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The world of the primary school
The world of the primary school

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1.3 Curriculum frameworks

Fulbridge Academy states that its vision, aims and curriculum are based on the findings of the Cambridge Primary Review. This was an independent but influential indepth review of the primary curriculum and children’s lives and learning in England, led by Robin Alexander at Cambridge University. A key recommendation of the review was that the curriculum for primary aged children should be one that ‘guarantees children’s entitlement to breadth, depth and balance, and to high standards in all areas of learning, not just the 3Rs, and combines a national framework with protected local elements; ensures that language, literacy and oracy are paramount’ (Cambridge Primary Review, 2009, p. 22).

The review recommended a framework for the curriculum that is not expressed in terms of the rigid subject areas of the National Curriculum (DfES, 1999), but instead is organised into eight ‘domains’:

  • arts and creativity
  • citizenship and ethics
  • faith and belief
  • language, oracy and literacy
  • mathematics
  • physical and emotional health
  • place and time
  • science and technology.

An important element of the review’s recommendations was that 70 per cent of teaching time should be devoted to a nationally determined curriculum and the remaining 30 per cent given over to the ‘community curriculum’ (Cambridge Primary Review, 2009, p. 23).

The final report by the Cambridge Primary Review was not adopted by the government, although its authors were able to share and discuss its findings with members of the ruling and opposition political parties. However, the freedoms afforded to schools taking on academy status in England has enabled a number of schools, including Fulbridge Academy, to develop their own curricula based on alternative frameworks such as those recommended by the Cambridge Primary Review. This represents a significant change from the previous requirement, whereby schools were obliged to adhere to the detailed and quite prescriptive national curriculum. It is an example of how political changes impact directly on what takes place in primary schools.

Allowing individual schools a degree of flexibility to develop a curriculum that meets the needs of their own pupils is an approach made explicit in the statutory curricula of a number of countries, including Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence:

The framework is less detailed and prescriptive than previous curriculum advice. It provides professional space for teachers and other staff to use in order to meet the varied needs of all children and young people.

(Education Scotland, n.d., p. 3)

The argument in favour of allowing schools the flexibility to tailor their own curricula may seem a compelling one. However, the independence allowed to academies in England as we write (in 2017) extends considerably further than freedom to adapt their curricula. Some commentators would argue that academies have created a market of competition that militates against a wider community of schools working supportively together.

A 2013 report by the Academies Commission on the impact of the academies programme in England was clear in stressing the need for collaboration across this national community of schools [which] should enable a balance to be struck between independence and interdependence, with the clear aim of serving children and young people well (Academies Commission, 2013, p. 5). The report made this point, having found that collaboration between academies was not always happening and that in ‘too many’ cases ‘the autonomy afforded to academies resulted in them demonstrating insufficient responsiveness to parents and the local community’ (p. 31).

Changes to education systems nearly always provoke passionate arguments from all sides. It therefore seems likely that the extent to which individual schools should be allowed the freedom to operate autonomously within a nation’s education system is likely to remain a topic of rigorous political debate well into the future. Spend a few minutes reflecting on where you stand in this debate.