NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY S,CHOOLS A FABIAN GROUP TWO SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE This pamphlet i based on the memorandum submitted by a group of Fabians to the Plowden Council on Primary Education. The Group reached its conclusions after a series of discu ions, and this pamphlet represents the generally agreed view of the participants, though individual members do not nece sarily accept all the Group's conclu ion . The Group is particularly grateful to John Hall, who undertook the major part of the drafting of this report and to John aizey, who acted as Chairman. ABIAN TRA T 356 TRE FABIA OCIETY 11, Dartmouth treet, \ .. Note.-Titis pamphlet, like all publications of the FABIAN 0 IETY, repre ent1 not the collective view of the ociety, but only the view of the individuals who prepared it. The re ponsibility of the ocietv is limited to approvmg the publication which it i rues as worthy of conrideration within the I ahour Movement cptemher, 1964 I. Introduction "TO consider primary education in all its aspects, and the transition to secondary education." These are the terms of reference of the recon- stituted Central Advisory Council for Education (England), but in this memorandum we can only hope to cover a few of what we consider to be the more important aspects of primary education and offer some detailed recommendations on the topics on which we feel we have some specialised knowledge. The Fabian Society decided to establish a group chosen from its members who are either directly concerned as head teachers or teachers, or who have made education their special study. With such wide terms of reference, your views and recommendations will surely be of great influence on primary education for many years to come. Your conclusions will be of great interest to those of us who support the Labour Movement, which has always been committed to progress in primary education, and will take action, nationally as well as Jocally, as soon as it is in a position to do so, to ensure a better deal for all children. At the outset, the obvious perhaps needs underlining. It is generally agreed in this country that, in conception, primary education is the most adequate stage of our education system. We thus ask the Council not to recommend changes to be made in primary education purely and simply for the sake of change or experiment, but only when it is decisively con- sidered that today's practices can be bettered. ~ ·..e~'"" \ "' .J ~,,..,..•"' I. Introduction "TO consider primary education in all its aspects, and the transition to secondary education." These are the terms of reference of the recon- stituted Central Advisory Council for Education (England), but in this memorandum we can only hope to cover a few of what we consider to be the more important aspects of primary education and offer some detailed recommendations on the topics on which we feel we have some specialised knowledge. The Fabian Society decided to establish a group chosen from its members who are either directly concerned as head teachers or teachers, or who have made education their special study. With such wide terms of reference, your views and recommendations will surely be of great influence on primary education for many years to come. Your conclusions will be of great interest to those of us who support the Labour Movement, which has always been committed to progress in primary education, and will take action, nationally as well as Jocally, as soon as it is in a position to do so, to ensure a better deal for all children. At the outset, the obvious perhaps needs underlining. It is generally agreed in this country that, in conception, primary education is the most adequate stage of our education system. We thus ask the Council not to recommend changes to be made in primary education purely and simply for the sake of change or experiment, but only when it is decisively con- sidered that today's practices can be bettered. ~ ·..e~'"" \ "' .J ~,,..,..•"' NEW PATrERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS 2. Teacher Supply Tbe Problem T£ACHER supply is the most important educational issue today. New methods, new courses, better buildings, will all come to nothing unless ways and means are found to alleviate the crisis looming ahead, espocially in primary education. And it is a crisis. Already over three million children out of the 3,920,000 in primary schools, are in classes over 30, and by January, 1968, there will be 450,000 more children in primary schools than there are today. Coupled with this is the increasing length of time that children are remaining in secondary education, due both to the raising of the school leaving age and the trend to stay on voluntarily at school after the legal leaving age. This second factor will require many more teachers to be employed in the secondary stage of education. It thus seems likely, under present plans, that many primary school classes in working-class areas will be over 50 in January, 1968. This is an emergency of even greater proportions than the immediate post-war situation when demobbed personnel were given 'emergency training' as teachers. And it is an emergency with no clear-cut, easy solutions, of a merely 'temporary' nature. Just as the 'bulge' years of 1947, when 750,000 were born, has caught the education system unawares at every stage (they are now about to be turned away in thousands from higher education), so, now, an even greater birth-rate-approaching 900,000 a year-is knocking aside any fond hopes of improvements in the schools' staffing situation. What can be done? More Training Places All conventional means of providing teachers must be stepped up to the maximum. Basically, the teaching situation can only be eased by a massive increase in higher education. That is to say that the Robbin's aim of 17 per cent of the age group in full-time higher education by 1981 is the bare minimum to maintain present standards. A far more generous provision of higher education would be needed to raise the present standards of teacher supply. But, also, there needs to be a re-ordering of priorities. Colleges of Education must come first. We feel that instead of the Robbin's aim of 40,000 entrants to Colleges of Education in 1973 14, the increase should be brought forward as from September, 1965. We are aware that the training colleges are very hard pressed ; nevertheless, to bring forward to 1970 or so the 1975 Robbin's targets would make it possible to achieve a maximum class size of 30 within ten or twelve years. This is our overriding objective. In order to provide such an increase, of course, it would NEW PATIERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS be vital for the Government to make an announcement on new plans this summer. We therefore call upon the Council to request the National Advisory Council on the Training and Supply of Teachers to issue, without delay, an interim report on the teacher supply situation, urging the Government to raise its sights in the hope of alleviating some of the future crisis in the supply of primary teachers. More Men in the Primary Schools There are other ways of increasing the supply of teachers, not the least of which is to alter the sex balance of the profession by providing an increased proportion of places for men in colleges of education and an increased proportion of places for women in universities. Women have, roughly, a one-in-three chance of a university place, and men have, roughly, a one-in-three chance of a place in a College of Education. This is not a major immediate factor in the deterioration of primary school staffing, but it has some effect. In the long run there is a significant contribution to be made; it has been estimated that if the proportion of men entering training colleges rose immediately from the present 30 to 40 per cent and stayed there, we might get over 20,000 more teachers by the 1980s. We are not arguing for a complete reversal of the proportions between the sexes in Universities and Colleges of Education; but it is clearly both just and practical to work for a balance. As Colleges of Education become fully incorporated in the universities' Schools of Education (and as more and more of their students take degrees) we can hope to see a good proportion of talented entrants to higher education putting this as their first choice. The proper aim for the next twenty years is clearly towards mixed colleges (men and women) and mixed courses (degree and certificate). This is fully in line with the Newsom recommendation for 'concurrent' training and we should hope to see your Committee reiterate this. Married Women Sir Edward Boyle has said that during the 1960s we shall be recruiting 200,000 women teachers and losing 190,000. In contrast to the present paltry efforts there should be a massive campaign to encourage qualified women teachers to return to or (for graduates who, at present, are legally qualified to teach) to take up teaching. There should also be some exploration as to the ways and means of using married women teachers who are housebound! by their family responsibilities. The Kelsall Report on Women Returners gives us the situation as it appeared in a survey four years ago. Women wanted to come back, but they needed help and encouragement. Particularly, they mentioned the need for the creation of more part-time teaching posts, the complete revision of their superannuation