ABSTRACT
Forestmead, like Tiverdale, was a comprehensive school with a broad and balanced intake that organized the timetable into 30 weekly lessons, each of 50 minutes length, with six lessons each day, four in the morning session, two in the afternoon. Forestmead had about 750 eleven to sixteen-year-old pupils on roll. I phoned and spoke to Brenda Whittacker, the senior deputy head, whom I had met on a cross-curricular course. She was interested and enthusiastic about the idea of a Learning Across the Curriculum survey and promised a response as soon as she had consulted Eric Bentley, the headteacher. Brenda quickly phoned back to confirm that the tracking could go ahead, dependent on the permission of teachers whose classes would be visited, and invited me to attend a staff briefing the following day to answer any queries the staff might have. With the teachers' consent, and that of the tracked pupil, the tracking could take place the week after half-term, the first week of March.
