This year marks ACE's Golden Anniversary. Since we were founded in 1960, operating from a £1 a week bicycle shop, public demand for our work has grown enormously, as have our scope and influence in the development of education law and policy.
So, in 2010, as well as celebrating 50 years of advice and support for parents, we are also reflecting on the many positive changes to the education system that we have seen and influenced.
In the 1960s parents knew very little about what went on inside the school gates, so ACE was set up to campaign for their right to be more actively involved.
The 1970s saw progress in this area, as the government began to explore the link between schools and community in greater depth.
Equal opportunity for girls was the subject of much of our advice in the 1980s, and we campaigned on issues such as racial equality, school closures and corporal punishment.
In the 1990s we worked to share our expertise in innovative ways, developing our Step-by-Step manuals for community advisors, providing tailored specialist training for other community support groups, and opening a second telephone advice line purely for exclusions.
In the 2000s, the huge social value of ACE's work was officially recognised with regular government funding, and this enabled us to expand our advice services even further.
So here we are today, celebrating our Golden Anniversary and everything we have achieved over the years. In many ways, the education landscape is almost unrecognisable from that of 1960, and thanks to ACE parents have a greater power than ever to understand and influence the issues surrounding their children's education. As we look to the future however, and the increasingly complex situations that families face, we know our services will become ever more vital.
With 50 years of expertise behind us, we are here to listen to parents and carers, to offer our expert advice and to campaign for fairness and equality in education, because we believe every child deserves the best school experience possible.
