History and geography to be axed in primaries

TRADITIONAL subjects such as history and geography will be scrapped in a radical overhaul of primary education.

Theme-based lessons on topics including healthy living and the environment will be introduced alongside more time for children to play under the plan.

The Government believes teachers need extra freedom to help pupils manage their emotions and develop good attitudes in a dramatically slimmed-down national curriculum.

The plan comes amid growing evidence that progress in raising standards in the "three Rs" has stalled. One in five 11-year-olds leaves primary school unable to read, write and add up properly despite billions spent on education in the last decade.

Ministers hope the sweeping reforms will reinvigorate primary education and give teachers more time to focus on English and maths.

But critics will seize on the plans as marking a return to the trendy, child-centred teaching methods of the Sixties and Seventies, when education experts believed that children would learn if they were left to explore topics for themselves.

From 2011, six areas of learning will replace the 11 compulsory subjects which make up the primary school national curriculum under the plan.

The new themes are: understanding English, communication and languages; mathematical understanding; scientific and technological understanding; human, social and environmental understanding; understanding physical health and well-being; understanding the arts and design.

The plan was drawn up by Sir Jim Rose, a former Ofsted director of inspection. Ministers ordered him not to review Sats, despite concerns that children spend too long preparing to take the tests.

Publishing his interim proposals ahead of a final report next year, Sir Jim said the primary school curriculum must be less prescriptive. "If we are to establish a world class, high quality curriculum, we must face the reality of prescribing less so that teachers can better teach and children can better learn," he said.

"Good primary teaching deepens and widens children's understanding by firing their imagination and interest in learning. The primary curriculum needs to be forward-looking.

"Advances in technology and the internet revolution are driving a pace of change which we could not have imagined when the national curriculum was introduced 20 years ago." Schools Secretary Ed Balls, who commissioned the Rose Review, said he wanted to "create fresh momentum in our primary schools that will ensure that all children reach their potential".

But the Conservatives condemned the plan and warned that abandoning traditional subjects such as history and science would undermine standards.

Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said: "The move away from subject areas towards topic based learning will lead to a further erosion in standards. The danger is especially acute in science and maths where the World Economic Forum says we're 47th in the world. We need more rigour in the curriculum, not less."

Under the plan, schools will be expected to give children more opportunities for play, especially in the first years of primary education. Children born in June, July and August could also start primary school part-time a year early - after their fourth birthday.