Primary education

Compulsory primary education covers all students aged 5-11. In 2007 there were 17,361 maintained primary schools for 4,107,680 students1.

 

Rose Report, 2008

Find out about proposed changes to the primary curriculum.

In 2008, Sir Jim Rose conducted an independent review of the primary curriculum, at the request of Ed Balls, secretary of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). The interim report that he presented in December 2008 suggested a new approach to the primary curriculum - a curriculum that places literacy, numeracy, ICT and personal development at the heart of all learning.

The Rose Report proposed six areas of learning (rather than the 14 discrete subjects currently available) that give schools "optimum flexibility to localise the curriculum and respond to children's different but developing abilities, to provide ample opportunities for cross-curricular and discrete teaching and to help smooth the transition from the Early Years Foundation Stage to the primary curriculum. The areas of learning are shaped by the key ideas which are deemed essential to a child's understanding."

A final report will be published later in 2009, followed by a statutory consultation on the draft programmes of learning. Implementation of a revised primary curriculum will begin from September 2011.

 

Primary subjects

Find out about the subjects offered for primary school students.

At Key Stages 1 and 2, the statutory (core) subjects that all students must study are:

  • Art and design
  • Design and technology (D&T)
  • English
  • Geography
  • History
  • Information and communication technology (ICT)
  • Mathematics
  • Music
  • Physical education (PE)
  • Science

Also statutory is religious education2 .

The non-statutory (foundation) subjects that students can study at Key Stages 1 and 2 are:

  • Personal, social and health education (PSHE)
  • Citizenship
  • Modern foreign languages. In September 2010, modern foreign languages will become statutory at Key Stage 2
  • Sex education (Primary schools must provide and keep up to date a written statement of their policy on sex education and make it available to parents and students. If sex education is provided, parents can withdraw their children from part or all of it.)

For more information on statutory and non-statutory subjects, please see the section on the National Curriculum in the Overview of understanding the education system.

 

 

1DCSF Schools and pupils in England (2007)

2Under the Education Act 1996, schools must provide religious education for all registered students, although parents can choose to withdraw their children.

FURTHER INFO