arrangements, adequate nursery facilities and refresher courses. Taking these in turn: (a) Part-time teachers must be accepted, even at Infant School level. The full-time staff are serving their own interests by helping the part-timer 4 NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS to settle in and take an active part in the general running of the school. A good example of the sort of help we mean is the much more consciously hetpful attitude on the part of the older teachers towards young teachers in recent years. (b) Superannuation. In the economy as a whole, superannuation should extend to part-time employment. An allowance might be made towards the cost of domestic help for married women. At present there is an actual disincentive to enter part-time employment if domestic help is needed. (c) If more infant schools have nursery classes, some young married teachers will be able to return to part-time and full-time teaching much earlier than at present. The Government ban on new nursery schools should be lifted. (d) The London County Council example of refresher courses for women returners, and induction courses for teachers changing from secondary to primary, and for graduates moving to teaching from industry and other professions, could be copied by most Local Education Authorities. Even while at home with her very small children, the mother can be preparing to return, either by part-time or evening courses. The new experiment by the National Extension College at Cambridge, to provide a correspondence course to bring the married women in the home up to date about modern techniques and teaching in today's schools, is an encouraging start. It can, with L.E.A. co-operation, lead into observation and local practice. That there is a demand for some such course is shown by the fact that ·there were 750 enquiries for this course before it had even started. Schools and local education authorities must realise that women returners need to be helped and used to the maximum. The evidence suggests that where the authorities care, like the L.C.C., Grimsby, Huddersfield and Leeds, they can get many married women part time into schools. It is inexcusable, in the present situation, that any qualified teachers should be brushed off by L.E.A.s and schools ; and yet enquiries suggest that there are probably hundreds who have made tentative approaches without success. We wish to emphasise that no school and no authority is justified in taking less than full care and interest to employ its maximum of married returners and part-time teachers. L.E.A.s should further be encouraged to provide part-time refresher courses in local technical colleges and there should be a planned utilisation by the schools of part-time teachers. Head- teachers should be given help and advice by the Inspectorate on this. A Revised Quota Scheme A national register should be compiled of married women teachers intending to return to teaching in each area, both full-time and part-time. In each area these women should be given priority in taking teaching posts. The quota system. should be organised in such a way that the authority NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS has to use its stock of immobile teachers first. The category "immobile teachers" would include women with young children, and then teachers over a given age. Each full-and part-time teacher on the register should be asked to state the numbers of hours a week for which she is available and the authority would be deemed to have made use of those hours whether it did so or not. In addition, any authority not using up its quota, would have a sum deducted from the grant equal to the salaries of the missing teachers. (The Labour Party, of course, intends to restore the percentage grant.) Even :before the private schools are fully incorporated into the state schools system, the principle of the quota system for teacher rationing should be extended to all schools-maintained, direct grant and independent -and should be in relation to the total child population in a given area. The local education authority, subject to an appeal to the Ministry, should determine the staffing complement of each category of school, as it does now for its own schools. If the quota is not extended, private education will flourish while the maintained schools are in a state of crisis. This must not happen. Fair shares of good teachers is a principle that must be universally applied. There must be a careful enquiry into the place of small schools, staffed by only two or three teachers, in the modern education system. If we are to make full use of our precious supply of teachers, some rationalisation may be inevitable, especially in urban areas. However, the one-or two-teacher village infant school still has a positive contribution to make to the small rural community. The Council for National Academic Awards may be able to consider a new course of training for mature teachers in technical colleges on extended evening courses and / or Sandwich Courses. This would ease the burden on the Colleges of Education ; but it would need careful preparation to make it an adequate teaching qualification. It would also need a new scale of increased maintenance allowances for such mature students, taking dependants into full consideration. (We are surprised to learn that some years may elapse before the Council for National Academic Awards begins to operate. We regard this expected delay as <~~bsurd and request you to ask the Secretary of State to speed up its plans.) We now turn to an internal solution to serve as an alleviation of the staffing problem. Immediate investigation of American team-teaching methods should be made in order to initiate experiments in our schools to share the teacher's load more sensibly. We gather that several American schools have !broken away .from the rigid pattern whereby a teacher teaches a group of 30-40 children .for seven or eight periods in the day (with the consequent draining of his effort when he comes to the essential preparation, marking and research). Instead, teachers and children have become used to varying sizes of groups during the day, according to the different activities which are undertaken. Obviously, this is something that will take careful observation and thought to adapt to the ways of our schools. We would welcome experiments in primary school building which would be NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS fitted to possible future team-teaching. For team-teaching may prove to be the only answer to the defeatist suggestion of shift-learning or even closing the schools in the worst hit areas. Emphasis is often laid on the importance of building up a long term relationship between teacher and class during the years of primary education. Yet, in actual tfact, again owing to the high wastage of ·primary teachers, a class of children will seldom have the opportunity of developing such a relationship with their teacher, and it is not uncommon for children to have ten or more supply teachers help the school staffing in a quantitative sense, i.e., more teachers more available to do their other work for some of the time. It is also a qualitative help, for it brings teachers together to discuss how best to collaborate in their work. It encourages them to look over the whole range of learning for the nine-year olds in a school, or the complete English work at Infant level. And this can be more easily done when the team nature of the staffing is emphasised by the organisation of the time-table. More research and development should be undertaken on the best ways of using availa:ble staff. Training colleges could become educational research centres in this respect. Secondary schools have :been more successful than primary schools in recent years in the recruitment of staff. The best suggestion we have so far seen for encouraging secondary schools to share out their successful recruitment of teachers is the one known as the West Riding Scheme. Here it is proposed that there will be local infant schools from 5-9 (with voluntary classes from 4f), fairly local junior schools for 9-13, and centrally situated urban high schools for 13-18. This would encourage trained specialists and men who like teaching under thirteens to mingle with those of the present primary staff in the 9-13 school. (We return to this below.) There needs to be a positive salary incentive for men to choose to move to Primary teaching ; further posts of responsibility are needed. The selective processes of our education system by which talent is thwarted at every hurdle (7 plus, 11 plus, 15 plus, 18 plus, 21 plus) are in themselves damaging to the prospects of recruiting teachers in sufficient numbers. A system of elite and second-class citizens, whether between private and public schools, slums or suburbs, 'A' or 'C' streams, is a system which encourages a deterioration of staffing standards. Only a fully co-operative teaching situation (i.e. a staff which is a team, in that it would teach all local children for at least three years) can sustain educational opportunities for our children and sustain teaching staffs during the critical years that lie ahead. A competitive staffing situation is pernicious, both immediately and ultimately. We are taking it for granted that education will rise to a very high priority under a Labour Government (which we hope will have been some years in office when your Committee reports). This