THE SEVENTIES: WE BEGIN TO RE-STRUCTURE:
Before Leila Rendel died, I had warned her that I would have to restructure the Community so that new staff could work together in groups instead of working in isolation. "If you have to, you must," was her response. So 'family groups' were born. Apart from a need to have staff working together, the long term vertical, so-called family groups would enable the children to have continuous adult support when they most needed it (i.e. at the transition between primary and secondary school). It was also clear that the old staff who had stayed with the Community for enormously long periods, sometimes as long as 50 years, were being replaced by staff who could only guarantee us one year with an absolute maximum of two.
Built into the thinking, therefore, was the idea that when the children felt let down by constant changes of staff, they could gain some strength and continuity from long term relationships with each other. Dr. Turle, our consultant psychiatrist at the time, likened the developing relationships between our children as similar to those described in "The Children of the Dream." In later life former Caldecott children often link up for special occasions like birthdays and holidays and help each other out in difficulties as in an extended family. In the event family groups served us well for the next 23 years. I was not always sure that I would be staying at the Community (especially in my first few weeks!) In the early seventies when I attended Dr. Andre's course at the Institute of Education at London University, I was made to feel quite unsettled by my colleagues, many of whom were moving sideways and upwards. However at exactly that time our Head Teacher asked me if I saw myself as staying at the Community. I remember answering "Somebody has to. It had better be me". Hence my commitment to stay, which I felt I had made as soon as I had said that.
From the late sixties onwards the children were the least of the problems. In fact talking to that generation now, while I felt they had been let down, they seemed to have failed to recognise our adult crisis. Perhaps they were so self absorbed that they wouldn't have noticed an earthquake. Two things made life difficult; the pop culture and an overpowering desire to obtain cigarettes, both of which negatively excluded adults and made it particularly difficult for them to tune into the world of young people. This phase continued until that generation produced staff members who could tune in with equal facility.
Whereas the sixties had seen the collapse of the old order, the seventies came in with a tremendous burst of new energy. After prolonged staff meetings, which traditionally took place after the children had gone to bed, we thrashed out a way forward every Friday night between 9pm and midnight. Our maintenance team made cubicles for the dormitories. The change round was otherwise completed without spending any money - because we quite simply had none. In the Summer holidays of 1970 we allocated every child to a 12 strong family group and recruited staff. Whereas before it was the energy and zest of the children that recharged the staff batteries at the beginning of each term, now it was the new staff themselves. As if by a miracle our advertisements for graduates and others that Summer produced an amazing group of young adults, and just enough of them, to carry us forward on the crest of a new wave of hope. We now had all the children completely reallocated in living groups in the house and cared for by 3 adults per group.
Most of these staff members were new to the work as well as to the Community, and they completely contrasted with their predecessors. They were intellectually extremely stimulating, bursting with energy and fun which enabled the new family groups to take off from day one.
Sadly few stayed long. As time went on, almost inevitably these young adults or their replacements caused problems. While the children's difficulties are to be expected, the staff's are not and are much more difficult to control. The liberated sexual lives at the Universities overflowed into the Community's off-duty private lives and created complicated role models for the children. At times this became much more of a burden than anything the children could possibly have produced.
At the same time the same adults were having to cope with more difficult children, with poor Social Service support and the very long hours which the Community demanded. The seventies were a challenging time and though the young adults certainly gave us the greatest possible encouragement, there was undoubtedly a cost.
Some of the children who came to us at that time were much too difficult for us to hold onto, and they had to move on. This was both sad and damaging, but we had little choice. We also still had to learn our limitations.