Primary review takes evidence from winners
Sir Jim Rose in summit discussion group
Sir Jim Rose, former HMI director of inspection and leader of the 2008 Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum, is visiting at least two winners' schools in the coming weeks, having met the heads at the TA's tenth anniversary summit.
Tracy Stone of Rookery School, Birmingham and Kevin Harcombe of Redlands primary school, Hampshire, both national winners of the NCSL Award for Headteacher of the Year in a Primary School in 2006 and 2007 respectively, will both host visits to their schools by Sir Jim.
At the summit he led a discussion with around 40 winners and three main issues arose. They were: the desire to extend the areas of learning in the foundation stage up to key stage 1 and possibly beyond; the wish to slim down an overloaded primary curriculum without losing depth and, finally, the need to accommodate different ways of teaching.
'It should be perfectly possible to do discrete teaching on the basics as well as thematic work. I know schools are working hard on that,' he said.
'Primary heads and teachers expressed a general desire to see children's personal development at the heart of things. 'I have a real issue with the delivery model of education. You can't fill children up with knowledge if they are not fit to learn,' said Tracy.
