1 Primary schools today

Figure 1 A primary school is a community in which children and adults work together.

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This is a photograph taken in a classroom showing four young children who are sitting at a table and writing on laminated boards with marker pens. An man is leaning across the table talking to the children and a woman is standing nearby looking towards the children. On the wall behind the table is a display of children’s writing and large illustrated cars showing the letters of the alphabet from N to Z.

Figure 1 A primary school is a community in which children and adults work together.

In this course we will be using the generic terms ‘primary school’, ‘primary years’ and ‘primary-aged children’ to refer to the education of children aged between 3 and 12 years. However, as in many other aspects of education, the range of terminology associated with the education of children in this age group is bewilderingly wide. Depending on where a child aged between 3 and 12 goes to school, the setting may have any of the following terms in its title (and this is by no means an exhaustive list): primary school, elementary school, infant school, junior school, middle school, all-through school. These terms describe the age group catered for by a particular school, but schools are characterised in other ways, too. These other categories might relate to how the schools are funded (e.g. private or government funded), their affiliation to religious or other charitable organisations, or a particular educational philosophy such as those developed by the Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori or the Austrian scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner.