| StorageSite | UCL Institute of Education |
| Description | This file contains correspondence between Simon and Caroline Benn, and between Simon and Norman Morris. Caroline Benn had collaborated with Simon on the publication 'Half Way There' (1970). Morris was a member and leader of Manchester City Council and a Lecturer in the Department of Education at Manchester University.
Comprises:
1. Simon's notes for volume four 'Education and the Social Order 1940-1990', outlining correspondence between Simon and Morris
2. Notes on correspondence between Simon and Morris regarding Crosland's decision to request rather than require authorities to reorganise along comprehensive lines in Circular 10/65
3. Notes on 'Comprehensive Education Revisited. The Politics of Comprehensive Reorganisation; a retrospective analysis'. This was written for teaching purposes but there is no indication of when it was delivered
4. Letter dated 23 July 1989 to Caroline Benn regarding points arising in Chapter VI of Volume IV
5. Reply to the above letter by Caroline Benn dated 1 September 1989 regarding misgivings about comprehensive schools, particularly on the report by Crosland
6. Letter from Morris dated 24 May 1989
7. Letter to Morris from Simon dated 9 September 1989
8. Letter to Morris dated 3 July 1989 with reference to Chapter 10 in relation to Morris' involvement in Greater Manchester Council's scheme to buy places in independent schools
9. Extracts from the report of the Labour Party Conference of 1963
10. Letter from Simon to Morris dated 26 January 1990 in reply to Morris' letter of 8 December 1989
11. Letter from Simon to Morris dated 4 December 1989 enclosing two pages of Edward Short's memoirs recalling the Cabinet's refusal to support Michael Stewart's desire to legislate in favour of comprehensive reforms
12. Letter from Morris to Simon dated 17 October 1989 carefully analysing the issues over Circular 10/65 regarding "requiring" not "requesting"
13. Letter from Simon to Morris dated 25 May 1990 with Morris' reply dated [27] May 1990
14. Letter from Simon to Morris dated 9 October 1989 and Morris' reply referring to a 1958 Working Group of the Labour Party which commissioned a nation-wide poll into the public's attitude on secondary school organisation. The public, including Labour Party members, were overwhelmingly opposed to any change to comprehensive education. The poll was never published. |