Pewterers' Hall proved a splendid venue for this series of eight seminars. We were grateful to Freeman Lyn Williams, Pewterer, for the introduction, a preferential rate and invaluable help with the refreshments, and to Pearson for its generous sponsorship of the Franklin Lecture, which heralded the theme of Standards, and the seminars that followed.

Consultation by email with members about the proposed series yielded many helpful suggestions, several of them followed up, and a lack of consensus over whether the better time to hold them was early morning or 'twilight'. The majority of respondents, especially those in full-time employment, preferred the latter, but the former also had its staunch proponents. So, in a typically British spirit of compromise, four were held in the morning and four in the evening. All attracted reasonable numbers, and numbers topped thirty on three occasions.

The programme (attached) ranged from early years to higher education, as well as taking in professional standards for teachers. The series was extremely fortunate in the quality of its speakers, and gratitude is due to the various representatives of specialist arms of government (Ofqual, QAA, TDA, Ofsted), who were refreshingly open and unbureaucratic in their presentation, and stimulated wide-ranging debate. The great variety of interest and perspectives which the Guild brings to such occasions made for fascinating and stimulating discussion. It was good to have these 'official' views counterbalanced by lively and 'grass-roots' contributions from practitioners, as well as research inputs which linked well to the excellent previous series, not least through the admirable overview presented by Freeman Professor David Hopkins in the opening seminar. Thanks are especially due to Edexcel's Chief Executive, Freeman Jerry Jarvis, representing our sponsors, as well as to Assistant Peter Williams, whose recent CBE deserves celebration. Also, Assistant Lis Goodwin once again did a magnificent job in ensuring that we have a good record of proceedings.

We were pleased to welcome a number of potential Freemen, some of whom have now become actual Freemen and others are in the pipeline. In addition, the efforts of Press Officer George Turnbull led to considerable interest from the Press: journalists participated in the discussions and in several cases subsequently wrote pieces for their newspapers and journals: all this helps to raise the profile of the Guild.

There were many warm comments of appreciation for the seminars, and thanks were expressed to the Master for his efforts in securing so stimulating a set of speakers.

Pamela Taylor

GUILD OF EDUCATORS
SEMINAR SEASON 2008-2009

STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
Sponsored by Pearson

By kind permission of the Master and Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Pewterers

---