The Primary Review is a wide-ranging and independent enquiry into the condition and future of primary education in England. It is supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and based at the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. It is perhaps the most comprehensive such investigation since the publication of the Plowden Report in 1967.
Following extensive professional, political, academic and lay consultations going back to 2004, we decided to concentrate on ten broad themes, central to which are questions of value, purpose, process, content and quality in England’s primary schools. The Review is combining analysis of the current system with exploration of the national and global challenges which lie ahead; and it is considering how, in the interests of both children and society, primary education should respond to these.
The Review is firmly grounded in both national and international evidence. There are four evidential strands:
- submissions, written and electronic, which are open to all who wish to contribute,
- oral soundings taken from identified individuals and groups, including parents and children,
- systematic searches of official data, and
- comprehensive surveys, commissioned from leading national experts, of published research relating to the Review’s ten themes.
This range of evidence will enable the Review to be authoritative, balanced, responsive and visionary.
The Review will run for two years from 1st October 2006, and will culminate in a report containing recommendations for future policy and practice. Interim reports and briefings will be published along the way in order to stimulate debate.
The Review is directed by Professor Robin Alexander, Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, Professor of Education Emeritus at the University of Warwick, and past member of CATE, QCA and other public bodies, and of the ‘three wise men’ primary enquiry of 1991-2.
The work of the Review’s Cambridge-based central team is supported by about 60 research consultants, an Advisory Committee chaired by Dame Gillian Pugh, a Management Group led by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and a Director of Communications, Richard Margrave. In recognition of the importance of locating questions about primary education in their wider social, cultural and economic context, the Advisory Committee contains 21 distinguished members drawn from varied walks of life both inside and outside education.
See the sidebar for answers to frequently-asked questions about the Primary Review.
