History and geography axed in primary schools for lessons on healthy living and the environment
By Laura Clark
Last updated at 9:56 PM on 08th December 2008
Traditional subjects such as history and geography are to be axed in the biggest overhaul of primary education for 20 years.
Timetables will instead be arranged around six 'areas of learning' that merge subjects into general themes.
Pupils will also spend more time learning how to deal with 'deep societal concerns' such as violence, drug abuse, obesity, teenage pregnancy and debt.
The blueprint was drawn up by former Ofsted chief Sir Jim Rose following a request from Children's Secretary Ed Balls.
It amounts to the biggest shake-up of primary schooling since the Tories introduced a national curriculum in 1988. The national curriculum was organised around 11 subjects - an arrangement that has broadly continued to this day.
The Conservatives last night warned the plans, likely to come into force in 2011, would lead to a 'further erosion of standards'.
They pointed to similar 'child-centric' reforms of the Sixties and Seventies which experts say led to a collapse in literacy and numeracy.
Tory education spokesman Michael Gove said: 'In adopting this throwback to the 1960s, the Government is denying the highest quality of education to children in the state sector. The experiment with this kind of ideology - moving away from facts, knowledge and rigour - failed 40 years ago and will fail again.'
Under the plan, history, geography and religious education will be merged into 'human, social and environmental' studies.
Other areas cover communication (English and modern languages), science and technology, maths, physical health and wellbeing, and the arts.
The aim of scrapping distinct subjects is to allow teachers to introduce them in other parts of the curriculum, for example teaching literacy or history through design and technology.
However, 69-year-old Sir Jim, the Government's key adviser on primary schools, insisted that some subject- specific teaching would remain, saying: 'High-quality subject teaching must not disappear from primary schools.'
He added that he was not advocating a return to the 'vagaries of old-style topic and project work'.
Children will be taught how to speak English properly and expand their vocabulary.
Schools will also be required by law to teach foreign languages to pupils aged seven to 11 from 2011.
They will be encouraged to concentrate on one or two languages and most schools are expected to opt for French or Spanish.
All children will start school at the age of four even if they are born in the summer and are considered too young by their parents.
Schools will be expected to nurture children's emotional wellbeing and their social skills.
They could also be rated using a traffic light system or an A to E sliding scale, heralding the end of league tables.
Schools that are judged to do well at promoting pupils' 'wellbeing' may score good grades even if their exam results are middling or poor.
This is because the annual 'school report cards' will reflect truancy levels, pupil behaviour and how healthy schools keep children.
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