Should children of “11-plus” be transferred to separate schools for post-primary education, or be retained in the existing schools for a reorganized course? The Hadow Report emphasized the desirability of a definite break between the two epochs, while not excluding the second possibility...The educational principle involved-what is best for the child-is not easy to determine...The case for transference is based on the doubt whether the English primary schools can handle adolescents as successfully as a new type of institution which deliberately cuts itself off from the elementary school tradition.

50 years ago May 29, 1953

Nowadays the stock of culture is so high that Mr RE Montgomery could assume general agreement when, in his address to the National Association of Head teachers, he said that pupils should be put in touch with what was first class in books, music and art. It is admirable that everyone should have the chance to acquire a taste for the great masters; nevertheless no educationists can hope that the majority of children will leave school appreciating and demanding the best. . . People do not always love the highest when they see it; and although artistic masterpieces should be accessible to all children, it is equally important that they learn the difference between second best and fourth rate.

25 years ago June 2, 1978

A long, hot weekend in Brighton must have been a welcome change for Britain’s heads to let off steam. Nowadays they feel threatened on all the vital issues like pay, power and prestige. But the National Association of Head Teachers hit back through the headlines at their annual conference, and very successfully too, on everything from child pornography to pound;5 a day payments for lunch hour duties.