The Newsletter of Homerton College, Cambridge & The Homerton Roll

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Homertonian Issue 15 | June 2011 contents CONGRATULATIONS TO EILEEN ALEXANDER College Principal’s Letter 3 College News 4 Research in Education 8 Student News 9 Retired Senior Members 20 Obituaries of former colleagues 21 Homerton Roll Keeper’s Letter 24 Homerton Roll Committee and 24 Membership Branch Contacts and News 25 Annual Roll Reunion 2011 28 The Homertonian is published once a year to keep members informed with College and alumni news. If you have any suggestions for the next issue, please contact the Development & Roll Office, Tel: 01223 747270 / 747280; Email: roll@homerton.cam.ac.uk All our publications are available as pdf files from the Homerton College website: www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/homertonians (an honorary member of the Homerton Retired Senior Members Association) on her 100TH BIRTHDAY on APRIL 2nd 2011 Homerton Retired Senior Members have been delighted to welcome Eileen to a number of their recent meetings, all of which she has thoroughly enjoyed – particularly the seminar on Homerton during the war. She also came to the Charter Celebration in June 2010. Eileen was appointed to the Homerton staff to teach physical education in 1937 by Miss Skillicorn. She was seconded to join the ATS from 1941–1945 and on her return to Homerton was apppointed Vice-Principal of the college. She speaks very warmly of Miss Skillicorn and feels that working with her was very significant in her subsequent career. Eileen was born in Staffordshire in 1911. The family moved to London and she attended North London Collegiate School. She trained as a physical education teacher at Dartford and took up her first teaching post at Felixstowe College for Girls in 1932. In 1935 she moved to work at Tamworth High School. (It was amazing to find that also on the staff for her first term was my mother – who was teaching French.) Her next job was at Homerton. She remembers her interview vividly – she had to take a gymnastics lesson in the gymnasium as Miss Skillicorn and others watched from the stage. Eileen left Homerton in1946 to become an HMI, a position she held until 1951 when she was appointed as Principal of Bedford College of Physical Education. In the 20 years that Eileen was at Bedford the size of the college grew from 150 to 450 students and her staff grew from 9 to 43. To accommodate this huge increase in student numbers she oversaw significant building projects as well as acquiring a good many houses for student residence. She played a leading role in the development of physical education during these years and was awarded the OBE in 1973 for this work. In addition Eileen was President of the Physical Education Association from 1959–1961, and was a member of the Sports Council and the CCPR Executive Committee. She received an Honorary Degree from De Montfort University in 1995. Please find us on facebook Thank you to all of our contributors and to those who supplied images. The views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily represent the views of Homerton College, Cambridge. Cover image: Holly Cracknell, Education Tripos Cover photograph: Stephen Bond Design and print management: H2 Associates, Cambridge. Eileen Alexander with student Eileen still lives in her own home and is determined to stay there as long as possible! She marked her birthday with a small lunch party at a favourite restaurant and did not want any great celebrations. The College wished her a very happy birthday and continued good heath to enjoy the rich variety of activities in which she is still involved. Margaret Whitehead Lecturer in PE at Homerton College 1964 –1980 2 Homertonian
principal’s letter Kate PrettY This time last year we received the Royal Charter in time for a photograph of that moment to feature in last year’s Homertonian. All of you will know that this was a long-awaited event and it was followed in the summer and autumn by a celebratory Garden Party in June, a visit from the Chancellor in July and by extra celebrations by former members of the College in late September at the Alumni Weekend, not to mention a champagne reception by members of the London Branch at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in November. Also in November I helped launch a Homerton group in California, will visit the Manchester Branch in April and hope to visit others later in 2011. So, more celebrations for me in the coming year and little chance for the College to rest on its laurels. (as we do now), and to mitigate, where we can, the effects of graduating with a large loan to repay. The University will be required to meet targets for the admission of students from state schools, and since admissions are managed by the colleges, Homerton, like the other undergraduate colleges, will have to continue to work hard to attract state school pupils. We do well at the moment but quite small changes in the actual number of students can have a disproportionate effect on percentage targets. We admit nearly 200 undergraduates a year so even a small variation in numbers – say six more or six fewer from state schools – will change our figures by 3%. Moreover, we do not know how next year’s applicants will be affected by high fees, nor whether they will change the balance of our intake in terms of subjects. We still admit the majority of the University’s PGCE students and many of them studied with us as undergraduates. The Government has very recently announced a cut in teacher training numbers, even at Cambridge with its perfect OFSTED score, and also announced a cut in teacher-training bursaries, only funding students training to teach in the sciences and modern languages. We do not know the effect of this on either PGCE numbers for Homerton or on the future of university-based training, where, after this year, future trainees will face an expensive training year. It will be some years before we shall see the full effect on recruitment to the profession and there is some perversity, or perhaps just normal economy, in the Government’s decision that apprenticeshipbased models are preferable to universitybased training despite OFSTED’s clear view that the latter are more effective and usually better quality. Inevitably, I take the view that professional training is a matter for partnerships between university departments and schools, but this is not the cheapest option. Therefore, this is a good time for us to launch our Charter Campaign with its emphasis on raising funds for student hardship to allow all our junior members to take full opportunity of their time at Cambridge. I am committed to raising funds for this purpose, which seems to me to be the essence of our work as an educational charity. We must admit the best students, teach, maintain and nurture them while they are with us, and send them out from Homerton and Cambridge fully prepared for the world which awaits them. I just wish I could understand better what that will be like. On top of these broad aims, as an archaeologist, I have one very small aim, which is to get Stonehenge in the new national curriculum for History! I shall report on both large and small next year. Dr Kate Pretty March 2011 Universities, like other parts of the public sector, are facing cuts, and with cuts, redundancies. Cambridge has been relatively protected thus far and as a new college we share the fate and protection of Cambridge as part of the collegiate university. Our charter application has been timely – a year later and we might have met more resistance to being accepted as a new college. As I write, Cambridge has yet to finally decide on a fee level for undergraduates but we are likely to charge £9,000 a year, with a bundle of measures to assist students who need financial help Teacher training couldn’t be any better, says Ofsted The Faculty of Education’s teacher training provision has scored the top rating of ‘outstanding’ in every one of 22 inspection criteria. Inspectors from Ofsted offered no recommendations for improvement. Mike Younger, a College Fellow and the then Head of the faculty, said, “ The Faculty of Education is delighted to report the outcomes of the recent Ofsted inspection of its early years/primary and secondary PGCE initial teacher training provision. Inspectors concluded that the course was outstanding, and uniquely offered no recommendations for consideration or further action. This is a remarkable outcome and testimony to the quality of the partnership between the faculty and local schools.” Homerton College 3
Page 1: Homertonian The Newsletter of Homer
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Page 7 and 8: HOMERTON: The Evolution of a Cambri
Page 9 and 10: student news HOMERTON OLD BOYS REUN
Page 11 and 12: Left and opposite page Phoebe Haine
Page 13 and 14: HOMERTON COLLEGE BOAT CLUB 2010 to
Page 15 and 16: HOMERTON COLLEGE MUSIC SOCIETY The
Page 17 and 18: HIV/AIDS EDUCATION, GHANA Thanks to
Page 19 and 20: MCR The MCR has had an exciting yea
Page 21 and 22: OBITUARIES OF FORMER COLLEAGUES Por
Page 23 and 24: Joyce was a gifted student and a sc
Page 25 and 26: Our database of College members is
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