Paul S. Farmer

Paul Farmer - self portrait

Paul S. Farmer was a pioneer in the use of pop music in school music education in the 1970s, and the first to develop a public examination in pop music in the UK. He wrote several music education books and became a London comprehensive school head teacher aged only 33.

Education

After Chigwell School Farmer went to at the Royal College of Music where his principal study was the organ, for which he gained the ARCM diploma. On graduating from the RCM he went into secondary school music teaching. He later studied part-time at London University’s Institute of Education, where he took both the Academic Diploma and MA in Education.

Teaching career

Farmer had no formal teacher training when he went to be Head of Music at Ashmole School in 1972 and two years later to Holland Park School, London, where he developed the use of pop music in music teaching. Among his choir at Holland Park was the future actress Melanie Jessop. By contrast one of his pop music CSE students became the reggae star Angus "Drummie Zeb" Gaye.

Farmer developed the first public examination in pop music, a mode III Certificate of Secondary Education which was taken in 1976. Faced when he arrived at Holland Park with a group of disenchanted fourth form pupils who had chosen 'Music' as one of their options, he set about devising the exam. Out of this emerged the first classroom textbook in pop music, co-written by Farmer and Tony Attwood: Pop Workbook, an 'extremely good book', copies of which teachers were said to be 'clamoring for', published in 1978, reprinted in 1979 and 1982. A follow-up to this by the pair, Football Workbook was a flop. Alongside Holland Park's 4th/5th year course in pop music, similar but broader modules for 11-14 year olds were developed which were later published as the Longman Music Topics.

In 1979 the first edition of Farmer's only book for teachers rather than children was published, Music in the Comprehensive School, which had a second slightly revised edition in 1984. Drawing on his MA course in Curriculum Studies and an unfinished MPhil thesis, he sttempted to set music teaching in the comprehensive school in an educationally academic context and describe new developments. It is a title still on the reading lists for some teacher training courses and has other references.

In 1977 Farmer became Head of Communications Faculty at The Stoke High School, Ipswich. Four years later he became Deputy Head of Dick Sheppard School, a mixed comprehensive in Brixton, and subsequently its Head Teacher, aged only 33 and later described as Inner London's youngest head.

When he was still deputy head the school had the first black chairman of governors, Janet Boateng (wife of Paul Boateng) who when ousted by her fellow Labour Party councillors in 1982 attacked the school for its 'deep seated racism'. Farmer's time as head coincided with widespread industrial action and he presided over a turbulent period in the school's history. In 1984 it was one of four schools in the country featured in a Daily Express enquiry into 'Britain's failing comprehensive schools' whilst in the vanguard of schools engaged in 'non-competetive sport' it also achieved national varied interest.

An unofficial walk-out by the staff produced the headline in The Daily Telegraph: Children 'ran wild in NUT walk-out' an occsion where discipline was described by Inner London Education Authority member Anne Sofer as 'completely out of hand'. It also featured in a House of Lords debate on 5th Feb 1986 by Lord Ritchie of Dundee (Hansard cc 1175).

There were also happier times such as the visit by The Prince and Princess of Wales in January 1982 which can be seen on You Tube. By 1987 The Observer described the school as a 'ray of hope...now making strenuous efforts to improve itself, not without success', while The London Evening Standard in a 'fact file' on the area listed the school as 'one of he best'.

In 1987 Farmer became head of a larger comprehensive school in south London, and his substantive successor at Dick Sheppard was Philip Lawrence QGM, later murdered outside the school of his second headship.

Later life

After the Inner London Education Authority was abolished Farmer left London for Suffolk and held a number of part-time posts, including choirmaster at Old Buckenham Hall School, Brettenham and music examiner for Trinity College, London. He also founded and ran the first registered UK charity specialising iin exclusively male health problems, The Men's Health Trust . In 1997 he was made a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and from 2003 he was variously an elected councillor on Suffolk County Council, St Edmundsbury Borough Council and Bury St Edmunds Town Council. He is currently a member of the latter two.

Main published works

• Attwood, Tony; Paul Farmer (1 March 1978). Pop Workbook. Hodder Education. ISBN 9780713101553.
• Farmer, Paul (1 June 1982). A Handbook of Composers and Their Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780193210929.
• Farmer, Paul, ed. (1984). Music in Practice. Oxford University Press.
• Farmer, Paul (June 1984). Music in the Comprehensive School. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780193174184.
• Longman Music Topics A series of classroom booklets, Longman 1979-1986, including:

• Instruments in Pop and Jazz. Longman. September 1985. ISBN 0582202183.
• Instruments of the Orchestra. Longman. 1982. ISBN 0582200180.
• Into the Classics. Longman. 1979. ISBN 0582215765.
• Into the Modern Classics. Longman. September 1981. ISBN 0582200962.
• (with F. Reilly) Music in Show Business. Longman. October 1986. ISBN 0582202175.
• Pop. Longman. August 1979. ISBN 0582215773.
• Ragtime and Blues. Longman. August 1979. ISBN 058221579X.
• Recording and Electronics. Longman. 1979. ISBN 0582215781.
• Steelbands and Reggae. Longman. September 1981. ISBN 0582200970.
• The Story of Pop. Longman. 2 August 1982. ISBN 9780582200173.