Records of the Child Development Society

Records of the Child Development Society, 1942-2004, comprising administrative material relating the management of the Society, including the constitution of the Society, 1942-1994; minutes and circulated papers of meetings of the Executive Committee and Annual General Meetings, 1988-2003; correspondence of Annabel Lewis, Chair of the Society, from members of the Society and external bodies, 1996-2004; membership lists, 1993-[2000]; material relating to events held by the Society including programmes, literature, publicity, and correspondence, 1985-2000; promotional literature including the Society's newsletter and leaflets advertising the Society,1972-2004; and miscellaneous material, including a note book, press cuttings and articles, 1992-[2002].

The Child Development Society started in October 1949, under Dorothy Gardner at the Institute of Education, although it stemmed from the Institute's Child Development Course, which began in 1933 under Susan Isaacs. It is the oldest advance course of study for Primary Teachers. The Society maintained strong links with the Institute and the early Presidents of the Society were also the Tutors of the Child Development Course. The Society's purpose was to promote the advancement of Child Development Studies and to provide a forum for the dissemination of research, issues, and educational thinking, particularly in relation to the young child. All members had pursued or were the tutor of an advanced course in study of Child Development.

The Executive Committee contained a President, Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, and not more than 12 other members of the Society. When the consistution was amended in 1988, membership was opened to all those whose work entailed or had entailed the study of Child Development and a new President was to be elected each year from the field of the study of Child Development. Later amendments in 1991 added the post of Vice-Chairman to the Executive Committee.

The Society held two annual lectures, usually at the Institute of Education. An invited address which preceded the Annual General meeting (remaned The Susan Isaacs Memorial Lecture from around 1987), held in October/November, and the Dorothy Gardner Memorial Lecture in May or June. Until the early 1990s the Society held occasional conferences in Oxford, which were replaced in 1995 with the annual Maureen Shields Commemorative Annual Seminar Weekends in Brighton, where a panel of distinguished speakers, well known in their fields of study, considered a chosen theme. It also published an annual news letter containing news of the Society, its members and activities together with the transcripts of the previous year's lectures. Proceeds from the Society went towards supporting the relevent Child Development causes including the Institute of Education Nursery and the Vicky Hurst Trust.

The Society was wound up in 2002 due to the lack of new members.

Open

Generally open, subject to signature of Reader Application Form. Membership lists have been closed under the Data Protection Act (1998)

Fully catalogued on CALM and hard copy available in the searchroom.

Surrogates have been made of faxes which were deteriorating

Catalogue completed by Katie Mooney Jan 2007. Additional accession of newsletter was added in May 2007.

A reader wishing to publish any quotation of information, including pictorial, derived from any archive material must apply in writing for prior permission from the Archivist or other appropriate person(s) as indicated by the Archivist. A limited number of photocopies may be supplied at the discretion of the Archivist.

When the collection was weeded when catalogued and duplicates were removed. A floppy disk was also removed as the collection contained hard copies of the documents on the disk.

Donated by Annabel Lewis, Chair of the Society, 1995-1999, in September 2004. Additional newsletters were bequeathed to the Archives by Sylvia Joyce Seagrove in 2007 and integrated into the newsletters series.

Also see the papers of Dorothy Gardner (DC/DG) and Nathan Issaac (DC/NI) for sources on the early work of the Society.