means in itself not only a fully professional status for teachers (with all that implies in terms of money and rewards but also that far more will be expected of teachers. A 'nine-to-four' attitude is not a professional attitude. Responsibility and status are either side of the same coin : more will be demanded of teachers because more will be deserved. NEW PATIERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS Further Solutions It is necessary to repeat that the most efficient operation of all normal means of expanding teacher supply cannot cope with the impending Primary School explosion. If schools in poorly-staffed areas are not to close, if shift-learning is not to become the average experience for this country's under-nines, unusual means of sharing out the teachers we have got will have to be found. This means that unconventional means of maintaining the present ·staffing standards will have to be considered. The following suggestions are tentative and to be seen only as possible lines of development which Local Education Authorities may care to explore. Ancillary Administrative Staff Administrative duties for Headteachers and Deputy Headteachers should be cut to the barest minimum. In a school it is extraordinary to observe that the Office Boy is also the Boss. He should not be required to complete his returns, requisitions, percentages and disbursements. L.A.E.s should have the funds to pay for Office Boys. One secretary is not enough. When senior teachers spend whole mornings at the duplicator and others spend their holiday on the time-table for the new school year, it appears that an unnecessary amount of extra difficulties is loaded on to the teachers. We strongly recommend the formation of a trained administrative staff to take on the duties of fulfilling the administrative needs of the ·teachin.? staff and this administrative staff should form part of the local government officers' structure. In many cases we visualise that one trained administrator could serve four or five average-sized primary schools. (Peripatetic administrators are established in Sweden.) Teachers' organisations would surely welcome the appearance of such a grade of persons in our schools. Auxiliary Staff. This country demands more tasks of a teacher in a Primary School than of most teachers. L.E.A.s could have a more positive policy of establishment of paid helpers to take on hundreds of little duties that teachers sometimes assume they were trained to do. These auxiliaries wouldl have to be properly paid and have a completely defined semi-professional status, similar to N.N.E.B. nursery nurses. They would be trained to do specific jobs which are not the teachers', yet there should be encouragement for suitable people to train for teaching. A previous suggestion for auxiliary staff by the then Minister of Education was turned down by the Teachers' Associations. This was understandable in the tense situation of the teachers' salary struggle. In the impending desperate staffing situation that we have described, we hope that teachers will be the first to realise the advantages of a properly constituted and defined establishment of auxiliaries, and, in the long run, such auxiliaries will help to improve the status of the teacher. The nursing profession, which recruits girls of not dissimilar educational background to the teaching profession, has a subsidiary band of 8 NEW PATrERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS helpers, called State Enrolled Nurses. The girls who become N.N.E.B. nursery nurses could be most useful in a variety of ways in helping the primary school teachers in their tasks. Since there are already large numbers of unqualified assistants in the schools, we would think it to be in the interests of the children and! of the teachers that a defined semi-professional group should be created. We envisage that the girls should spend two years being trained, the first six months going for two days a week to Colleges of Further Education and three days a week in the schools; in the remaining eighteen months they would be probationers with evening work at the Colleges. If each primary school with over 200 children in it had at least one training place, it could train two girls a year. These girls would spend two days a week at the College of Further Education doing a course in Child Psychology and other useful subjects. On the assumption that 15,000 girls could be recruited in any one year (i.e. 1 in 20 of the secondary modern schoolgirl leavers) there would be 7,500 places to be found for six-month courses in the Colleges of Further Education. Training places would have to be found for 7,500 girls in the primary schools, that is to say, roughly one training place for every 15 or so teachers in the junior and infant departments. We believe such numbers could easily be recruited; for girls leaving secondary schools at 16, the road to education work is at present barred, and such jobs would be very attractive to them. Within a period! of four years, assuming that many of the girls would leave for marriage shortly after the age of 20, there would be 60,000 teachers' helpers available for work in the infant schools. It is quite clear that these girls would be of great assistance in the primary schools, enabling the teachers to concentrate on the individual needs of the children. The earliest date at which such a scheme can be nationally inaugurated is for the Easter school leavers of 1965. We would therefore like to see the negotiations for such a programme opened immediately. In particular, during the two- year period of training, wages of at least £300 a year would have to be paid and, again, we suggest that these costs should be borne by the Exchequer. Teaching Aids Teaching aids, which are not primarily intended to reduce the need for a good pupil/teacher ratio, may nevertheless help the harassed teacher in the difficult years ahead. We have in mind the possibilities of television, radio, teaching machines, all sorts of apparatus and equipment that is only starting to find its way into the Primary School. Some 'home-made' equipment has already been used very successfully. There is no reason why knowledge should not be pooled here. L.E.A.s were prepared to co-operate on school buildings of world standard. The analogy of a CLASP school building system is a good one-we think, for example, of the desperate shortage of trained mathematicians and the chances for a whole region to receive outstanding teaching by closed circuit television and to participate in experiments which one school's staff could not hope to prepare by itself. NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS Retired Teachers There should be no compulsory retiring age for teachers. They should be allowed to continue teaching as long as they are suitable and able and willing to stay on. Underlying all of this section is the need to preserve the rare skills of the teacher for teaching. There should ultimately be the creation of something like a teacher hierarchy, along the lines of master teacher, teacher, assistant teacher, teacher aide (technical) and teacher aide (administrative). The teacher needs every chance to renew his knowledge of his work by intrchange with colleges of education, in-service training courses, and by time in the day when he is free to think and to prepare. Voluntary Help Mothers and 'nans' could provide a great deal of voluntary help through the Parent-Teacher Associations in schools (milks, dinners, making tea, coats, shoes, washing hands, sharpening pencils, putting out materials, etc.). Teacher Training We have three recommendations to make for teacher training. In the first place, we believe that the number of places for teachers in training, proposed! in the Robbins Report, should be brought forward by at least four years. This must be inaugurated as soon as possible in order that additional recruits may be found for September, 1965. This might entail some slowing down of the university expansion programme in order to allow training colleges to expand more rapidly. This will be a period of unprecendented strain for the training colleges, which have been under strain for many years. We think, moreover, that the opening of annexes all over the country for day students living at home would make a significant contribution to the recruitment of teachers. In general, there seems no reason why these annexes should not be part of the system of Colleges of Further Education, although the courses in teacher training should be under the direction of the local training college. Headteachers and other experienced teachers in local schools should be encouraged to give both lectures and advice to such annexes. Secondly, we are wholly in agreement with the Robbins Report that training colleges should be larger than they are and that small isolated colleges should eventually be closed. We think it most important that teachers intending to teach in primary schools should themselves have had a broad educational experience and this can only be secured in most circumstances in a large college. Thirdly, while we are of the opinion that the links between the universities andl the training colleges should be strengthened, we would hesitate to introduce immediately so large a disruption in their methods of administration as is envisaged by the Robbins Report. In the recommendations of the Fabian Society to the Robbins Committee a system of