IH in Shaftesbury Avenue - the Formative Years 1961-66
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Journal of education and development History - compiled by Brita Haycraft IH in Shaftesbury Avenue - the formative years 1961-66 By Brita Haycraft IH first opened in London in the Covent Garden area in 1959, as described in the article ‘IH in Covent Garden: then and now’ which also tells how the Haycrafts then managed to rent Shaftesbury Avenue and on what pre- carious terms. Many will remember those exuberant founding years. Its fundamental principles made IH and still apply. See Recollections sent by contemporaries on p. 7 40 SHAFTESBURY AVENUE was the first 1961 was the era of swinging London with decent premises John and I managed to rent for our espresso bars and the first pizzerias, pre-Beatles school. Not only was it very near Piccadilly Circus in a and Carnaby Street. Foreigners had always passed busy street lined with theatres, restaurants and pubs, here and now began to enter our International whose name few foreigners could pronoun ce, but also House at number 40. IH would indeed experience it was spacious. many firsts here1. Our Endell Street teachers and students happily trans- ferred to the new building, confirmed via a battered old address book. Some students now also worked in admin - Gisela did our accounts, ingeniously storing receipts and ledgers in the boxed-in old washbasins, Reception was manned by Marie-Claude and Muriel2 who also typed for John and often baby-sat for us in Blackheath. She brought us Marina, our beautiful Swiss au pair girl, the first to go from Beginner to Proficiency in one year. Ann Mills was persuaded to move her accom- modation bureau from Greek Street and an au pair agency moved in, presided over by Vera Traill who was Russian. We also offered translation services with my Transinterpreter agency. That first summer our teacher Colin Mac set up Inter 40, our first can- teen, soon followed by Salvatore3, who established his Italian restaurant, a favourite IH meeting place for years. With classes of English morning, afternoon and evening, our IH was thus quite well equipped for foreign students. And they arrived in plenty, lawyers and doctors from southern Europe, working as wait- ers in London to send money home, and girls from 40 Shaftesbury Avenue all of Europe staying in families as au pairs, everyone We suddenly had the whole second floor of quite happy in the liberal-minded London. an impressive corner building, large windows curving 1 See John’s description of the tatty interior in his Babel In London (1966) and round into Rupert Street with six ample classrooms Adventures of a Language Traveller (1998). and room for Reception, a library and a bar. The 2 East German Gisela Druschke, Marie-Claude from France and Muriel rent was ridiculously low and I remember our sense Teuscher from Geneva of wonder the first evening, watching the flickering 3 Salvatore Fugallo from Sicily is described by John in both Babel in London lights from three theatres opposite entering our class- and Adventures of a Language Traveller. Colin Mac (McMillan) came back after rooms. his last year at university but left in 1963 to start his own school in Lisbon, our first affiliate in Portugal. 1 Journal of education and development teachers? John decided the quickest way to find out was to offer a short training course and pick the best ones from it. Said and done. In April 1962 John put an ad in the New Statesman’s personal column and over a dozen enrolled. It was only a two-week course, but quite a gruelling two weeks. After three hours’ theory each morning, the trainees faced the afternoon practice teach- ing when they took turns teaching classes of real students, watched by their fellow trainees and tutor. Afterwards, tutor and trainees gath- ered to take each lesson to pieces, reminding me of Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson and then THE ATMOSPHERE continued to be friendly, wel- they trooped off to prepare tomorrow’s lesson. And so coming and non-hierarchical, everyone on first name terms, on, every day, for the two weeks! It worked. as in Cordoba. Ann Samson alone would keep to ‘Mr Hay- craft’ through the decades, delightfully also referring to John as ‘H’ or ‘Himself’. At the same time our IH was very particular about punctuality, for students as for teachers, with atten- dance lists and prompt correction of homework. Classes were never cancelled, standbys always ready to replace sick teachers. Students must never be let down. Teachers often stayed on in the school long after hours, preparing lessons, drifting into the bar or gathering in the Blue Posts down Rupert Street. Our student club expanded, with film shows and