Colleagues
Peter Downes OBE
Languages teacher, Headteacher, Past President of the Association for Language Learning, Past President of the Secondary Heads Association, Project Director for 'Discovering Language'
I first met Eric in 1964 at the Joint Matriculation Board in Manchester. At the time he was Headmaster of Calday Grange Grammar School and I was a very young teacher of French at Manchester Grammar School. What brought us together was our shared interest in reforming the way French was tested at O Level. The 'Lancashire and Cheshire Syllabus', as it was known, was a forerunner of the many subsequent improvements in language testing, putting greater emphasis on oral fluency and enabling teachers to make language teaching more stimulating.
Although I never worked with him in any close professional capacity, I obviously knew him and met him on many occasions over the following decades. His contributions to the dozens of conferences he attended were always measured, well-argued, unflamboyant and extremely persuasive. I always felt it was a privilege to hear him speak.
My next major link with him was through 'Language Awareness'. To some extent independently, he and I were working in the 1970s on the idea that language teaching should not just be about achieving technical mastery of a particular language but also about young people gaining a greater understanding of the phenomenon of language, what we came to call 'language awareness'. He directed a series of publications with Cambridge University Press and at the same time, Richard Aplin and his colleagues at the Henry Box School in Witney (where I was Head at the time) produced 'Introduction to Language', published by Hodder and Stoughton. Throughout the 1980s this approach attracted a lot of interest and was only stifled by the introduction of the national curriculum which strait-jacketed teachers into a more conventional linear language methodology. A new opportunity arose to promote language awareness when the government decided that languages should be taught in the primary school. Since 2004, supported by a grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and working under the aegis of the Association for School and College Leaders, I have been developing materials and encouraging primary schools to teach pupils the basics of several languages so as to give them a good foundation for future language learning in the secondary school, whichever language they decide to learn. I know that Eric was delighted that this project was taking place and he gave it his 'blessing', as it were, in one of the last articles he wrote for modern languages journals. I intend to continue for as long as I can to promote 'multi-lingual language awareness' (Discovering Language), partly because I feel it is the best way forward for languages in 21st century UK and partly as tribute to the pioneering and inspiring work of Eric Hawkins in this area.
I thank Eric for being a role model in two ways that have greatly influenced my professional life: the first, from our earliest meeting, was that you could be a Headteacher and still have an active interest in your specialist subject. I followed that example throughout my 21 years of headship in Witney and later at Hinchingbrooke School in Huntingdon. The second way in which Eric is my role model is that he never lost his interest in his specialist field long after his formal retirement. Throughout his 70s, 80s and even into his early 90s, he was still intellectually active, committed and keen to be thinking ahead. If only I could manage that too!
Many other contributors will speak of his wide-ranging contribution to so many aspects of education and knew him more closely than I did, but I want to put on record my thanks to him for what he meant to me, professionally and personally.