administration of higher education was proposed which avoided most of the difficulties. NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS 3. The Children Nursery Provision AT the outset of this section it must be emphasised that it should be a basic principle in any society that no mother with young children should be forced to seek employment and thus leave her child in a nursery. Yet social habits have undergone an enormous change in the last thirty years. Two aspects may be spotlighted here. First, more women are marrying, they are marrying earlier, having families earlier and the number of children per marriage is rising. Secondly, there has been what may be called the "housewife's revolution". Thirty years ago only one woman in ten held a job outside her home; today the figure is one in three. The nation's economy is now dependent upon this labour force of married women and there seems to be every indication that it will become more dependent in the future.' Coupled with all this is the growing belief among parents of the possible benefits to be reaped by children attending nursery centres. These benefits may be called educational, with the word used in its broadest sense -the opportunity for the very young child to find companionship in a group of children of his own age. The staff of a good nursery will atways aim at providing a sense of security for the children and the nursery will also provide the space and training which many children would not otherwise obtain. The importance of the years between two and five cannot be over-emphasised. A study group set up by the London County Council ten years ago stated that in the opinion of psychiatrists working in L.C.C. Child Guidance Clinics, the genesis of mental disorders in over 80 per cent of their new cases lay in the pre-school years. Compulsory education in this country starts earlier in the life of the child than elsewhere, but nevertheless there is an increasing demand from parents to put their children in nursery centres •before the age of five. In the face of this increasing demand, the Department of Education and Science imposes an almost complete ban on the opening of new nursery schools and classes and the Ministry of Health does nothing to encourage local authorities to increase the number of their day nurseries. Parents are thus increasingly driven to placing their children in private centres; in seven years the number of registered private nurseries has doubled We are aware that in I%2 and 1963 the birthrate was lower than expected, and that .there seems recently to have been a slowing down of the rate of increase in the proportion of married women at work. We think it prudent, however, to assume that both trends will continue over the long period. NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS (1955, 443-1962, 932), and the number of registered child minders has almost trebled (1955: 777-1962: 2,202). Today, in the age group between the second and fifth birthdays only 6 per cent are receiving some form of registered nursery supervision, either full-or part-time. (See Table I.) Apart from all these, of course, there are the growing number of unregistered child minders, especially in our large cities, where conditions are all too often indescribably bad. This pre~ents an immense part of the whole problem. TABLE I Number of children (a) under 5, and (b) between second and fifth birthdays, receiving some form of registered pre-school supervision, full-or part-time, 1962-63. (a) (b) Nursery schools (Maintained) Nursery schools (Direct Grant) Nursery schools (Independent) .. . Classes of pupils under 5 in primary schools 28,266 1,299 3,260 55,462 28,266 1,299 3,260 55,462 Nursery classes attached to independent primary schools Day Nurseries (maintained by local authority or provided by voluntary association Private nurseries 6,450t 21,876 22,591 6,450t 13,782 j· 14,232t Registered child minders* 17,997 11,338t 157,201 134,089 (Number in age group (b): 2,228,000. Thus 134,089 equals 6 per cent.) * Registered under Nurseries and Child Minders Regulation Act, 1948. t Estimated. Sources: Statistics of Education, 1963, Part I, Department of Education and Science : Annual Report, 1963, Ministry of Health. This nursery supervision varies greatly both in facilities provided and in the standard of the staff or supervisors. In nursery schools and classes emphasis is placed on the educational aspects of the nursery-facilities are generally good and high standards are set for training both teachers and their assistants. In day nurseries the health and welfare of the child is the all-important thing, although it is probably true to say that good nurses are just as concerned with the educational aspect of nurseries as their counterparts in nursery schools and classes. Again rigid standards of training are set for both nurses and their assistants. It is in the field of private nurseries, play groups and registered child-minders that standards vary enormously -some are very good, some very bad. This section of the nursery world is officially designated. 'child minding' and there are no real standards set for the quality of the staff. 12 NEW PAlTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS While we are broadly in agreement that as long as the present staffing crisis is looming ahead for children of statutory school age, the provision of facilities for nursery education must inevitably suffer, we feel that there are one or two fronts along which some advance could be made. Experiments have shown that six and a half hours a day is often too long for children under five to spend in nursery centres. From the children's viewpoint, very little seems to be lost by only half-day nursery attendance and, in fact, the half-day can have a positive value. We therefore consider that in the future structure of nursery provision, half-day attendance should be the rule rather than the exception. Full-time nursery provision would then generally only be available to children with special needs, such as health problems or special home circumstances. With the greater availability of part-time employment for women, this reform should cause no great hardship for those women who find it essential to go out to work. Consideration should be given to the plight of very young children living in new tall blocks of flats with the only accessible outdoor play space being a narrow balcony of small dimensions. We recommend that in the planning of all new high density housing schemes, it should be a statutory provision that generous accommodation is provided for a nursery or supervised play space, in the same way as is often provided for car parking facilities. Any expansion of nursery provision, however small, requires more staff. Where will the extra staff come from? The Kelsall Report on Women and Teaching has shown that one of the measures most likely to encourage women to return to teaching is more part-time teaching posts. The same can probably be said about other professions, including nursing. We feel confident, therefore, that with nurseries organised very largely on a half-day basis, there will be sufficient ex-teachers and ex-nurses prepared to staff them. Also, on the evidence of the Kelsall Report, increased nursery provision should lead to move women teachers returning to the profession as a whole. Priority of entry to nursery centres should be given to children of teachers who wish to return to teaching. Age of Entry to Infant Schools It is increasingly argued in some quarters that because the age of entry to compulsory education in England is lower than on the Continent and in the U.S.A., there is therefore a prima facie case for raising our own age of entry. In point of fact, both on the Continent and in the U.S.A., although the age of entry to compulsory education may be six years or even seven, a high proportion of children begin their schooling during their fifth year and ever earlier. In France, for example, over 60 per cent of children aged four are attending Ecoles Maternelles. Children in this country start school not later than during their fifth year and this is one aspect of our educational system which is said to draw admiration, even envy, from all over the world. But more important than that is the fact that the first year in an infants' school is of enormous NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS value, especially to those children from socially, culturally and physically impoverished homes. And to defer the starting age from five to six would undoubtedly widen the existing gap between the degrees of opportunity of children from different types of homes to acquire intelligence and fulfil a'bility. On the evidence we have there would seem to be no strong educational arguments for raising the compulsory school starting age ; most pleas to do so seem to be based on either financial or teacher supply arguments. We would ask the Council to reject such pleas. We believe that it is of vital importance, however, that for all children attendance at the infants' schools should be for the same period, no matter what part of the year the child's birthday should happen to fall. Children with 'summer birthdays' are at present heavily penalised. The doors of all infants' schools should be open at the beginning of the year in which children reach the age of five. Length of School Day The length of the school day is of crucial importance and we believe that there are many