The much-anticipated Cambridge Primary Review was published earlier this month. The Review is a wide-ranging independent enquiry into the condition and future of primary education in England.

The outcome making headlines was the suggestion that formal education should start at six, not five as it currently stands.

Other recommendations include reforming SATs and scrapping league tables; introducing subject specialists alongside general specialists; extending the early years curriculum to Year 1 and increasing the amount of formative teacher assessment. These points haven’t yet reached the media debate, but they are core issues to be discussed.

Many independent schools have already abandoned SATs in favour of a more informative and broader style of assessment and many employ a teaching model which uses subject specialists alongside general primary teachers.

A school’s curriculum and teaching and learning strategies should reflect the needs of the pupils in the school. As at Roedean Junior School, school should support and challenge children at whatever their age, level of attainment and individual needs are.

I wonder whether this will be branded ‘back to basics’ as previous reports have been? In 2010 a new primary curriculum will be launched. Will this be ‘back to basics’ too?

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Read the Guardian's summary of the Cambridge Primary Review findings

Vernon Coaker, Schools Minister 'Why the Government is rejecting the findings' 
 

I spent the first part of Wednesday afternoon with four very able sixth formers who are planning to study Mathematics at university. One of them gave a presentation on prime numbers leading to a discussion about applications of Number Theory such as internet security.

Then a second student gave a short talk about infinity. After this we took a trip into the arcane world of the foundations of Mathematics, Russell’s paradox and Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems.

I later attended a lecture by the world-renowned academic Howard Gardner. Professor Gardner hails from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, but here he was presenting his ideas on the cognitive abilities he believes are essential for future success in the twenty-first century.

The essential section of the lecture was a discourse on the key elements of education needed to equip young people of today to thrive in a world of globalisation, biotechnology and increasing reliance on digital technologies.

Much food for thought. Professor Gardiner’s presentation has raised awareness of the need to ensure that the school curriculum provides students not just with the essential academic discipline and qualifications, but also with the minds required to become leaders and good citizens of the world.

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More about Howard Gardner

Professor Howard Gardner, once described by the Financial Times as ‘the man who changed our notion of what it means to be clever’, spoke at independent girls school Roedean yesterday.

By inviting Gardner onto campus, Roedean, which already has some of the best A level results in Sussex, is cementing its position as an intellectual heavy hitter. Gardner’s theory on multiple intelligences has set the agenda in the psychology and educational theory communities for twenty five years.

Commenting on the presence of such a noteworthy speaker, Frances King, Head said: ”Roedean was originally founded to prepare girls for entry to the University of Cambridge, so our raison d’être has always been academic achievement. Today Professor Gardner will be challenging us to look anew at the Roedean curriculum to ensure we are equipping our students with those skills they need for a fulfilling career and work/life balance.”

Howard Gardner is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The author of over twenty books translated into twenty-seven languages, and several hundred articles, he is best known in educational circles for his theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the idea that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be assessed by standard psychometric instruments.

 
On 2 October, The Times reported that two Steiner Schools have won the right to opt out of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum.

In September 2008 it became law that all UK schools followed this curriculum for early years education. As part of this, there are 69 objectives that have to be met to measure a child’s progress by the time they are five.

Many schools have found this a difficult concept to accept as it is basically state-regulated independent schooling.

This has now cleared the way for independent schools to consider their future involvement. John Tranmer, chairman of the Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS) who have over 600 schools in their association said that it would back any of its members who wanted to opt out.

Roedean belongs to the Girl’s School Association (GSA) which has not made a comment on the issue as yet.  However, on Thursday I am attending our local area conference at which I will be canvassing the other Sussex GSA schools.

Personally, I see the EYFS regulations provide structure for all the early years settings. Importantly, it sets clear benchmarks of achievement. However, it is prescriptive and there is a danger that schools  will pigeonhole children at an early age.  This is an educational hot potato!

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Read The Times’ initial report:

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