The National Education Museum

22/07/2025

Brilliant, stimulating and thought provoking - Mick Waters' Fred Jarvis Memorial Lecture 2025 now available to be viewed on YouTube and accessible through this link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toJnrztF8oo

Please consider a donation to the project to establish a national museum dedicated to education in England and Wales. Donations can be made through PayPal from the “Support” page of the Museum’s website or simply by bank transfer. For details email [email protected].

Education, Mick Waters, Fred Jarvis, Memorial Lecture, Portsmouth. On 21st June 2025 Professor Mick Waters gave the third Fred Jarvis Memorial Lecture, organ...

18/06/2025

Please support the National Education Museum's Events Crowdfunder appeal by visiting -

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/educate-enlighten-entertain-support-our-events

With the Fred Jarvis Memorial Lecture 2025 happening soon, an event in October to celebrate the life of John Pounds, inspiration for the Ragged Schools Movement, and a major event in preparation for Lutterworth, we're making great progress towards our goal of a great national museum dedicated to education. It really is worth supporting.

We mean to establish a national museum dedicated to education in England and Wales beginning with an events programme to raise support.

18/02/2025

The NEM's Fred Jarvis Memorial Lecture 2025 "A different future for schooling" to be given by Professor Mick Waters on 21 June 2025 at Bush House, King's College, London.

Email: [email protected] to register interest in attending.

Visit https://www.youtube.com/ to view the 2023 and 2024 lectures.

Jean Roberts New Visions for Education Group National Education Union VICTORIOUS FESTIVAL (Chat, Banter and Information) Malcolm Peppiatt Tony Brockman

20/11/2024

You could say No, but it’s not the right answer.

The National Education Museum needs support from people who, like us, care about education. It’s a project to put right something that is missing from our national heritage record and establish a new centre to inform and assist education policy development.

Please support the project by liking and sharing this post.

We need to put right a wrong. Many other countries have national museums dedicated to education and it is wrong that there is not one for England and Wales. The National Education Museum Project ne…

19/11/2024

As trustees of the National Education Museum project we get asked “Why do we need this museum?”

We could start with “Because we haven’t got one” but that’s not good enough. Well of course it will entertain, and it will provide a centre for those who wish to research the history of education.

But that’s not an answer either.

It’s because we really do need one. Far too much of the discourse on education policy is about the “now” and “the future”. There is far too little knowledge and understanding of where we have been, of what has been successful and what has failed, of what we should value and what we should discard.

A National Education Museum for England and Wales can change that - as we educate, enlighten and entertain.

Support us, join us, become a Founder Patron.

The National Education Museum’s Founder Patron scheme enables 100 donors to play a crucial role in the development of this project and be part of its history. We have a special scheme ai…

21/10/2024

On this day, 21st October, in 1966 a colliery spoil tip, loosened by heavy rain feeding springs under the tip, slid down a hillside above the Welsh village of Aberfan near Merthyr Tydfil tragically engulfing the Pantglas Junior School where lessons had just begun. A subsequent official enquiry placed the blame squared on the National Coal Board and nine of its employees.

The tragedy became known as the Aberfan disaster. Its consequences were wide ranging. They set in train a process which led eventually to the Heath and Safety at Work Act 1974.

18/10/2024

On 18th October 1976 the then Prime Minister James Callaghan gave a speech at Ruskin College in Oxford calling for a 'Great Debate' about education and advocating that a new balance must be found between education focused on the individual and education which serve the interests of the national economy. The still controversial speech later inspired the adoption of National Curriculums for England and for Wales and many structural changes in the national education system.

For more about these changes visit the Museum's website at www.nationaleducationmuseum.uk for the link to the Fred Jarvis Memorial Lecture given by Baroness Estelle Morris in June of this year.

16/10/2024

On this day 16th October in 1958 Britain's most popular children's television programme 'Blue Peter' was first broadcast by the BBC.

Earn your Blue Peter badge and see where you can go for free. Get creative with cookery, arts and crafts, enter competitions, play free games, quizzes, and watch exclusive Joel, Abby, Shini and Henry the dog video clips. Blue Peter is live on Friday at 5:00pm on CBBC and BBC iPlayer, join in with th...

15/10/2024

On 15th October 1964 a Labour Government was elected with a manifesto commitment anticipating “a revolution in our educational system”. The manifesto promised to get rid of the segregation of children into separate schools caused by 11-plus selection, to reorganise secondary education on comprehensive lines and to set up an educational trust to advise on the best way of integrating the public schools into the state system of education.

However the new government came out of the election with only a four seat majority. The promises were obviously not wholly fulfilled.

14/10/2024

14th October 1066 - the Norman Conquest began with the victory of Duke William of Normandy over King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. A milestone event for the history curriculum.

12/10/2024

This day in education history - 12th October 2010, publication of the controversial Browne report “Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education” recommending the removal of the cap on tuition fees charged by universities.

11/10/2024

11th October - the National Education Museum is marking the United Nations International Day of the Girl Child and celebrating girls’ equal right to education in the U.K.