A few months ago I posted a status on Facebook that my daughter’s school book bag contained a letter starting with the words “your child has expressed an interest in playing the recorder…”
I left the sentence hanging and unfinished to invite reaction.
Among the many responses – some parents said they planned to ignore the letter – came one from Gerald Haigh, my long-time colleague in education journalism. He spoke of his dismay that so many replies were dismissive of the recorder as a serious instrument, and spoke of how he had led recorder ensembles during his career as a teacher and how valuable musical experiences were to children.
Those of us who knew Gerald were aware of his great passion for music, and I explained that our reaction was less an aversion to the recorder, and more the amusement of our own childhood recollections of duff notes screeching round the school hall and rattling the window frames in assembly. He understood and saw the funny side.
I was secretly pleased that Gerald had spoken up in support of what was, for most children, a first experience of a musical instrument. I hoped it might make some of my friends who read his comments think about responding positively to that letter from school and supporting their children in their learning. I am positive that some of them did.
Gerald’s death from leukaemia, at the age of 80, early in April, is a loss to the education world in more ways than one. He was that relatively rare education journalist who had also spent time in the classroom as a teacher and as a head – nearly 30 years, in fact. There was no subject or theme he could not write about, whether it was school management, SATs or the use of technology in schools.
Gerald was born in the village of Tankersley, near Barnsley, where his father was a coal miner. He did national service with the Royal Signals in Singapore before enrolling at the Saltley Teacher Training College in Birmingham. By then, he had already met his future wife Sheila Butler, who came from the nearby West Midlands town of Darlaston. The couple married in 1961 and had two daughters.
Gerald later earned a BA in education at the Open University and a MEd from Birmingham University. He also received a licentiate diploma in singing from the Royal Academy of Music.
After completing his teacher training, Gerald worked in primary, secondary, middle and special schools in Coventry and Warwickshire. With the advent of the national curriculum in 1988, he decided to leave teaching and his headship of Henry Bellairs CE Middle School to become a writer and journalist.
Gerald’s writing career had begun years earlier, when he produced articles for the Times Educational Supplement and soon became a regular contributor. His ability to write compellingly and with humanity on a range of education issues soon attracted interest from other publications, including the FT and The Guardian and, regularly since 2013, SecEd. He had a gift for injecting humour and wit into his columns, regardless of how dry the subject, and his knowledge and expertise meant people sat up and took notice. He had a genuine understanding of pedagogy, and how schools work.
During his 50-year working career he also wrote 15 books on education management, was a school governor, and an external examiner for two teaching training institutions.
My own professional dealings with Gerald went back to the early 2000s when, as a commissioning editor at TES, I would invite him to write on a range of topics aimed at NQTs.
He didn’t need a brief because he always knew what bases to cover, and would often offer suggestions on topics that NQTs needed to know. I valued his input and judgement, and his professionalism (for his copy was always on time and exactly what was required).
Gerald continued to work right until the end. In recent months, writing for SecEd, he championed the cause of pupils with special needs. In November last year, he wrote movingly of a male relative who has Asperger’s and the need for others to accept young people with special needs for who they are.
He concluded the article saying: “Most importantly of all, and this applies to many children who start life carrying labels, everyone has to know that there is not some other, ‘mainstream’, version of him lurking inside waiting to be freed by a magic potion.”
Gerald’s interest in technology meant he was adept at social media. It was on Facebook that we learned, in early April, that he was slipping away. Dictating his words to one of his daughters he informed us “my life is coming to an end”.
He is survived by Sheila, their daughters, Liz and Ruth, and two grandchildren, George and Ruby.
- Dorothy Lepkowska is an education writer and journalist.
Gerald was one of the greats of UK education
By Pete Henshaw, editor, SecEd
No matter what the educational issue that Gerald Haigh turned his mind and his pen to, one invariably found themselves agreeing with him.
His reasoning, insights and experience were such that it was hard to dismiss or disprove his argument or advice. It was this ability to find or generate consensus over even the most fiercely argued or controversial educational issues that always struck me.
I have edited SecEd since 2006 and without a doubt Gerald’s contributions are among the very best articles that we have run in this time. Always engaging, always insightful, and always motivational – his writing will be sorely missed in the arena of British education.
I don’t ever recall telling Gerald what to write. His instinct for the important issues was second-to-none. He always seemed to know what issues were troubling teachers in schools, and he also always seemed to have a good grasp on what issues should be troubling our politicians. And he pulled no punches in offering the latter his advice.
I would strongly urge you, if you haven’t already, to take a look at some of Gerald’s writing. His books, as mentioned in the obituary here, or his articles in SecEd and the many other newspapers and magazines he contributed to.
I always looked forward to receiving Gerald’s articles as I never failed to learn something when reading them and I never failed to have my own views challenged or influenced for the better – and I know this holds true for so many of us in education. It is this legacy that Gerald leaves to teachers across the country.
- An archive of Gerald Haigh’s monthly blogs and best practice articles for SecEd, written from September 2013 until his most recent post in March of this year, can be found via http://bit.ly/1UojJ5B