valid educational arguments in support of the view that the present length of the school day is too long for children in their first year at school. There seems to 1be very little valid argument for the very abrupt change for most children from the freedom of the home to full- time attendance at school. We hope, therefore, that the Council will give serious consideration to the posisbility of children in any part of their first year of compulsory education voluntarily only attending one session daily. (This measure, it must be emphasised, would be of educational value, designed for those parents who believed that their children would receive more benefit from only half -day schooling.) Age of Transfer We already have comprehensive primary education for 94 per cent of our children up to the age of 10 plus. The other 6 per cent mostly go to private schools at 13, or move into maintained secondary schools (whether grammar, secondary modern, technical or comprehensive). There are tew good reasons for selection into different types of schools at eleven, and few educational arguments for a change of school at the age of eleven. Eleven was merely fastened on by historical accident in 1924, and confirmed without question in 1944. Over a third of the Education Authorities in this country are already contemplating a change to secondary education (most of them in a two-tier stage, with the break at 13, 14 or 16). There are several good arguments for the introduction of a break at a later age than eleven : i. Round a:bout thirteen, some children start to lose interest in school. They find the rules and regulations suited to younger children irksome. They need a new approach and a different sort of course. a fresh impetus can help to revive their earlier enthusiasm. 14 NEVV PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS ii. A change of approach and attitude can be assisted by a change of school. iii. Very few areas have buildings which lend themselves easily to the whole comprehensive 11-18 years range. A school can more easily cover four or five years, than seven. And comprehensive education at the secondary stage can be more speedily introduced. 1v. If the break is at thirteen, the 6 per cent in private schools have the choice to choose to join the new comprehensive upper schools, wruch in most cases will have a far greater variety of courses than private schools can offer. It is easier to start a new school when all the others in the year group are new as well. (If the break in the maintained system is at fourteen, it largely precludes private school entry.) v. Speciabst teachers of music, French, science and mathematics can be gradually introduced for the older children. We feel strongly that it is better to have one age of transfer throughout the country, rather than a ruggledy-piggledy variation from authority to authority. The latter picture is a daunting one for parents who are moving from one area to another or from private to maintained schools. We recommend the adoption of thirteen as the age of transfer. The best example of tills is that referred to above, the proposed West Riding Scheme. We therefore envisage a two-tier stage of primary education : (1) Nursery and infant schools up to 8 plus; (2) Junior High Schools from 9 to 13. All our recommendations from now on refer to this. Non-streaming from 8 to 13 The most pressing current problem inside the schools is the practice of 'streaming'. Streaming was introduced chiefly as a result of the Consultative Committee's report on the Primary School (1931) wruch recommended that children should be graded according to 'their natural gifts and abilities' and proposed a 'triple track' or 'streamed' organisation. Before streaming was introduced into primary schools no research was carried out, but the practice was based on the then-held theory that intelligence was an inborn unchanging characteristic which was susceptible to measurement and calculation by external testing. The Newsom Report has shown that intelligence is not inborn, but can be acquired. Sir Edward Boyle, then Minister of Education, in a foreword to the Report said 'The essential point is that all children should have an equal opportunity of acquiring intelligence, and of developing their talents and abilities to the full'.2 Sir Ed~Nard Boyle's phrase is a direct quotation from a former Chairman of the Fabian Society, Mr. C. A. R. Crosland, M.P. NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS Non-streamed Schools Recent research has shown that 'the policy of non-streaming significantly increases the average I.Q~by about 3 points of I.Q.-significantly increases the mean scores of junior school .pupils in reading and English tests, and increases the level of arithmetic attainment of junior school pupils'.3 Thus, when a school is unstreamed the academic standards of bright children do not fall off but rather the contrary ; and the standards of less bright children are improved. In Sweden it has been found that the more able child also benefits in unstreamed schools.4 Reassuring as these facts are, it is the improvement of children's morale (in the unstreamed English school) and the resulting change of tone and relationship in a school after it has been unstreamed that always appear as the most favourable result. Subjective this judgment may be, but it is so frequently commented upon 'by visitors to unstreamed schools as to be the chief source of satisfaction. Any research conducted into the effects of streaming or non-streaming on a school must take account of these personal relationships, however difficult they may be to assess or compare. In practical terms the children of any age group in a non-streamed school are organised into classes of full ranges of ability; inevitably this cuts across all social levels and, where applicable, races and creeds. The child is introduced to a society where he is in daily contact with a wide range of personality and ability. Organisation The organisation of a non-streamed school calls for considerable organisational ability on the part of the class teacher-to say nothing about the Head. At times a clas~ may work in groups (homogeneous or heterogeneous), at an individual level, or take part in the concerted activities of a full class. Curriculum The curriculum of the school now becomes centred on the child, and is no longer geared to passing examinations for selection purposes. The atmosphere of the classroom changes from the competitive 'mark-hungry' setting to the co-operative and social environment. Children do, in fact, know that they are different from each other and sometimes the bright have to assist the dull, thus acquiring knowledge in depth; but the traffic is not all one way. Group activities are so organised that each individual has a contribution to make. Some research might be inaugurated on two aspects of non-stream 3 J. C. Daniels, "The Effects of Educational Segregation". B.J. Ed. Psychology, Vol. 31 , Part I, Feb. 1961. 4 Torsten Husen in A. H. Halsey. "Ability and Educational Opportunity", 1961. NEW PATIERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS ing: (i) how quickly a child learns in a relaxed non-competitive environment compared with a tense competitive one ; and (ii) how much and how rapidly children learn from each other compared with learning from an adult. (The teacher then assumes a role as director and adviser.) From the teachers' side there are also benefits in the practice of non- streaming, not the least of them being that teachers within each age range have common problems and are most likely to co-operate in attempting solutions. Private Schools and Environments Selective schools will be discouraged by the Labour Government. This means that comprehensive schools of all types will be encouraged as the normal code of Secondary education; they, in their turn, must be encouraged to experiment in non-streaming. In the private sector the existence of prep. or pre-prep. schools (not to mention the public schools) naturally inhibits the introduction of non-streaming. The Labour Government will take steps to integrate the public and private sectors of education. Some schools will still be worse than others, because their children continue to live in slums. It is more and more being recognised that the environmental influences are paramount in a child's development, and until all chidren live their early hours, days, and years in an equally worthy environment, some schools w1ll inevitably remain 'streamed'. The rather exaggerated pressure of external examinations, with their emphasis on fragmentation and specialisation by breaking education down into subjects, are forms of streaming, and go against the development of a balanced well-integrated personality. Here parental attitudes and employers' views will need to be modified. Recommendations We firmly believe that, from the point of view of our society as a whole, streaming is a deplorable practice and recommend short-term measures to include positive encouragement to Junior School Heads to unstream their schools. Considering that many Junior School Heads are products of the selection 11 plus-grammar school syndrome, we must ensure that the reorganisation is done as a positive advance in educational development, with faith and conviction, and also with courage. Like all improvements in the Junior School it might be much easier to carry out with classes of 30, but in the foreseeable future this