The Newsletter of Homerton College, Cambridge & The Homerton Roll

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