By Kevin Hollins, Knutsford High School head teacher ORIGINATING from the fair city of Stoke I have a keen interest in pottery design and manufacture.

Natives of the Potteries have pride in their factories – or, perhaps more accurately, used to have.

It has been a sad affair to see the transfer of great names such as Spode, Royal Doulton and now Wedgwood to the Far East.

The origin of pottery manufacture in Stoke owes much to the work of Josiah Wedgwood.

His genius was to understand the need to combine efficient manufacturing with an understanding of the customer, an emphasis on quality, and flair and originality in design.

So how does this relate to schools and students?

As a nation we need our young people to be outward-looking, to understand others and translate this understanding into their later employment.

It’s why Knutsford High has worked hard to build links with schools across the globe and also within Britain, as we play our part in the community cohesion agenda.

But, as a nation, we also need to ensure the education system recognises and rewards creativity, and this it is arguably failing to do. There is endless debate about standards in examinations, but there is no doubt in my mind that we have the best educated generation ever, on whom considerable demands are placed.

What our examination system requires for success, however, is too often dreary conformity to pre-determined responses. A-level students in history or English literature, for example, receive limited credit for original thinking or flair, but are required to follow formulaic patterns of written response.

If our country is to retain – or recover – its position as a world leader in design and manufacture we need to seriously re-appraise our approach to learning to stress creative thinking and ideas.

If Josiah Wedgwood had been educated today he would, like as not, have produced pottery based entirely on a standard, officially sanctioned design for the average saucer.

Whether anyone would have wanted to buy it is another matter, and Stoke would still be a small agricultural village. Disaster.

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THE Knutsford Guardian has launched this weekly column on its letters page.

It is written by four people who are involved in different areas of the town’s life.

The columns are called Knutsford Schools, Knutsford Business, Knutsford Politics and Knutsford Culture.

Knutsford High School head teacher Kevin Hollins writes the education piece.

Mr Hollins is in charge of 1,450 students aged between 11 and 18. He studied a history degree in Cambridge and has a masters degree in educational leadership and management.

The school principal began his career in Alsager in 1977 and has been head teacher at Knutsford High for 12 years.

Meanwhile, Tatton MP and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne writes the Knutsford Politics column.

He has been the town’s representative in Parliament since June 2001.

Mr Osborne replaced Martin Bell and became the youngest Conservative MP in the House of Commons.

He was re-elected in 2005 and has since become Shadow Chancellor.

The business column is written by Matthew Mooney, whose family own and run the Belle Epoque restaurant in King Street, Knutsford.

Mr Mooney has often spoken out in the Guardian about issues that affect traders in the town centre.

He also helps to organise events to promote the town, including last year’s floral walk during the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park.

The culture column is written by former Knutsford Heritage Centre curator Amy Bishop.

She worked at the building off King Street for several years and led many projects.

Miss Bishop was recently involved in using Knutsford’s links with Elizabeth Gaskell to promote tourism in the town.

She helped organise Cranford tours after the successful BBC television adaptation of the book.