interesting speakers, and sometimes parties in the evening for teachers and students, our own friends turning up too. It was still the time of close dancing and jiving Was it that instant ‘post mortem’, carried out with the to a gramophone or our jazz playing teacher Martin Joseph unique British tact that spurred the trainees to do better would rustle up some band, with him at an upright piano the next day? Or the inventive teaching method, inevi- we’d acquired. One New Year’s Eve, as the party ended, we table with so many different nationalities in the class came out to find Shaftesbury Avenue deep in snow, hardly making translation impossible and only English could a soul about. No one had noticed the snow falling and now be used, even with beginner students? our old Morris wouldn’t start. Some kind passers-by helped The guinea pig foreign students were thrilled to get push it down towards the deserted Piccadilly Circus, making free extra classes. The students were asked how they tracks in the snow. Down Haymarket the engine jolted into liked the lessons and, delighted, they gave their opin- action. Off we trundled past the silent Trafalgar Square, over ions frankly but in a friendly way so the trainees didn’t Westminster Bridge and on to the Old Kent Road. It was a mind. They were also taken to the pub by the trainees midwinter midnight drive to remember and the old vehicle who soon lost their nervousness teaching them. A sort eventually made it up Blackheath Hill to the vast Heath, cov- of loyalty developed between trainees and students. ered in snow drifts. Trainees worried more about gaining approval from the tutor and they’d never miss a single session. At weekends, we arranged excursions to Stone- This type of course could probably only have started henge, Oxford or Stratford, our small children dandled in an English-speaking country with its simple ‘you’. It on students’ laps and Martin Joseph’s toddler cooed would have been hard to get it off the ground, having to over in her push chair. choose between a ‘tu’ or ‘vous’, ‘lei’,’voi’ or ‘loro’, or ne- gotiate a third person approach ‘Could Miss Bergman BIRTH OF TEACHER TRAINING – ask Mr. Brown ...” WITH DAILY TEACHING PRACTICE The teacher training brought immediate advantages The student numbers rose rapidly and more teachers to our school: the pick of the newly hatched teachers were needed – fast! But how to be sure they were good getting jobs with us where they already felt at home in 2 Journal of education and development our premises after having spent two weeks there. They time off even for two weeks. But the Ministry’s lofty reply continued sharing teaching ideas and sparking off new was that they didn’t give grants for a course lasting less ones. Ideas simply rained down, to be tested, enjoyed, than a year, adding in the same breath that they only improved, toyed with, discussed and developed, turn- certificated year-long courses. Adult education was ing the teachers’ room into a buzzing laboratory. outside their care and the only requirements were fire At the weekly teachers’ meeting new techniques or precautions and enough toilets on the premises. teaching tricks were always demo-ed and I’ll never for- get Sue Lake, a mini-skirted 19-yr-old teacher with a Of course, extra rooms were needed for our training pony tail, standing up with a box in her hand. ‘Guess course’s afternoon teaching practice, but as the early what’s in this box?’, she asked, shaking it about. We all afternoon was a slack period, some classrooms stood guessed ‘It could be a.., or it might be a... It can’t be empty then. Fortunately the floor above us was unoc- a... .’. ‘Super!’ she affirmed. ‘Just something I tried out cupied, so - with more courses starting - John took a for the conditional in my class.’ Teachers would sit in chance and rented it, thinking it would fill up with the on each other’s classes for inspiration which is still the coming summer flow of students. It did. norm in all IH affiliated schools. As a new and independent school with all our teach- Soon we also ran a 12-week evening part time TT ers newly employed, young, mostly unattached, we course for people with jobs during the day. It had the could allow ourselves to experiment, especially in a same appeal as the day course. workplace in the heart of famous old London in the swinging 60s! Ever since, IH has only employed trained teachers with the better grades, which inevitably upped the standard Wages and salaries were modest then, not least in of our classroom teaching. The others, even those few the teaching field. We ourselves lived on little, like stu- who failed, at once found jobs in the many other London dents, and took the minimum for our own keep and language schools.