Saturday / Sunday June 16 – 17th, 2012 9.30 a.m. – 4.30 p.m. West Midlands Mantle of the Expert Network presents – DOROTHY HEATHCOTE’S LEGACY: A special two-day event, involving a range of practitioners who will demonstrate the continuing influence of Dorothy Heathcote’s work in their current practice and thinking.

Alfie Kohn outlines some of the general assumptions underlying standards-driven education and advocates an approach to education that contextualises learning within meaningful projects and creates a curriculum not academic but intellectual.

An audio interview on Youtube with John Holt who discusses the ‘return to basics’ movement in American education in the early 1980s. Very interesting analysis of schools and education at the time and the American government’s review which advocated a concentration on literacy, numeracy and testing to drive up standards.

These photographs are from the Heathcote Archive at Manchester University and show Dorothy working with students and adults in the UK, USA and New Zealand during the 1970′s and 80′s. They wonderfully capture her great energy, creativity and commitment to making learning engaging, meaningful and enjoyable. Click here to see the full collection on Flickr.

Over the years mantleoftheexpert.com has collected and uploaded hundreds of articles, research papers and blogs. Many of these have been written specially for publication on the website, others have been contributions from other publications, periodicals and websites, and still others came to light while we were searching the Heathcote Archive in the summer of 2009…

“Teacher and Role – A drama teaching partnership” by Chris Lawrence was first published in the NATD journal in 1980. At the time Lawrence was an advisory drama teacher at Benwell Drama centre, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The article describes Lawrence’s experience of working as an adult-in-role with Dorothy Heathcote and a group of children in a special school in 1972…

Redbridge Drama Centre Weds 13th June 2012 – In the new era of curriculum innovations it is clear the new standards will focus on the motivation and engagement of learners in the care of gifted teachers.
This one-day conference run by nationally recognised practitioners will offer a range of practical workshops and key-note speeches which will take a ʻfresh lookʼ at current trends, long-established skills and offer teachers a range of exciting teaching methods and materials.

From the Spring term 2012 we will be holding termly Study Days for Mantle of the Expert at Woodrow First School. These days will give visitors the opportunity to:
- observe best practice in challenging circumstances
- work with our practitioners
- see our approach to planning and assessment
- discuss the challenge of leadership
March 12th now available

Half Day Study Visits Available at Pound Hill Infant School , Crawley, West Sussex
Date: 26/06/2012