THE PRIMARY REVIEW

Based at the University of Cambridge and supported by
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Children ... their world ... their education

The education children receive during their primary years is crucial for both their personal development and the country as a whole. But times are changing fast. We know that we must ask whether today's education is fit for tomorrow's world. We might also ask, no less insistently, whether tomorrow's world will be fit for today's children.

Meanwhile, our primary schools have experienced two decades of reform but much remains unchanged, and there are questions to ask about the reforms themselves. What has been their impact? Is the balance of change and continuity as it should be? What is England's system of primary education trying to achieve? How well is it doing? How can it be improved?

The Primary Review is drawing on a wide range of evidence in order to answer these and many other questions. It combines analysis of current practice with a vision for the future. It is fully independent.

England's system of primary education is publicly funded. It belongs to all of us. We invite you to participate in the first comprehensive review of English primary education for 40 years.

About Us provides more information about the Primary Review.

This leaflet summarises the Primary Review's remit and background.    

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ON THE HOME STRAIGHT

The Primary Review has published 29 interim reports and has held meetings with organisations and practitioners to discuss their implications. We are now preparing the final report.

Download copies of the reports, briefings and press releases to date from this page.
Read them. Join the discussion. Let us know what you think.


The interim reports provoked considerable media, public and political interest, and provided the top UK news story on several occasions.

Read media coverage of the Primary Review interim reports here.

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LEARNING AND TEACHING IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS:
PROCESSES AND CONTEXTS
16 May 2008
Read the three final Primary Review interim reports.

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CHILDHOOD WELLBEING AND PRIMARY EDUCATION
Primary Review joins forces with the
Good Childhood Inquiry and the GTC.

Read the Primary Review contribution to the national conference, 17 March 2008

Read more about this event

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PROGRESS REPORT
For a brief account of what we have done so far and what lies ahead, click here.

Email the Primary Review Administrator
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 767523

Accessibility

General Accessibility Policy

The Primary Review has an Accessibility Standard comprised of the baseline requirements to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as part of their overall Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Accessibility and The Primary Review website

The Primary Review is dedicated to meet accessibility requirements in the following areas:

• Frames: The Primary Review website does not include frames (i.e., separate sections of the display area that are generated from different webpages).
• Images: The Primary Review website provides equivalent text for images that convey information.
• Multimedia: The Primary Review website avoids the use of multimedia (i.e., presentations that include components such as video, animation, and sound).
• Colour: The Primary Review website does not rely on color to convey information.
• PDF (Portable Document Format): Where material on The Primary Review website is provided in PDF Format, the files will be accompanied with hyperlinks to help using PDF files, see "Using Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®" and the Adobe Acrobat Reader download site. For disability access PDF files may be converted to accessible web pages by following this link: http://access.adobe.com/simple_form.html.  The Adobe Acrobat™ Accessibility site also provides users with a tool for converting PDF files to HTML.
• Scripts, Applets and plug-ins: The Primary Review website does not use applets (i.e., programs designed to be executed from within another program) or plug-ins (i.e., programs that add features to a standard browser), and the use of javascript has been strictly limited.

Changing Text and Background Colours
You may wish to change the either the colour of the text on these webpages, the background colour, or both. For example, some people may prefer white text on a black background, whilst others can only easily read yellow text on a black background.

You can change the font that determines how text looks on a webpage

• You can increase the size of text on a webpage
• You can change the colour of both text and background of a webpage

This is easy to do and you can apply this to all websites you visit, not just this website!

• Click here to find out how to make these changes in Netscape browser
• Click here to find out how to make these changes in Internet Explorer browser

If you have comments or suggestions about the accessibility of The Primary Review website , please contact us.

Disclaimer

Endorsement Disclaimer - Links to Other Sites

Our website has links to many other websites. You are subject to that website's privacy policy when you leave our site and the Primary Review is not responsible for the content on any website that we link to.

Information Disclaimer

The information provided using this Web site is only intended to be general summary information to the public. It is not intended to take the place of either the written law or regulations.