Channel Tunnel Curriculum Development (5-19) Project
April 1987 – August 1995
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Initially as a secondment from my school to Kent County Council Education, and then managed by Kent Curriculum Services Agency, I was based at the Eurotunnel Exhibition Centre, Folkestone. It was seen as an important partnership between the local authority and the company. Read more >
There was national and international interest in the Curriculum Development Project as befitted the enormity of the construction of the Channel tunnel itself. In this article in the Times Education Supplement I was quoted as saying “It’s only a transport link, after all.”
The ‘Channel Tunnel Business’ booklet opposite is representative of the twenty-three learning resources published by this educational collaboration and is still available as shown. One of the items published was a short video ‘An Introduction to the Channel Tunnel’ compiled from 45 source-tapes. We also had access to a huge photographic library contracted to QA Photos, Hythe and all manner of technical documentation.
During the construction period the Exhibition Centre had an education room for workshops and the Centre was visited by thousands of students of all ages. The inauguration of the Channel tunnel on 6 May 1994 was a huge event and was accompanied by a two-week community festival.
There was a great team to work with at the Exhibition Centre and the Eurotunnel public affairs team managed by Tony Berkeley. The photo is taken in front of the tunnel boring machine which had done it’s work of tunnelling from Shakespeare Cliff near Dover back towards Folkestone. Too many to mention them all, but hero colleagues include Lucinda Campbell-Gray, Sarah McCullough, Helen Curtis and Penny Smith.
Channel Tunnel Business
‘Channel Tunnel Business’ was written by teachers in Kent secondary schools and “has been designed as a resource to support the teaching of business studies and economics. Suitable for GCSE and GNVQ level students, the approach involves problem-solving and decision making in the fields of the company mission, costs and benefits, the people concerned in running the business and making it pay. A4, 66 pages, full colour.” £3.95 www.channeltunnel.co.uk
See another of the publications…
Ashford’s Growth: Problems and Prospects >
Faraday Lecture
I was involved in the preparation of the prestigious Faraday Lecture series run by the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) and sponsored by Eurotunnel. There was a large team behind the scenes and two colleagues, Simon Storer and Patrice Bacon, enacted the presentation around the country.
At the end of this period I spent an interesting term shadowing a KCSA School Development Consultant and trained for headteacher appraisal.
For what happened next, career-wise, see Video Production >
and blogpost on Channel Tunnel Breakthrough >
Update June 2014
Twenty years on
There is a short and readable review of the twenty-year anniversary of the Channel tunnel by Christian Wolmar, called “An engineering succes but not a European game-changer” here >