, and lecturing, Sophia Weitzman (1896-1965) was appointed Lecturer in History at the Institute of Education, University of London, in 1939, and was Reader in Education from 1956 until her retirement in 1963. In the 1940s she began work on the educational volume of the official history of World War Two, which was never completed.