News on primary curriculum

The previous government accepted the recommendations put forward by Sir Jim Rose for a new primary curriculum to come into force from September 2011. However, the Department for Education (DfE) ministers announced on Monday this week that the new government will definitely not implement this. I have just received the following news on the primary curriculum from the QCDA.

"DfE ministers feel that schools should be given more freedom from prescription and bureaucracy. With this in mind the government intends to return the national curriculum to a minimum national entitlement organised around subject disciplines. The next steps in this process will shortly be announced on the DfE's website at www.education.gov.uk. In the meantime, the existing primary curriculum will continue to be in force in 2011/12 and schools are expected to plan on that basis."

The existing national curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2 is the one published and made statutory in 1999.