* March 2 1929

Sir, - There is a type of teacher who has hitherto received rather less than justice - the man who has gone abroad to a teaching post and, as happens always sooner or later, wishes to return. In the past, when such a man has applied for a good post, he has not only not received the consideration he deserves, but has usually received no consideration at all.

The writer is now in Egypt

50 years ago

* March 5 1954

Nothing that their elders do to make schools more attractive ever seems to lessen the delight that children will take in a holiday. Indeed, the better the school the more zest a child can bring to his leisure. Which perhaps is as it should be. The Greeks at least saw a link between the two. Of all the holidays, however, which interrupt the school year, that which comes at half-term has merits of its own. It arrives on a sudden. There is about it none of the expectancy that sometimes brings the major breaks almost to anti-climax. It is never long enough to pall. A relief to the child who still finds his satchel a burden it offers a second wind to the pupil for whom the term is all eager industry. For some children half-term may mean luncheon at father’s club; for others it may mean bread and jam in the park; but for all there is the chance to be abroad in the streets at unaccustomed hours and the chance too, to pursue private and absorbing avocations.

25 years ago

An industrial dispute kept The TES out of production from November 30 1978 to November 16, 1979