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Academies and the right to opt out of the National Curriculum   The fact that Karen Badenoch, the Conservative Party Leader has called Labour’s plans for schools, recently announced in the new Education Bill, as an act of vandalism, is both predictable and welcome – predictable in the context of the rhetoric of educational debate in Parliament and its confrontational nature, and welcome because it’s a sign that the Labour Government may be challenging the status quo and forging ahead with some policies which are based on some more enlightened principles. Take for example the decision to make Academies follow the National Curriculum as opposed to giving them the right to opt out. This move is seen by its critics as an ideological shift of Marxist proportions to deprive schools of their right to tailor the curriculum to meet the particular needs of their pupils...

OFSTED have proposed some changes, instead of the 256 outcomes there could have been about your school, they now have the possibility of nearly 400,000! What could possibly go wrong? It seems that the only people who see this as a recipe for consistency and raising standards are Bridget Phillipson and Sir Martyn Oliver. It makes you wonder if the Big Listen was heard through cloth ears. School accountability may be here to stay but it could be so much more valuable, giving support to schools where needed, rather than finding ways to create villains. It might even be a good idea to have a system more suited to Primary Schools, rather than the subject based secondary model currently in use. Peter Cansell (NAPE Information Officer)...

Nurseries - The Government plans to create 3,334 new school-based nurseries, accommodating 100,000 additional places, in order to meet their offer of a significant expansion of childcare.  They aim to achieve this by converting classrooms left empty due to declining birth rates, and suggest that current vacancies could provide space for nursery provision in reception classes. Generally, current shortfalls in pupil numbers are spread throughout primary schools.  As well as the numbers involved, there are issues around timing: the school day is too short to enable parents to undertake meaningful work.  Although many schools provide care before and after lessons, which helps parents who need to work longer hours, this makes for a very demanding day for younger children, and the cost offsets what parents can earn.  Another issue is the requirement for additional suitab...

This month we came together in John's local pub in Oxfordshire and shared our personal reminisces of what I call, the Champion for Primary Education. John's life experiences and skills of being a class teacher, headteacher, Inspector, University lecturer and administrator of teacher trainees put him in a unique position to argue the case for primary education. He did not squander that position for a moment. When he was not carrying out his regular work in schools and with students, he kept NAPE going to further the cause. After the formation of NAPE, John was the instigator of the Primary First journal, the Primary Umbrella group of subject associations, supporter of the festival of voices and many other initiatives. At the pub, Hilary, his daughter, presented poignant pictures of John growing-up, followed by slides of his professional journey (now availabl...

The Times Newspaper in blinkered mode I am a great fan of The Times newspaper, appreciating its comprehensive coverage, especially of the arts and the breadth of the perspectives it brings to bear on a range of issues, but I am often puzzled by the narrowness of its treatment of educational issues. The leading article in Monday 5 August’s edition was a potent example of how naïve its stance can be in its ill-deserved and misjudged critique of the appointment of Prof. Becky Francis as the chair of the team to review Curriculum and Assessment. The headline, itself, gave enormous cause for concern: Back to Basics – Labour should keep ideology out of education and not endanger good teaching. What a contradiction in terms! In its support of Back to Basics, a whole set of ideas is being promoted to do with a return to an illusory golden era of education when there was ...