Dear Secretary of State,

I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment as Secretary of State for Education and Skills. I suspect it may not be the easiest of tasks, so I can only wish you well!
 I understand from your predecessor, Charles Clarke, that he has spoken to you about my most recent letter of 24th November, and specifically about the impact of my Education Summer School for teachers of English and History. This Programme, which involves up to ninety state school teachers each year, has been held over the past three years in Dartington, Devon, at Dunston, in Norfolk and at Buxton, in Derbyshire. I believe that they have added fresh inspiration to the national debate about the importance of English Literature and History in schools.

The Sumer Schools to date have been generally judged to be enormously successful with an extraordinary line-up of individuals who did not contribute as educationalists, but as experts in the fields of Literature and History. The teachers who attended in 2004 and previous years felt that they had been offered a new perspective on their subjects, rather than the theory of education.

Despite having made substantial progress, as you may be aware I remain convinced that the currect approaches to teaching and learning need to be challenged, something now acknowledged by some of the professional agencies themselves! The Schools have, in my view, provided ample evidence that teachers themselves are more than willing to look again at what they do and consider whether they are doing the best they can.

Building on the success of these Summer Schools, I am keen to provide the opportunity for a further either, or so, teachers of English and History to come together to engage with the questions from first principles as to why  teach English and History. Why are these subjects important? What should we be teaching in these subjects? How should we be teaching these subjects? In addition the 2005 course will include teachers who have previously attended as the first step in building an Education Summer School alumni body, referred to in the feasibility study which I understand you have seen.

I hesitate to write to you when I know how busy you are but I wonder if there is any chance that you could come and speak at this year’s Summer School when it will return at Dartington Hall, Devon. The School is scheduled to run from Tuesday 7th June to Friday 10th June inclusive and you would, of course, be very welcome to participate in all, or some of the sessions.

The Course Director, Bernice McCabe, who heads the hugely successful North London Collegiate School, would be delighted to provide you with further details, but I thought you might like to glance at the post-course brochure from Buxton, which I enclose for your information. I do so hope you will be able to attend as I am convinced that last year’s event offered something very beneficial for all those who participated.

Yours most sincerely,

Charles