The consultation over the new national curriculum came to an end this week, although I suspect the debate will continue to rage on.
Many of the new, shorter and fact-led programmes of study have caused controversy within education circles. One just needs to read the article written for SecEd this week by Dr Matthew Wilkinson, who leads the Curriculum for Cohesion group of academics and humanities experts. He has labelled the new history proposals ”narrow” and says their “nationalistic” thrust could have “far-reaching consequences” for our country.
Meanwhile, the Sex Education Forum is astounded that primary pupils are not to be taught about “puberty” in the science curriculum – despite the fact that the average child starts puberty at 11 (sometimes it’s as young as 8). As Dr Hilary Emery explains in her Moral Support column for SecEd, the key stage 3 science curriculum is also perplexing in its failure to include sexual health and disease, contraception, adolescence or hormones.
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