Topical updates
This section sets out to track industry developments of relevance to the industry, offering general updates rather than a breaking news function.
We start with the Williams Review, Sir Peter Williams' final report for the independent Review of Mathematics Teaching in Primary Schools and Early Years Settings, published on 17 June 08. It aims to ensure that all children are competent in basic maths by the age of seven, and includes the recommendation that there should be a maths specialist in every primary school in the country. See www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/primary/mathematicsreview for more.
The Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum initiated by Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls in February 2008 is underway under the independent leadership of Sir Jim Rose, focusing on children from five to eleven. An interim report was published in the autumn of 2009, to which EPC submitted a response in February 2009 (click here for a copy.) The final report came out on 30 April 2009, to which EPC submitted a response in July 2009 (click here for a copy), and implementation will follow in September 2011. See www.dcsf.gov.uk/primarycurriculumreview/ for further information.
Running concurrently with the Rose Review but over a longer time is the Review of Primary Education in England led by Professor Robin Alexander of Cambridge University. Since starting work in October 2006, the Primary Review has published a series of interim reports and held meetings with organisations and practitioners to discuss the implications. A special report was issued in February 2009, and the final report is in the pipeline - see www.primaryreview.org.uk/.
The Parliamentary Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families chaired by Barry Sheerman MP issued a report on 2 April 2009 on the National Curriculum which concluded: 'The report finds that the National Curriculum and the guidance through National Strategies on how to teach it have de-skilled the teaching profession and have effectively turned schooling into "a franchise operation more dependent on a recipe handed down by Government rather than the exercise of professional expertise by teachers". A list of its recommendations is available at www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/csf.cfm.