is impossible. It can and has been made to work with classes of 40, and in schools with the normal turnover of staff, and the usual proportion of newly qualified teachers. As has been said before, Heads who have unstreamed their schools have indulged in a complete educational strip-tease to demonstrate their beliefs and their method . It is up to the Secretary of State to influence Her Majesty's Inspectors, to Education Officers to influence their Committees, and to Training College Principals to see that their lecturers and students not only observe but practise these techniques. NEW PATIERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS The Range of Learning in Primary Schools (5-13) Infant Schools (5-8) The infant school at its best exhibits the most hopeful side of our education system. The emphasis on activity and experience rather than rote learning has had an excellent effect in laying a good foundation on which to base later learning. It is the job of the infants' department to make provision for the child during the transition from babyhood to childhood. What matters is that there should be a smooth transition from the home to the school, with the happiness and health of the child of prime importance. It is not necessarily a good thing that some stress is put on formal education in infants' departments in this country. In the words of Sir John Newsom, "Unfortunately it has been too long assumed that children leaving the Infant School at seven should already be equipped with fundamental skills in reading, writing and arithmetic, and formal education is begun much earlier in English schools than in those on the Continent or in the U.S."5 Junior Schools (9-13) At present, the range of learning in the present junior school is largely dictated by the selection system at 11 plus. As a result teaching is concentrated on the limited examination subjects and these subjects are approached in a traditionally 'safe' way ('arithmetic, English and intelligence') rather than with imaginative and unorthodox methods. Some schools do try to widen the range, either by introducing new subjects or by new approaches but, if resources are limited, the opportunity is only given to a few children, usually the top stream. Under our proposed system of junior high schools for children aged 8-13, new approaches to teaching established subjects will be possible and desirable. In mathematics, for example, it is now acknowledged that a child's conception of the subject is made or marred very early. Much thought has been given to preparing apparatus that will teach a better understanding of number relations, yet these methods are either not known, or are being used by teachers who are unaware of their full implications. Quite apart from wanting to see every subject well taught, there are three reasons for extra effort being concentrated on mathematics. First, there are few maths graduates in the field. Second, the country needs mathematicians. Given encouragement, the number of children taking the mbject can be greatly increased. Third, working-class children who communicate less easily in words do not suffer the same disadvantage with mathematical language, and often do correspondingly better in maths if they have the right help. Itis also a time when ideas are changing rapidly in the teaching of English. New methods here will particularly help the working-class child. The de velopment of creative writing, expression, mime, movement and drama is to be encouraged. All too often the insistence on the sophisticated mechanics of spelling, punctuation, formal grammar and comprehension exercises, inhibits the child's growing perception and awareness of language. s "The Child at School", John Newsom. 18 NEVV PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS Much research is needed into a suitable syllabus for Junior high schools with especial reference to the teaching of mathematics and English. (This is already being done by the Nuffield Foundation and the N.F.E.R.) The results of this research must be made known to all student teachers and as many others as possible (at present some training colleges avoid new untried methods). Also, in order to keep freshness in the approach to subjects, we ought to be encouraging teachers to go to refresher courses ; yet at present there are not enough places for those who apply. The length of such courses is important ; many last a week and, although this is valuable, a longer course, perhaps lasting two or three months, may be necessary when such radical changes are taking place in the teaching of mathematics. All teachers need to be reached. This could be done by compulsory refresher conferences, for example, of one day during school time for all teachers of one subject in an area. Such refresher conferences can be an enormous stimulant and frequently lead to regular meetings where those who have had longer training pass on their ideas and, apart from refresher courses, specialist training on new approaches to the curriculum. At the primary school the child is chiefly learning to express himself and to overcome problems of communication. The content of his study is less important than the techniques which rouse his interest and enable him to communicate effectively. The argument, therefore, for introducing, say, science or French in the primary school is to increase the children's interest in the world around them. A happy start will also form a solid base for future progress in these subjects. In introducing new subjects there are certain dangers, however, that need to be guarded against. Fi..-st, the object of teaching new subjects should not be to cram the child with facts so that he can take an '0' Level examination earlier than usual. (This is a common danger with the introduction of primary school French.) Second, in some areas where parents are not providing much general education in the homes, the school finds it hard enough to teach a wide English vocabulary and a basis of clear speech without starting a second language. If learning a second language becomes standard, the working class child will be at a further disadvantage. Third, unless there is a general policy of teaching all children in primary schools the same subjects, they start their secondary education with other children on an unequal footing. Even when the teachers feel this is unimportant, it can greatly distress the children. If French and Science are going to be taught at the primary stage, there must be proper provision for continuity and the scheme should be part of a co-ordinated plan for the area. And fourth, introducing new subjects is only worthwhile if adequate skilled teachers are available. At the present time, they are not. School Building The 1962 National Survey on school conditions carried out by the National Union of Teachers ('The State of Our Schools') found that 55 per cent of all primary school buildings dated back to the nineteenth NEW PATTERNS FOR PRTMARY SCHOOLS century, almost three-quarters to before the First World War. In the next decade it seems likely that there will be an acute shortage of accommodation in the primary sector. Plans must therefore now be made for the setting up of emergency prefabricated structures as and when the need arises. At the same time, during this period, when so many new ideas are emerging in primary education, the planning of the new schools must not be allowed to fall behind and we welcome the latest experimental buildings which allow a much greater adaptability of usage than hitherto. Above all, however, the recent slowing down of educational building by the Department of Education and Science must be stopped. School building is important building. Managers and Governors The significance of Managers and Governors to schools is perhaps tangential to your enquiry. We would, however, ask you to consider it, since the provision for their existence is written into the 1944 Act. The distinction between Managers (for primary schools) and Governors (for secondary schools) emanates from the Act. Yet often the same people perform identical functions under different names. We suggest that the nomenaclature should be changed, and that since similar functions are performed by hoth bodies, they should be called school committees. It is not unusual for a number of schools, primary and secondary, to be grouped under one governing or managing body. Such a system often does not allow for any effective personal relationship or detailed personal knowledge to be established between members and heads of individual schools. We suggest that not more than three or four schools, either all of the same category, e.g. all infant-primaries, or all geographically grouped, e.g. infant, primary, secondary, should come under one 'Schools Committee'. Clerking should be facilitated by help from auxiliary assistants which we have suggested that authorities should be encouraged to employ. The powers conferred on governors and managers vary between local education authorities. If these bodies are to be retained, and for people serving on them to feel they matter and are effective, L.E.A.s should delegate powers generously. The school committee should provide a link between school and the outside world. Members therefore should be instrumental in helping to establish recognition for schools as important centres in a local community. Members with wide local contacts and awareness should be appointed. At present it is too