2008 / 2009

Bernice McCabe’s opening speech at the residential course held at Crewe Hall in November included a reference to the inclusion of a tram timetable in an A-level English syllabus. This delighted the media and led to coverage in The Times, Daily Telegraph (including a leader column), Daily Mail, Manchester Evening News, Times Educational Supplement, the Crewe Chronicle and the BBC’s education website.

Mrs McCabe told delegates that many teachers found themselves thwarted by the pervasive philosophy that the over-riding purpose of education was to teach skills. One serious consequence of this had been the emphasis on functional learning. ‘You can see this clearly,’ she said, ‘in QCA’s thinking about the curriculum. The aim, they state, is to create “successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens”. But they say nothing at all about what children should be learning. It is indicative that the current specifications for an AS paper in English Language and Literature should include a railway timetable.’

The Prince of Wales’s 60th birthday produced blanket coverage in the media. A Guardian article quoted a ‘senior teachers’ leader’ as saying that the Prince of Wales did ‘absolutely sod all for state education’. The co-directors of the PTI, Chris Pope and Bernice McCabe, wrote a letter to the Guardian, printed on 15 November, pointing out that the PTI had provided training for 350 school teachers in the 2008 academic year and that, since 2002, The Prince of Wales had helped teachers in over 400 state secondary schools.