The Times Educational Supplement got a new editor on the day Britain woke up to a new government. Caroline St John-Brooks, who took over from Patricia Rowan on May 1, wants to see the paper become “the key forum for debate on educational issues, which will have a very high priority under the new Government”.
“I would also like it to reflect the voice of teachers at the chalkface, who have been so neglected in recent years,” she says.
Her own education took place in both private and state schools, leading to a degree in English at Trinity College, Dublin. It was during her last year at university that she became fascinated by education, in particular “how a society decides what aspects of the culture it wants to pass on to the younger generation, and how that can best be achieved”.
She went on to do an MA in education at the University of Ulster, and a PhD at Bristol University.
Her career was launched with an article in the Irish Times about how new technology could help children with special needs. From 1979 to 1987, she was education correspondent at New Society, before becoming editor of “Education Forum” at the Sunday Times and editing Examplan, a series designed to help pupils through the new GCSEs.
She became assistant editor on The TES in 1991, launching the national curriculum “Updates”, before moving to Paris as an educational researcher for the Organisation for European Co-operation and Development in 1994.
At the OECD she ran a series of projects to find out what works in educational innovation in different societies around the world.
Caroline has two children, both of whom have been educated in London comprehensives, and she has also served as a school governor.
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