often the case that membership of a managing or governing body is valued by the appointee not because he or she can be useful to the school, but because the a-ppointment 'bears a local social cachet. The basis for nomination to these bodies should therefore be widened. It must be wider than that of 'local politicians'. In Croydon, for example, nominations are invited from a variety of local and cultural organisations. If university appointees can serve on secondary schools, they should serve on primary and infant committees also. Teachers might well be appointed 20 NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS to serve, though not necessarily, we think, on the body of their own school. Preferably members of the teaching profession should serve on a school committee in an adjacent administrative area. The value of parents serving on the committees of the schools which their own children attend is debatable. If Managers and Governors are regarded as important, and are to take their responsibilities seriously, full and clear information as to the significance of, and extent of their powers and duties, ought to be issued to them by their L.E.A. The Inspectorate Both at national and local level, inspectors are held to be 'independent' philosopher consultants, from whom schools, teachers, administrators, committee members and the Department of Education and Science ought to be a:ble to seek independent advice. They contribute towards the wise and effective working of a 'unified but not uniform' education service. Their name is objectionable, however. Let them be called consultants. We recommend an enquiry into their place and duties in our educational system. APPENDIX Three Social Problems As Socialists we have a special concern for children handicapped by their social background. Three problems deserve deep study: backward readers, irregular attendance at school, and immigrant children. Backward Readers We hope that the Council will give detailed attention to the problem of children in ordinary schools who have not learned to read and who need special help to enable them to make effective use of their time in school. In the words of the Newsom Report, it is essential to realise that 'the less successful a pupil is, the more courage he needs to keep working'. (Para 337). It is clear, for example, that some backward readers profit from the stimulus of a small group. (Remedial classes run by some local authorities do much to alleviate the pressure on teachers who cannot devote as much time as is necessary to those whose reading is characterised as 'slow' or ''backward', but who are clearly of at least average intelligence.) At the same time there is abundant evidence, from official and un official sources, that others need continuous individual help. The problems associated with reading failures-anxiety, social insta;bility, failure in other school subjects, emotional maladjustment, are heLped by the growth of a stable relationship with one teacher. The child of average intelligence who has reading difficulties is best known to his teacher, who feels responsible for him. But at present all that the teacher can do is to select those pupils who would best profit from individual instruction, refer them to the educa NEW PATIERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS tional opsychologists for testing in the usual way in the hope that individual coaching might be recommended for them, and that there might be someone free to do it. The great benefit of individual tuition in such cases hardly needs emphasising ; we hear of cases where children who are practically non-readers and whose situation seems hopeless, respond to individual help -lasting about a year-and become average or slightly above average readers. Because of the critical overall teacher supply situation, however, it is unrealistic to expect provision to be made for .individual tutors for backward readers in the way we suggest unless additional teachers can be found who would not otherwise offer themselves for teaching duties, even if qualified to do so, because of domestic ties. We know that there are married women ex-teachers who could not do part-time teaching outside their homes, who could offer 1t-2 hours twice a week within their homes to teach a backward reader, and who would be willing to prepare themselves in the specialised techniques necessary for teaching of this kind. There is no question of these special tutors usurping the functions of the specialists, for they would be working under the guidance of the school head, the school staff and the educational psychologists. It would be for the authorities to decide to whom the special tutor would be responsible. It might even be best that the scheme be run by the child guidance authorities. The special tutors would mostly be married women working in their own homes at short travelling distances from the schools and the pupils would go in the school hours. This greatly influences the success of a scheme of this kind as children referred for remedial tutorials work unwillingly when the friends are free to play. The tutors would not cause any greater 'dilution' of the profession than emergency auxiliary schemes at present in operation, as they would have at !east one of the following: a teaching qualification, a degree entitling them to qualified teacher status or another professional qualification. They would simply be attached to the pupils' schools, responsible to whomsoever the authority should direct and paid by the authority. Naturally the agreement of the parents would be necessary before the child would go to lessons outside the school. The school's insurance would provide the necessary cover for any other expedition. We therefore suggest that a pilot scheme be run to see if indeed this tuition can be given to meet the need we are convinced exists. It would naturally depend upon the interested co-operation of heads and teachers who have the welfare of the backward reader at heart. A number of backward readers might be chosen in a selected district. They would be of about average intelligence as the tutors could not be expected to cope with the special problems of the E.S.N. The tutors would form a group which would meet to discuss problems and difficulties, and to undergo such training as would be necessary in the eyes of inspectors and those concerned with remedial work. We have given much thought to the possible objections to such a 22 NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS scheme ; the concern about dilution, the need to interest parents where consent is necessary, the hazards of travelling and the teachers' concern that the child should not lose valuable time. Where individual teaching takes place the education authority may be anxious as to what defence they would have if some parent objected to what had supposedly happened to the child. This objection can equally be raised with music and elocution teachers, and with physical education specialists who take remedial exercises. If professional women only are found for this work it will be expected that references will be available as to their character and ability. We feel that if teachers are found of the kind we have in mind the teachers' organisations would be glad to have their support, the disruptive elements would be taken from over-large classes, parents would be relieved to know that their children were being helped to avoid becoming social cripples or unemployable, and teachers would agree that a pupil cannot profit to any great extent in lessons where books are used if he cannot read. Irregular Attendance Irregular attendance in the primary school will probably handicap a child for the rest of his life. In the secondary school he finds that he is not only a backward reader but lacking in the social skills needed to fit into a school community. The truancy pattern is therefore likely to repeat itself even in the absence of other adverse factors which are usually present. Again, whilst many irregular school attenders are socially maladjusted, few are maladjusted in the psychiatric sense, i.e. they are not in need of psychiatric treatment. (Those that do need it, rarely get it.) Irregular attendance is not a cause of delinquency but is associated with it in the sense that neighbourhoods and streets and block of flats which have a high delinquency rate are likely also to have a high truancy rate. Detailed statistics relating regularity of attendance to sex, age, type of school, time of year, court fines, etc., are not published by the Department of Education and Science and it is not possible, therefore, to gauge accurately, on a national basis, the distribution of irregular attendance in primary schools. Figures which are available suggest that about one third of the cases dealt with in the petty sessional and juvenile courts concern children under twelve. In addition, of course, there are a large number in court because the school enquiry officers have not enough evidence to prove their cases before a Bench of magistrates. In this group are the children with chronic minor ailments which afflict them only on weekdays in term time; children whose parents are constantly on the move ; children who are sent to relatives when the attentions of the S.E.O. become embarrassing; children who are provided by busy G.P.s with medical certificates without proper examination ; children whose parents are so full of fair words and promises