Robin Pedley 1914-1988
Comprehensive Pioneer
Robin Pedley probably had more influence in winning popular support for comprehensive education than arty other single individual. This was not only because he had a firm grasp of the realities of educational administration, and of the arguments supporting the move, but because he was able to express himself in simple straightforward language which gave his writings a wide appeal. Robin's Penguin Original, The Comprehensive School, first published in 1963, went through five reprints and new editions by 1969, and several more thereafter. It was this book which brought the idea of comprehensive education very effectively before the general public and was certainly the most influential on this topic ever written. The movement as a whole owes a great debt to Robin for its production at such a crucial moment (1963, two years before the famous Circular 10/65) and for keeping it up to date through later editions in the 60s and 70s.
Robin was a colleague of mine at the University of Leicester, so 1 knew him rather well. Indeed I always remember his extreme enthusiasm at my appointment, in 1950, to the Department of Education there. At our initial meeting we quickly realised we were on the same wavelength — both already strong supporters of comprehensive education (at that time by no means a popular stance in universities, which had close links with grammar schools). From that point we developed a partnership which lasted for 13 years — to 1963 when Robin left to take up a post at Exeter..
Robin came from a remarkable family, the father being a highly skilled stonemason. All the children went to the local village primary school. One of his brothers became a chief education officer, another held a leading position in the police, a third became a distinguished agricultural expert. Robin himself had done well at university (Durham) and, as a conscientious objector during the war, had taught history at a Quaker school in Yorkshire. He was in all respects a true Yorkshireman, being also an almost obsessive cricketer. He was appointed at Leicester in 1947 — three years before I arrived, when the Education Department was re-founded after the war.
The start of the campaign
Already in the late 1940s Robin rejected the tripartite (selective) system then being imposed throughout the country by the Labour government, seeking instead a comprehensive solution. But what was original in Robin's thinking was the two-tier idea with a break at 14 or 15. This has several advantages. It would allow smaller schools than the large 11–18 comprehensives planned by London and other authorities. It could also allow a smoother transition since huge new schools would not have to be built and therefore permitted a more rapid transition. Finally it would allow students in the upper schools (14/15-18) to be treated in a more mature manner as befitted their years.
Robin's carefully worked out educational arguments for this solution made a big impact on local authorities throughout the country. Something like it was, of course developed in Leicestershire after 1958. It was no accident that this was the first English authority completely to reorganise their system on these lines, finally successfully abolishing the 11+ in 1969.
Robin's first articles on this issue were published in 1949 (in the local authority journal Education). In 1954 the Councils and Education Press (Association of Education Committees) published Comprehensive Schools Today where Robin's ideas were put forward accompanied by commentaries from leading educationalists (Harold Dench, Eric James) and especially from the local authority world, then much more powerful than it is today (Harold Shearman, W.P . Alexander, etc). At this time, though the selective system still reigned supreme, Robin was subverting it from below, being in strong demand from local authorities to lecture on his approach — a job he undertook willingly and with zest.
But at this time there were still very few comprehensive schools in existence. The Tory government. in power for 13 years (1951-64) consistently refused to allow local authorities to establish them, though with some exceptions (London, Coventry) but the expense of building huge 11-18 schools held up development even in these areas. At this point (1954) Robin and I set out to visit all the comprehensive schools actually, in existence. Most were in off-shore islands — four in Anglesey, four more in the Isle of Man, two in Middlesex, one in Walsall, one at Windermere and one more in the West Riding (Calder Valley), though we also visited several of London's "interim" comprehensives established in the late 40s (not "genuinely" comprehensive).
Grassroots support
Comprehensive Schools Today had a big impact in the right place — among professionals and particularly local authorities, now increasingly searching for a solution to the divided system. But it was not read widely outside these groups. However in 1956 Robin published a major book, Comprehensive Education, a New Approach., which received very wide publicity indeed. Here Robin set out his total approach to the existing "crisis in education" as he put it, and to the solution as he saw it, setting out a "practical policy" to make the change. Although the government at that time continued fully to support the selective system, the grassroots movement for change was now having a considerable impact. Robin's book put comprehensive education well and truly on the map.
This is the background to the foundation of Forum in the autumn of 1958 — still seven full years before the issue of Circular 10/65. Naturally, as a colleague of Robin's at Leicester, I had worked closely with him and, in a smaller way, was engaged also on making the case for comprehensive education. We felt that what was needed was a journal devoted specifically to encouraging the movement both towards comprehensive secondary education and to modifying the rigid techniques of streaming then general in all primary schools large enough to use this procedure. Jack Walton, then teaching at Leicestershire, joined us to launch Forum and form the partnership (PSW Educational Publications) which formed its legal basis (PSW = Pedley/Simon/Walton). Robin and I acted as joint editors of the journal until, in 1963, he moved to Exeter as Director of the Institute of Education there.
The journal flourished. Although never attaining a mass circulation (such was never the intention) it immediately gained a solid readership and subscription list and has maintained these ever since. Partnership with Robin was a delight. There were never any differences on the basic educational issues the journal dealt with and, from the first, we had the support of many others in an Editorial Board which met regularly for planning and discussion (as it still does). Those involved in Forum were a group of like-minded people covering primary and secondary education (and administration) who sought to reflect the movement as it developed and to contribute to clarification of emerging issues and problems. Robin was prominent, as might be expected, in every aspect of this development.
Comprehensive revolution
1963, as mentioned at the start of this article, saw the publication of Robin's path-breaking Penguin Original, The Comprehensive School. This remained in print throughout the 1960s and 70s and must have sold tens of thousands of copies, since this was the period the comprehensive revolution took hold and swept the country — even Thatcher, as Secretary of State for Education (1970-1974 ) was unable to stem this "rollercoaster" as she put it, though she did successfully insert several hefty spanners into the works. This was really Robin's most effective contribution, as the book was widely read among the general public and certainly eased the way to popular acceptance of comprehensive policy.
Later, Robin turned his attention to higher education, publishing Towards the Comprehensive University in 1978. This was also a pioneering book, but circumstances had changed — the decade of contraction that hit the universities after 1979 hardly allowed for forward thinking as presented there.
Robin was the leading figure in what might be called the heroic period of comprehensive education — the 1950s and early 60s. Future historians will have to take his contribution into account. During this whole period (1950-63) Robin was at Leicester and I was privileged to be his colleague. Moving then to Exeter he was later joined by Jack Walton who had been head of a Dorset comprehensive (Beaminster). Later Robin moved to Southampton University as Professor of Education, where he acted as Dean and Head of the Education Department.
Contracting Alzheimer's, Robin sadly died in November 1988, aged 74. He is survived by his wife Lesley and his two children, one of whom is teaching at Hull. The Dictionary of National Biography carries an entry on him. His was certainly a life for education and it is good that his contribution should be recalled. New Labour, which appears totally ignorant of the values underlying the comprehensive movement, might well take note of Robin's contribution and endeavour to emulate it.
Brian Simon