John Sharp

Series

Series Name

The Pacemakers

Issue

Issue No.

10

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1John Sharp

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

COI synopsis: 1970 sees the centenary of the State education system in Britain. A hundred years ago Members of Britain’s Parliament became worried that earlier voting reform laws would give the vote to all manner of "ill instructed and illiterate voters." So the first steps were taken towards compulsory, free education for all. Today in Britain we’ve gone a long way. In this film we take a look at some of the ideas underlying our educational system through John Sharp, headmaster of a ‘comprehensive’ school in north west Britain. These are schools which will set the pattern for the future; they take all the children of all abilities from a complete district. Each school must be equipped and organised to adjust itself to any changes in a child’s progress or aptitude. Today, the school adjusts to the child, and not the other way around. Sharp has been headmaster of Wyndham Comprehensive since the school first opened some six years ago. An avowed progressive, his ideas have not always been popular in Egremont, an isolated township in the English Lake district which had been accustomed to a more authoritarian rigid style of schoolmastering where cane came first, and questions afterwards. In quick succession Sharp abolished cups, canes, prizes, speech days, all of the trapping of what was once regarded as a good school. In this film John Sharp looks both at his own school, and the English educational system, and gives his views on some of the major issues facing a modern educationalist. Are schools becoming too examination conscious? Which examinations, if any, are an adequate guide to childs performance? Are they teaching the right subjects, in the right way? Sharp says "What I should like to do would be to turn out every year a whole series of individuals." The state system has become big in order to adapt itself around individuals, the smallest unit of all, and the most important. John Sharp is in the van of those teachers who see that the point of education is to be about people.

Keywords

Education and training

Written sources

COI Catalogue Cards [BFI National Archive]
Viewing Copy - BFI National Archive
COI Microfilm Roll 16 [BFI National Archive]   Used for synopsis

COI Reference

MI 1461/10

Credits:

Sponsor

Central Office of Information (COI)

Sponsor

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

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