that a year or so many slip by before the S.E.O. decides that action is needed. The various ways at present of dealing with irregular school attendance can briefly be summarised: NEW PATIERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS 1. The first step may be taken by the Head of the School, who may write to the parents and perhaps invite them to come and see him. If this fails11. The School Enquiry Officer (employed by the L.E.A. and almost always without professional qualifications) visits the home, probably several times. If he decides that there is 'neither unavoidable cause nor reasonable excuse' for the child's absence from school, he gives or sends to the parents a first warning notice. If attendance continues to be irregular, a second warning notice is sent in about two weeks' time. In addition the Education Officer (or Divisional B.O.) may send a more personal note to the parents. If these efforts fail, the Education may institute proceedings against the Parents in the Petty Sessional Court, or alternatively secure the attendance of the child and the parents in the Juvenile Court. The first alternative is likely to be adopted if the irregular attendance is considered to be the 'parents' fault'. If, on the other hand, the child is considered to be at fault, i.e. a 'truant', proceedings will be instituted in the Juvenile Court. u1. Petty Sessional Court. If the case is proved, the magistrate have the power to impose a fine not exceeding £1 on the first offence ; not exceeding £5 on the second offence. On the third or subsequent offence, the penalty may be a fine not exceeding £10 or imprisonment not exceeding one month, or a fine and imprisonment. Magistrates are under no obligation to adjourn the case for special home and other reports by social workers before coming to a decision. They have the power, whether or not they find the case proved, to direct that the child should be brought before the Juvenile Court. iv. Juvenile Court. After finding the case proved, the juvenile court has considerable powers and choice of treatment. It is much more likely than the Petty Sessional Court to call for special reports before coming to a decision. Its powers include the removal of the child from home under a Fit Person Order; a supervision order, or simply the adjournment of the case to see if the child's attendance improved following a court appearance. v. School Care Committee (London only). Each school has a care committee of voluntary workers organised by paid employees of the L.C.C. These men and women are often the only 'social workers' involved in truancy cases. v1. Co-ordinating Committees set up by the London Authority usually on an area basis. London has three such committees-namely, the 'Problem Cases Conference' which is specially concerned with 'education cases'-the 'Problem Families Conference' and the 'N.S.P.C.C. Conference'. The composition of these three Conferences varies but all include representatives of school local authority departments, e.g. education, child care, housing, etc. 24 NEW PATTERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS After careful consideration of this machinery, we wish to make the following recommendations to the Council. First, the L.A.'s Children's Department (whose responsibility may be expanded under a Labour Government) should play a more positive and responsible role. Children whose parents do not produce valid medical certificates or reasons for irregular school attendance should rbe reported without delay to the divisional child care officers. Under the 1963 Children and Young Persons Act, the children's officers have powers to deal with the social problems related to irregular attendance, but fears of poaching on the Education Officer's preserves (and in London those of the Care Committees) may prevent them from taking useful action. Secondly, we feel that the duties of the L.E.A.s School Enquiry officers should either be limited to those of a clerical or routine nature, or, alternatively, they should be trained and employed by the Children's Committee as social work assistants especially concerned with irregular school attendance. And thirdly, we feel that when court action becomes necessary on account of irregular attendance, children and parents should be referred always in the first instance to the Juvenile Court or-if later established- a family court. We have two other thoughts on this subject. In some areas today the standard method of treatment for poor attendance and / or maladjustment is removal to another school, 'to be given a fresh start'. In practice this rarely works out anc1 often results in one school, whose Head is alleged to be good with maladjusted children, getting far more than its fair share of problem children. Staffing difficulties then become acute and the school gets a bad reputation in the nie~;hbourhood. In such circumstances we hope that there can be co-operation between Heads working in the same neighbourhood and a gentlemen's agreement among them not only to take, but to keep, a reasonable proportion of backward and j or maladjusted children in each school. Such co-operation would tend to reduce the problem to manageable proportions. Our last thought on the problem of irregular attendance makes the suggestion of tutorial classes for such children, i.e. classes held in premises, apart from but near local primary schools, which children attend two or three days a week, going to their own schools during the rest of the week. Teachers of these classes would be specially selected and under the guidance of educational psychologists ; classes would have no more than ten or twelve children, and the curriculum would be flexible. The children would not lose touch with their own schools and would not be embarrassed by their own failure as they often are when sent to special classes for backward and maladjusted children within their own schools. Immigrant Children The problem of immigrant children and their special needs is one that requires your full consideration. In some parts of London, schools are already reporting that between 50 and 60 per cent of their pupils are from ~ ---------. NEW PAITERNS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS 25 overseas and the teachers are experiencing special difficulties with the different native tongues. Such schools need all the help they can get as a first step we would recommend that schools in areas where there is a largely immigrant population should be allowed to exceed their quota of teachers. It must be recognised that the teaching of immigrant children, especially those with little or no command of the English language, is a highly specialised task; provision must therefore be made for the employment of teachers of 'English as a foreign language' to teach such children and cour~es to train such teachers must be developed immediately at selected training colleges. Research must be undertaken on the best way of assimilating immigrant children into the school and the community and we ask the committee to reject all ideas on the setting up of special schools set aside for immigrant children. The members of the group are: TYRRELL BURGESS NORMAN MORRIS ANN .GLENNERSTER F. PEACOCK DAYID GRUGEON MARY STEWART JOHN HALL BETTY VERNON PEGGY JAY JOHN VAIZEY DOROTHY JOHN H. R. WILLS Recent Fabian Publications RESEARCH PAMPHLETS 236 THE HEALTH OF THE NATION Laurie Pavitt 237 NEw LooK AT CoMPREHENSIVE ScHOOLS Michael Armstrong and Michael Young 238 THE COMPANY AND THE COMMUNITY Paul Derrick 239 BUILDING FOR A NEW SOCIETY Harry Brack 240 MASSACRE IN RWANDA Aaron Segal 241 BRAZIL: THE DILEMMA OF REFORM Edmund Dell 242 THE DEMOCRATIC FIRM Norman Ross 243 THE STRANGER AT THE GATE Cedric Thornberry 244 CHANGE IN THE TRADE UNIONS John Hughes TRACTS 346 PLANNING FOR PROGRESS Thomas Balogh 347 NATIONS AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS Elizabeth Young 348 PENSION RIGHTS AND WRONGS Tony Lynes 349 THE MEANING OF WORK Lis! Klein 350 AN INCOMES POLICY FOR LABOUR Michael Stewart and Rex 351 SOCIALISTS AND MANAGERS A Fabian Group 352 A LABOUR BRITAIN AND THE WORLD Denis Healey 353 FREEDOM IN THE WELFARE STATE Brian Abel-Smith 354 BOMBS AND VOTES Wayland Young 355 THE ADMINISTRATORS A Fabian Group Prlnttd In Great Britain by Devonport Press Ltd. T.U. London, W./2 3/6 2/- 3/- 4/- 3/- 3/6 3/6 2/6 3/6 4/6 2/6 3/· 3/· 3 /· 3/· l/6 1/6 2/- 4/- Recent Fabian Publications RESEARCH PAMPHLETS 236 THE HEALTH OF THE NATION Laurie Pavitt 237 NEw LooK AT CoMPREHENSIVE ScHOOLS Michael Armstrong and Michael Young 238 THE COMPANY AND THE COMMUNITY Paul Derrick 239 BUILDING FOR A NEW SOCIETY Harry Brack 240 MASSACRE IN RWANDA Aaron Segal 241 BRAZIL: THE DILEMMA OF REFORM Edmund Dell 242 THE DEMOCRATIC FIRM Norman Ross 243 THE STRANGER AT THE GATE Cedric Thornberry 244 CHANGE IN THE TRADE UNIONS John Hughes TRACTS 346 PLANNING FOR PROGRESS Thomas Balogh 347 NATIONS AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS Elizabeth Young 348 PENSION RIGHTS AND WRONGS Tony Lynes 349 THE MEANING OF WORK Lis! Klein 350 AN INCOMES POLICY FOR LABOUR Michael Stewart and Rex 351 SOCIALISTS AND MANAGERS A Fabian Group 352 A LABOUR BRITAIN AND THE WORLD Denis Healey 353 FREEDOM IN THE WELFARE STATE Brian Abel-Smith 354 BOMBS AND VOTES Wayland Young 355 THE ADMINISTRATORS A Fabian Group Prlnttd In Great Britain by Devonport Press Ltd. T.U. London, W./2 3/6 2/- 3/- 4/- 3/- 3/6 3/6 2/6 3/6 4/6 2/6 3/· 3/· 3 /· 3/· l/6 1/6 2/- 4/-