CPR Booklet Low Res

INTRODUCING

THE CAMBRIDGEPRIMARY REVIEW

CONTENTS

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CAMBRIDGE PRIMARY REVIEW

About the Review5

INTRODUCTION

What is and what could be8

SIGNPOSTS

A glimpse o the uture...10

LEGACIES

Plus ça change?12

CHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD

Age o empowerment14

NARROW THE GAP

Divided England16

NEW STRUCTURES

All to play or18

WHAT IS PRIMARY EDUCATION FOR?

In search o meaning22

TOWARDS A NEW CURRICULUM

Breadth o lie24 The eight domains26 Next steps28

FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY

Free to talk30

ASSESSMENT

Summary justice32

STANDARDS

See the whole picture34

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

In defance o compliance36

PRIMARY SCHOOL STAFFING

Call in the specialists?38

SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE

Communal sense40

POLICY

Decentralisation nation42

Plea or airer unding

T

he Cambridge PrimaryReview is anindependent enquiryinto the condition anduture o primary education inEngland. It is based at theUniversity o Cambridge,supported by Esmée FairbairnFoundation and directed byProessor Robin Alexander.Ater nearly three years o planning and consultation theReview was launched in October2006. Between October 2007and February 2009 the Reviewpublished 31 interim reports: anaccount o its regionalcommunity soundings, 28specially-commissioned surveyso relevant research and a two-volume report on the primarycurriculum. Now, exactly threeyears ater its launch, Routledgeis publishing the Review’s nalreport and recommendations(see back cover or order details)and the Review enters its nalphase.The Review was required byits remit to ‘identiy thepurposes which the primaryphase o education should serve,the values which it shouldespouse, the curriculum andlearning environment which itshould provide, and theconditions which are necessaryin order to ensure both thatthese are o the highest andmost consistent quality possible,and that they address the needso children and society over thecoming decades’; to ‘pay closeregard to national andinternational evidence romresearch, inspection and othersources ... to seek the advice o expert advisers and witnesses,and invite submissions and takesoundings rom a wide range o interested agencies andindividuals, both statutory andnon-statutory;’ and nally to‘publish both interim ndingsand a nal report combiningevidence, analysis andconclusions together withrecommendations or bothnational policy and the work o schools and other relevantagencies.’The Review has stuck closelyto this remit. Its scope isexceptionally broad, and isdened in terms o 10 themesand three overarchingperspectives (see box). Inrelation to each o these,evidence is combined withvision. That is to say, the Reviewhas investigated how and howwell the system currently worksand how it should change inorder to meet the needs o children and society during thecoming decades.The mix o evidence andmethods has been careully judged: invited opinion isbalanced by published research;data has been collected romboth ocial and independentsources; ormal writtensubmissions rom nationalorganisations are contrastedwith open-ended discussionswith those at the ront line,including children, teachers,parents and a wide range o community representatives.One way or another, manythousands o people have beeninvolved, but the nal report isdue primarily to the eorts o ‘the Cambridge Primary Review100’ – the core team atCambridge led by RobinAlexander, the advisorycommittee chaired by GillianPugh, the management groupchaired on behal o EsméeFairbairn Foundation by HilaryHodgson, the 66 academicconsultants rom more than 20university departments whoprepared the research surveys,and o course the nal report’s14 authors.

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ABOUT THE CAMBRIDGE PRIMARY REVIEW

The 3 overarching perspectives

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Children and childhood today

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The society and world in which children aregrowing up

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The condition and uture o primaryeducation

The 10 educational themes

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Purposes and values