ABSTRACT
The small working-class Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent would appear to be, at first sight, an unlikely pioneer of educational innovation. Formed from an alliance of the six towns of Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Fenton, Longton and Stoke, located on the North Staffordshire coalfield, the city has been the home of the English pottery industry since the eighteenth century. A savage editorial by the newspaper, entitled 'Is this journey necessary?' observed that the Education Committee 'have shown themselves to be insensitive to local public and professional criticism of the pattern of educational reorganisation which they are imposing on the city'. Recommendations regarding aspects of school design, assessment, pastoral care and timetabling were also included, and, as an English Local Education Authority document from the early 1960s, American Journey is uniquely forward-looking. In fact, the Stoke-on-Trent Education Committee was to anticipate the 1967 Plowden recommendation that 8 and 12 should be the ages of transfer in their revised proposals of November 1966.
