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Like many headteachers in the state sector, I was excited in 2024 when the newly elected Labour government called for a . Many of us in the primary phase (ages 4–11) have been struggling with the and we were looking forward to change. As leader of the , and a member of the British Curriculum Forum, I work with schools who are already looking at alternative approaches for primary school curriculum design. So, imagine our disappointment when we heard that we are going for evolution, not revolution.

‘Surely now is the time to consider an educational revolution?’

Schools are facing tough times – we live them daily at where I am Associate Headteacher. Workload is high, SEND support has disappeared, budgets are the tightest they have ever been. Schools face significant challenges with teacher recruitment and retention, pupil attendance and wellbeing. We are going through a major global political shift, facing challenges around the climate crisis, extremism, immigration and wealth distribution. Simultaneously, we are seeing a major technological shift with the rise of online communications, social media and artificial intelligence delivering major changes for our young people’s futures. Surely now is the time to consider an educational revolution?

The challenge for primary teachers

The challenge for primary schools is that we do not have the space in the primary curriculum to teach children the skills and capabilities they will need to manage these sweeping changes. We have removed teacher agency from curriculum design, basically taking the fun out of the job. In the process, we have crushed the curiosity, creativity and independent thinking which four-year-olds bring to school and which we would also like our teachers to possess. Older primary pupils are increasingly risk-averse, seeking only to secure teacher approval.

‘We have crushed the curiosity, creativity and independent thinking which four-year-olds bring to school.’

One major cause is that is packed with subject-defined content knowledge which teachers feel under pressure to ‘cover’. Many primary teachers’ timetables are so packed with subject lessons, there is no room to think, and learning is often shallow curriculum coverage, rather than deep immersion in content and concepts that pupils need. If we want the primary years to build the skills for later knowledge acquisition, then teachers need to be given the space to focus on wellbeing, attitudes to learning, and learning to learn skills: collaboration, resilience, creativity, critical thinking and curiosity.

This is not a move away from the importance of teaching children powerful knowledge (Young & Miller, 2013), as the ‘traditional versus progressive’ argument posits. Pupils will not develop positive attitudes to and skills for learning without embedding such learning in important content knowledge. 

The pressure to teach content is intensified by the schools’ inspectorate , which tests pupils on knowledge retention during inspections. A recent review of the impact of primary inspections found them to be more stressful since Ofsted sets an expectation of subject expertise you are likely to find in secondary, but not in primary schools, where subject leaders may not even have studied to A’ Level standard (Bradbury, 2024).

What could make the difference?

Most would agree that subject matter categorisation is important for learning at university, and at A’ Level when young people begin to realise what they enjoy learning. The Early Years curriculum areas of learning, and focus on are developmentally appropriate, since knowledge for young learners is more fluid and interconnected. The point of contention is where the shift from areas of learning to academic subjects should begin.

Currently, the secondary curriculum model has been scaled down for primary, with subjects in discrete silos. Why not do the opposite and extend the Early Years areas of learning through primary, moving to subject teaching at the natural transition into secondary, when specialist teaching begins? Condensing subject knowledge into areas of learning would free primary practitioners to focus on what matters: teaching time needed for ‘coverage’ would naturally decrease through the use of cross-curricular projects, which primary teachers know are a powerful way to blend content.

A plea for revolution

Cross-curricular teaching is more challenging, but much more exciting to plan. This is the kind of planning and teaching that enables teacher agency and helps keep them in the profession (Worth & Van den Brande, 2020): when they can plan to meet the interests, needs and contexts of the pupils they teach, while at the same time exploring the important knowledge and skills pupils need to develop. Cross-curricular learning is more fun for children: more exciting learning experiences lead to higher engagement and make learning memorable (Berger, 2003).

When does it stop being a priority to develop learning to learn skills, and to teach strategies for wellbeing? It happens when academic subjects become the sole framework for learning. In England, we have got it fundamentally wrong in the primary years and need a revolution. Any curriculum review should seek to keep those curious, confident, creative and independent learners for as long as we possibly can: that’s what ‘secondary ready’ really means.

References

Berger, R. (2003). An ethic of excellence (Vol. 38). Heinemann.

Bradbury, A. (2024). Primary teachers’ views of Ofsted. Presented at British Educational Research Association Conference, 8–12 September 2024. /conference/bera-conference-2024-and-wera-focal-meeting

Worth, J., & Van den Brande, J. (2020). Teacher autonomy: How does it relate to job satisfaction and retention? National Foundation for Educational Research.

Young, M., & Muller, J. (2013). On the powers of powerful knowledge. Review of Education,Ìý1(3), 229–250.