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....to improve the teaching of mathematics in UK schools.
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... by boat, as it was the cheap way to travel. Then traveled around by Greyhound Bus ..... and saw The Beatles.
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... which had a lot to live up to. Fortunately the school I was about to go to had great teachers...
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where we were all very happy .... and dreamt of playing for Exeter City !
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The first of the “Black Papers” published, which criticises what the authors believed was excessive progressivism in education.
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... with Circular 10/70, leaving LEAs to decide future of secondary education in their areas.
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... abolishes milk for the over-sevens.
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Parents got divorced, which was unfashionable back then.
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As this was simpler than the previous system less time started being spent on numerical calculations at school. (The Metric system has curtailed lengthy calculations as well.)
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Where, incidentally I was Head of the "Voluntary" Choir, which was a surprise, as I can not sing to save my life ! But at least it created some (unwarranted) confidence and self-esteem, which every young person deserves and needs !
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Mr Tanner was a bit "old skool", handing out the odd clip around the ear, if you were not trying ... but also throwing Quality Street - the absolute pinnacle of "treats", when doing something really well ... which felt great (as you tried to catch it, coming towards you at high speed.) One thing we really got was "number sense" !
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Coronation Street’s Ken Barlow quits teaching for a better-paid job as a warehouse administrator. The Houghton Report increases teachers’ pay by 30 per cent.
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As a famous alumni said "sent to this resolutely philistine school, the idea of which was to turn the sons of Somerset farmers and Devon estate agents into Christian gentlemen. It was hell. But all the people I know who were there reacted against it and became poncy aesthetes like me. It took me 27 years before I could go back to Taunton - not to the school, mind you, just the town. I found it so distressing."
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Prime minister James Callaghan’s Ruskin College speech launches the “Great Debate” on education.
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HMI criticises teaching of maths, science and languages and calls for political education for all 11 to 16-year-olds. A TES poll finds most teachers in favour of caning, tests at 7, 11 and 15, and grammar schools.
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This was no big loss .... the teaching was, at best, unmemorable.
However the truth is some of it was truly diabolical (with teachers reading word for word from the text book, trying to learn it at the same time as us). -
Electronic calculators began to be owned at school from the early 1980s, becoming widespread from the mid-1980s. Parents and teachers believed that calculators would diminish abilities of mental arithmetic. Scientific calculators came to the aid for those working out logarithms and trigonometric functions
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This was OK .... I was having too much fun, but the Maths class I was put in ( for those resitting A-levels, even though I had not completed lower 6th, on a different syllabus) was solidly, traditionally taught.
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But they were all hobbyists, other than me ... and the Maths was probably too "pure". I missed a lot of lectures!
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Sir Keith Joseph, education secretary under Margaret Thatcher, demands that “ineffective” teachers are sacked.
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To do a weird, early, very progressive Marketing & Engineering degree.
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The Schools Council is replaced by the Secondary Examinations Council and School Curriculum Development Committee.
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Hewlett- Packard was then regarded as one of the best employers on the planet ... and encouraged me to take on risks and challenges !
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At Loughborough, where the teaching was great and the level of Maths fine. (Possibly a bit "pure" for my liking.)
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and the Maths element was an absolute doddle; just basic applied stuff and a bit of problem-solving.
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The Education Reform Act ushers in the national curriculum; national testing at 7, 11 and 14; Ofsted; local management of school budgets; grant maintained schools and city technology colleges.
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Education secretary Kenneth Baker sets out plans for articled teachers who would train on the job after university rather than taking a PGCE.
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As big companies were implementing mega systems, known as ERPs and needed people who claimed to understand computing and finance to do it.
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From the 1990s, mainly the late 1990s, computers became integrated into mathematics education at primary and secondary levels in the UK.
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.... when the Appeal Court rules its boycott of national curriculum tests is a legitimate trade dispute. Education secretary John Patten announces that tests will be slimmed down.
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Designing, building and implementing global systems, for big firms, such as Nike. I was supported by Mangers who empowered and challenged me. (Thank you Eugene Augustin !) I then moved into telecoms, which was booming like crazy.
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.... as a result of Curriculum 2000. Alastair Campbell, the prime minister’s press secretary, announces that the days of “the bog standard comprehensive” are over.
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... leads to changes in results for 10,000 students.
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The former headteacher and member of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, is caught promising an undercover reporter that businessmen could gain a peerage by sponsoring an academy.
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I was working in Holland and we were taken over by the French and all made redundant.
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... with schools moved into the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
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... which was more interesting than you make think, as it covers a wide range of activities ( and associated problems!)
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Ed Balls, then schools secretary, later announces he is scrapping KS3 tests.
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Getting everything from investments to pensioner payments working properly
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... signalling the way for the transformation of the landscape of English education.
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... originally planning to rebrand them O-levels.
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... and replaced by Nicky Morgan.
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Apparently I told my Mum,over 30 years ago anyone can do Maths, if they have a really good teacher !
(While I am now not quite so certain there is only one way to find out !) -
I want to work with people who dread Maths, to make it fun and interesting.
