Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The Child Development Society started in October 1949, under Dorothy Gardner at the Institute of Education, although it stemmed from the Institute's Child Development Course, which began in 1933 under Susan Isaacs. It is the oldest advanced course of study for Primary Teachers. The Society maintained strong links with the Institute and the early Presidents of the Society were also the Tutors of the Child Development Course. The Society's purpose was to promote the advancement of Child Development Studies and to provide a forum for the dissemination of research, issues, and educational thinking, particularly in relation to the young child. All members had pursued or were the tutor of an advanced course in study of Child Development.
The Executive Committee contained a President, Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, and not more than 12 other members of the Society. When the consistution was amended in 1988, membership was opened to all those whose work entailed or had entailed the study of Child Development and a new President was to be elected each year from the field of the study of Child Development. Later amendments in 1991 added the post of Vice-Chairman to the Executive Committee.
The Society held two annual lectures, usually at the Institute of Education. An invited address which preceded the Annual General meeting (remaned The Susan Isaacs Memorial Lecture from around 1987), held in October/November, and the Dorothy Gardner Memorial Lecture in May or June. Until the early 1990s the Society held occasional conferences in Oxford, which were replaced in 1995 with the annual Maureen Shields Commemorative Annual Seminar Weekends in Brighton, where a panel of distinguished speakers, well known in their fields of study, considered a chosen theme. It also published an annual news letter containing news of the Society, its members and activities together with the transcripts of the previous year's lectures. Proceeds from the Society went towards supporting the relevent Child Development causes including the Institute of Education Nursery and the Vicky Hurst Trust.
The Society was wound up in 2002 due to the lack of new members.