ROBIN ALEXANDER

The Primary Review

The Primary Review is a major strategic initiative supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, one of the largest independent grant-awarding foundations in the UK. The Review, which is the most comprehensive enquiry into English primary education since the Plowden Report of 1967, is examining the current condition and future prospects of England’s public system of primary education, and will produce both formative findings and a final report containing recommendations for national policy and practice. The Review starts in October 2006 and will be completed within two years.

The Review, directed by Robin Alexander, is being undertaken by a team based at Cambridge University, supported by 70 research consultants and a 20-strong Advisory Committee chaired by Dame Gillian Pugh. The Review’s communications consultant and press officer is Dr Richard Margrave.

The Review has four strands of evidence:

• submissions - open to all who wish to contribute their views;

• soundings - from specific individuals and groups, including parents and children;

• surveys - of published research related to the ten Review themes;

• searches - of official data, both national and international.

Evidence from these sources is being concentrated initially on ten designated Review themes, central to which are questions of educational purpose, content, process, quality and standards, and the needs of children and society in a fast-changing world:

• purposes and values

• learning and teaching

• curriculum and assessment

• quality and standards

• diversity and inclusion

• settings and professionals

• parenting, caring and educating

• beyond the school

• structures and phases

• funding and governance

The Review will combine an assessment of the condition and quality of the current system of primary education with a vision for its future. It is fully independent, but is consulting widely and seeks to establish a constructive dialogue with government, opposition parties, and the main statutory and non-statutory agencies and bodies concerned with primary education, as well as with teachers, parents and children. Discussion with many of these groups was initiated in 2004-6, as part of the planning process.

Between October 2007 and April 2008 the Review is publishing a series of 32 interim reports. Through these, important evidence received by the Review is being placed in the public domain and is provoking considerable media, political and public interest and discussion. All these reports, together with briefings summarising their main findings and implications, may be downloaded from the Review website. Among them is a report by Robin Alexander and Linda Hargreaves on the 87 regional Community Soundings undertaken in 2007. Community Soundings Report. The website also includes press releases and a roundup of media handling of the Review and its reports.

In November 2007, the Worshipful Company of Weavers sponsored a public lecture by Robin Alexander on the progress of the Primary Review. The lecture was given in London and was introduced by Baroness Morris (Estelle Morris), formerly Secretary of State for Education and Skills. Text of the Weavers’ lecture.

For further information, including details of the matters which the Review is investigating, guidance on submitting evidence, and copies of all briefings, reports and other publications produced so far: www.primaryreview.org.uk.

Press enquiries: Richard Margrave, richard@margrave.co.uk.

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