Interview with David Sylvester, 7 July 2009

David Sylvester was the originator of the Schools Council History Project. He was invited by HMI Roy Wake to head the pilot project in 1972 and formed the team himself. The idea of using historical sources in class, of setting historical puzzles and asking children to solve them using 'clues' from the past, came from his earlier work on educational needs of the 'average' child, for whom the traditional fact-based history course was proving unattractive. Sylvester acknowledges his debt to earlier writers, such as Keatinge and Happold. The key to the success of the Project was its links with teachers in schools - the pilot schools were organised in networks and frequent feedback was sought so that the materials could be modified to suit the real world of the classroom. Sylvester discusses the development phase of the Project and its core ideas - which have remained consistent over the past 40 years. Interviewed by Nicola Sheldon