THIS month marks 50 years since Chris Searle, a young English teacher at the Sir John Cass school in London’s East End, hit the headlines after being sacked for encouraging his pupils to write poetry about their own lives and neighbourhoods.

The school’s pupils came from a variety of cultural backgrounds, black and white, virtually all working class and very often poor. From the word go, these children had been treated as incapable of going far in life, as barely educable and told repeatedly that they were thick, so any hopes or ambitions they might have had for their lives was stymied before they had a chance.

Searle refused to accept this view, knew that these children had more to offer and could be enormously creative if they were given the chance.

He encouraged them to develop their imagination and their use of language in order to express their hopes, fears and aspirations. They did this by writing poetry about their lives.

The resulting poems were published in an anthology called Stepney Words. Its publication caused outrage among the school governors and the Establishment, resulting in Searle’s sacking in May 1971 and the school’s pupils going on strike to demand his reinstatement.

Stepney Words contained poems written by his 11 to 15-year-old students and went on to inspire writers, educators and community publishers throughout the country.

The young poets had responded with writing that vividly described their local East End neighbourhoods, and their inner thoughts and observations.

In response to Searle’s dismissal, 800 pupils, including those from neighbouring schools, went on strike. With banners aloft they refused to return to school until their beloved teacher was reinstated.

Demanding justice, the strikers marched from Stepney to Trafalgar Square generating national headlines and television coverage. In addition to the support of the school students and community, it was the committed support of the National Union of Teachers (now the National Education Union) that got him reinstated. “Without their action,” Chris emphasises, “it would have been another hole-in-the-corner sacking.”

“Stepney Words and the Stepney school strike was a landmark in the history of the East End,” says Nadia Valman, Professor of Urban Literature at Queen Mary. “Chris Searle empowered working-class children to express their imagination, their compassion, and their frustrations, and insisted that their voices be heard. It’s hard to imagine now what a rumpus that caused in 1971.”

On November 14, Queen Mary University brought together Stepney Words poets and Chris Searle for a 50th anniversary celebratory event at the People’s Palace venue where Paul Robeson had sung in the 1930s.

Valman and BBC journalist Alan Dein hosted the reunion, marking “the significance and legacy of Stepney Words and recognising the continuing radical potential of poetry in east London, as part of the Being Human festival,” as the event organisers put it.

For Searle, the event was extraordinary with many old students from 1971 present, reading their poems. A huge painting of the strike by Dan Jones was also unveiled. And, to reinforce the fact that this is not just of historical interest, there were readings of some very powerful new poems by present day students from the school.

I ask Searle what relevance this reunion and the lessons of Stepney Words have for us today. Surely, I suggest, that situation and that experience is hardly relevant in today’s world. Surely attitudes to education have changed in half a century?

“Well, I think the situation has changed for the better in the sense that the furore caused by the publication of Stepney Words 50 years ago, my sacking and the strike by pupils at the school had a tremendous impact and helped promote children’s poetry writing everywhere. Also in terms of my old school. It had been named in honour of Sir John Cass, a slave trader. It was a viciously streamed school, with governors who were all male, all white and predominantly right-wing Anglican clerics and City businessmen.

“That is no longer the case. It has now been renamed Stepney All Saints and the atmosphere has changed completely. The leadership of the school has been transformed and I’m now invited back to do poetry workshops with the pupils.

“It’s a very different school now, and the vibrancy and creativity of its students are given full encouragement. However, in the country at large things are not so rosy. With the academisation of schools, government restrictions on the curricula, testing and exam-based teaching is all retrogressive. I think teachers today have a big struggle on their hands.”

Does he have any advice to offer any young person going into teaching today? “Yes,” he says emphatically, “you have to make sure you have a strong union behind you and good union structure in the school, and you have to be fearless in challenging government-imposed curricula. And, as teachers you have to try to open up and capitalise on the wonderful cosmopolitanism and multiracialism to be found in our society today.”

He remembers, he says, a Woody Guthrie song about how those in power always wanted to silence and “wipe away the pictures from life’s other side.”

They wanted the cockney sparrow to sing cheerfully from its cage and not write about life’s real issues. Stepney Words and what it achieved has certainly not lost its relevance for today.

One of the poems in that book eloquently expresses the point Searle makes:

Let it Flow Joe by Paul

Let it Flow Joe
Let your feelings speak for you
Let the people know what you know.
Tell them what it’s all about
Shout it out.

When you talk people come alive
People start to realise.
Words flow out of your mouth
When you talk about this earth.
Tell the people everything Joe
About what you know

Talk to them Joe
Let them know
Let the words flow out.