PrimaryOdds'n'Ends » PrimaryReview

Never to be seen again!

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:13:53 +0000

It’s interesting how electronic information can be rewritten so easily.

Just take it down.

And in the blink of an eye 11 years of work and discussion has gone.

I wonder if there are any paper copies.

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What is it about Britain?

Mr Ball — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 08:31:25 +0000

Devastating criticism of primary education dismissed by ministers
• Doing nothing would be weak, say headteachers
• Schools department calls report out of date

Polly Curtis – Guardian 16/10/2009

Two quotes from this piece in yesterday’s Guardian seem to sum it up

“There are recommendations in this report that could transform the Primary ethos and turn pessimism into hope.” Cambridge Review

“We completely refute the claim that primary standards have not risen across the board.” Vernon Croaker – School’s Minister.

One edgy, open to new possibilities, the other like the veritable prison door slamming shut behind you.

No discourse, no attempt to understand a blanket NO!

These lines are just too important to ignore.

But today’s report found growing concern about the international evidence that finds that some children are put off school if they feel they have failed formal lessons in the 3Rs at an early age.

The idea that children can learn things in anything other than a formal environment is anathema to the other lot too.

However, we do not agree … that politicians should end school for four to six-year-olds.” Nick Gibb – Shadow Schools Minister. But they only said that children should not start formal lessons until the age of six!

Start school at six, key schools report recommends
• Education ‘narrower than in Victorian era’
• Labour accused of ‘Stalinist’ approach
• Scrap Sats and league tables says biggest study

Polly Curtis – Guardian 16/10/2009

Still the best thing is to actually read the report.

The Cambridge Primary Review

In Brief

Background and Key Conclusions

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Primary Review – Final

Mr Ball — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:25:33 +0000

Independent review of the Primary Curriculum – Final Report

This page links to PDF Downloads of all the related parts of this document.

The Review has sought to address two central questions:

What should the primary curriculum contain?
How should the content and the teaching of it change to foster children’s different and developing abilities during primary education?

The key features of the primary curriculum put forward by this Review are:

Recognising the continuing importance of subjects and the essential knowledge, skills and understanding they represent.

Providing a stronger focus on curriculum progression.

Strengthening the focus on ensuring, that by the age of seven, children have a secure grasp of the literacy and numeracy skills they need to make good progress thereafter.

Strengthening the teaching and learning of ICT to enable them to be independent and confident users of technology by the end of primary education.

Providing a greater emphasis on personal development through a more integrated and simpler framework for schools.

Building stronger links between the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, and between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3. in offering exciting opportunities for learning languages for 7-11 year olds.

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Front Page News

Mr Ball — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:33:03 +0000

Tests blamed for blighting children’s lives

Landmark study of primary schools calls for teachers to be freed of targets

Polly Curtis in the Guardian 20/02/2009

69 Comments as of 24/02/09

The Cambridge Primary Review published to day is available from their website in two parts (Part 1 & Part 2) there is also a briefing document.

From the Briefing Document

Towards a new primary curriculum
The new primary curriculum proposed by the Cambridge Primary Review:
• seeks to resolve the problems summarised above;
• starts from, and is driven by, a clear statement of the aims of primary education grounded in analysis
of children’s present and future needs and the condition of the society and world in which children
are growing up;
• has regard to principles of procedure which highlight entitlement, quality, equity, breadth, balance,
local engagement, and guidance rather than prescription;
• respects and builds on the EYFS curriculum (proposals on the EYFS/primary relationship and the
reconfiguring of the primary phase will be in the Review’s final report);
• is conceived as a matrix of 12 educational aims and 8 domains of knowledge, skill, enquiry and
disposition, with the aims locked firmly into the framework from the outset;
• dispenses with the notion of the curriculum core as a small number of subjects and places all eight
domains within the curriculum on the principle that although teaching time will continue to be
differentially allocated, all the domains are essential to young children’s education and all must be
taught to the highest standards;
• at the same time insists on the centrality of language, oracy and literacy, both in their own right and
as enabling learning across a curriculum in which breadth and standards go hand in hand;
• reconceptualises key curriculum areas, notably language/oracy/literacy, citizenship and personal
education;
• provides for a strong local component, differentiates the national and community curriculum, and
divides time between them on the basis of 70/30 per cent of the yearly teaching total;

An interesting take on this from – The Educational Technology Site: ICT in Education

Arguing for a rejection of the review by the educational ICT community.

The following days Guardian Leader. ‘That’s the way it is.’

A thoroughly evidence based review. Says Joe Nutt

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