John Wilkinson: a lifetime in education

Introducing John

John trained as a primary school teacher at St John’s College York (1963-66). In 2019, he applied for and was awarded an honorary BEd in recognition of the academic rigour of his original qualification. He gained an Advanced Post Graduate Diploma in Education 3-13 at Cambridge and a Master of Arts degree in applied educational research at the University of East Anglia.

After completing his course with us, John successfully taught in a variety of primary schools in both rural and urban areas. Over the years, John taught, or was responsible for:

• English
• Music
• Physical education
• Religious education
• Science
• Environmental education

John quickly progressed in his career, successfully becoming a Headteacher at 28. Over the years, John was an acting head in a small Fenland school, a head of a junior school in Newmarket, and as head of an inner city primary school in Cambridge.

But John didn’t just teach, he also engaged in and applied research to his practice. This included in early years, literacy development, behavioural management, English as a second language and family learning. He also established a community nursery in partnership with his parents which he taught in for three years!

John has also worked to develop teaching itself. During his long career in education, he worked for two years as a curriculum development assistant with Cambridgeshire LEA, led a teachers’ centre and spent 8 years tutoring and lecturing part time at Cambridge University Institute of Education.

Later career

In December 2004, John retired from Hampshire County Council after dedicating his career to education. In his later career, John worked as a Principal Primary Education Inspector, Head of Educational Policy and latterly as Assistant Chief Education Officer (Lifelong Learning). These jobs all involved monitoring, evaluating, inspecting and leading in all facets of curriculum and management work in primary schools.

During John’s later career he:

• led County reviews on literacy, Special Educational Needs and Early Years
• conducted major policy developments on a range of issues, including National Curriculum implementation
• led OFTSED inspection teams
• managed a national literacy project and developed a lifelong learning policy for the county council
• instigated the basic skills quality mark in Hampshire primary schools
• worked with colleges and universities to train teachers

As the Head of Policy for Education in Hampshire, John oversaw and led many important projects, including implementing the infant class size plan. For 15 years he was also the educational consultant to architects designing primary schools across Hampshire!

There are parts of my journey since leaving York which I could not have achieved without the solid and inspiring start from St John’s.

Service to education – even in retirement!

In 2005, John was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to local and national education.

After retiring, John decided to continue his work in education, but this time much further afield! In 2006, he became a founding Trustee and Secretary of the Hampshire based charity “Education Uganda” and since 2007 has visited Uganda eight times with the charity.

Education Uganda works to train, promote and aid schools in the Kasese District of western Uganda by training teachers, fundraising for educational materials and securing funding for important projects. Since 2007 John has supported the charity by:

• conducting teacher training on the use of slates
• helped raise funds to provide 200,000 slates for schools
• conducted research to highlight increasing academic standards and attitudes thanks to the implementation of slates
• supported a bit for funding from Rotary International which has allowed 22 schools to build libraries
• applied for and received further funding for 30 more schools to develop libraries

By the end of 2018, with the charity’s support, John had helped establish over 50 libraries in Kasese Schools and had raised around £100,000 for the charity.

For this work, John was awarded a “Paul Harris Fellowship”(PHF) by Rotary International for exceptional services to Education in Uganda.

Spare time?

In his spare time, John has been a school governor at various schools, some for as long as 16 years! From 2020 to 2021 he was the chairman of the Winchester and District Christian Aid committee.

John also finds time, to sing in his local choir, be part of the Itchen Folk Band and is his parish’s local history society secretary. He also enjoys walking his dogs and playing golf when he has the time.