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HMI Primary Survey (1978) Notes on the text
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Primary education in England
A survey by HM Inspectors of Schools (1978) London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1978
Chapter 4 The curriculum: planning and continuity
i TEACHERS WITH SPECIAL CURRICULAR RESPONSIBILITIES 4.1 Heads and teachers are responsible for seeing that the curriculum of their school is appropriately covered both within individual classes and throughout the school. The programme of work planned for the children must take into account the subject matter to be taught and the means of helping children to learn, understand and make progress. The effectiveness of such a programme can be considerably enhanced if individual teachers are given responsibility within the school for both the planning and oversight of the work in relation to particular aspects of the curriculum. The allocation of responsibilities for subjects within the curriculum was often associated with the award of scale 2 or higher posts although this was not always the case, see Table 24. 4.2 The way in which positions of responsibility for areas of the curriculum were distributed no doubt reflected a variety of factors, not least the size of the school and the number of posts available. Responsibility for music was recognised in 70 per cent of all the schools. This is a subject in which many teachers feel they do not have sufficient expertise and was one of the subjects most frequently taught by a teacher other than the class teacher. (1) The wish to attract a competent musician to the staff of a school probably accounts, in part, for the frequency with which special posts had been allocated to music. 4.3 Overall responsibility for the work in English language, including reading, was allocated to a named teacher in half of all the schools, although in two form entry schools the teaching of games was more frequently listed than language work. Taken together, posts of responsibility for games, swimming and gymnastics formed a very substantial group. It may be that the number of posts allocated for games and swimming reflected the additional organisational duties often associated with these subjects. 4.4 Posts with special responsibility for games were more common than posts for mathematics, except in three form entry and larger schools where mathematics ranked second only to music. Posts for science occurred in less than a fifth of schools and were also, proportionally, more frequently represented in the larger schools. Responsibility for art and crafts was allocated in about a third of all the schools. 4.5 In a quarter of the schools in the survey teachers with positions of curricular or organisational responsibility were having a noticeable influence on the quality of work in the school as a whole. In the remaining schools there was little evidence that the influence of teachers with curricular responsibilities spread beyond the work in their own classes. Where teachers with responsibilities for a particular area of the curriculum were effective in influencing the work of the school this was apparent in a number of ways: in the case of English language and mathematics there was evidence of teachers planning programmes of work in consultation with the head, advising other teachers and helping to encourage a consistent approach to the work in these subjects. 4.6 To some extent such an approach was reflected in the fact that 85 per cent or more of schools had schemes of work in mathematics and English. Nearly three quarters of the schools had written guidelines for religious education; in all local authorities 'agreed syllabuses' are provided and in county and controlled schools the schemes are adapted from these. In any other subject fewer than half of the schools had a scheme of work, see Table 25. There was evidence in the survey that where a teacher with a special responsibility was able to exercise it through the planning and supervision of a programme of work, this was effective in raising the standards of work and the levels of expectation of what children were capable of doing. (2) ii. TRANSITION BETWEEN CLASSES 4.7 The 7, 9 and 11 year olds had almost all previously been in another class within the same school. The teachers indicated that a variety of methods were used to assess the capabilities of the children when they arrived in their new classes. Most of the class teachers were able to hold discussions with the children's previous teacher and nearly half had visited the children in their former classes. Three quarters of the teachers indicated that they were able to refer to the school's records on the progress of individual children and in over a third of the classes teachers received individual folders containing samples of each child's work. The use of individual folders of work was more common in the infant classes than in the classes containing junior children. Tests devised by the school were considerably more likely to be given to children in the 9 and 11 year old classes, see Table 26. 4.8 The use of commercially produced standardised tests is a method of comparing the attainment of individual children, or classes, with others of their age in a large number of schools. Over four fifths of the 9 and 11 year old classes and nearly half of the 7 year old classes used standardised tests to monitor children's progress; more than a third of the 9 and 11 year old classes used published tests for diagnostic purposes. iii. CONTINUITY BETWEEN SCHOOLS 4.9 Various measures were used to ease the transition of children between schools. The majority of schools maintained some form of record of the progress of individual children. Four fifths of the schools used official local education authority records and three fifths had devised their own system of record keeping, often in addition to the official record. Separate infant and larger schools were more likely to provide their own system of record keeping. About a fifth of the schools kept individual folders of work samples to accompany the child to his next school. 4.10 In over four fifths of the schools heads, and occasionally other teachers, were able to visit the schools to which children would be transferring and in over 90 per cent of the schools the children visited their future school before the transition took place. Half of the schools received information on the subsequent progress of the children in their new schools, see Table 27. 4.11 Joint meetings of teachers from the contributory and receiving schools for discussion about the curriculum took place in less than a third of the schools. While considerable efforts were clearly made to ease children's transition from one school to the next, the importance of continuity in the curriculum of the schools was largely overlooked. The planning of the curriculum and the preparation of schemes of work should take into account the requirements of the next stage of education as well as the effects of the previous stage. This can be achieved only if there is regular and systematic consultation between teachers from the associated schools.
Annex to Chapter 4 All the data in the tables are weighted. (3) Table 24 The percentage of schools having teachers with special curricular responsibilities by form of entry (size of year group) Table 25 The percentage of schools with written guidelines or schemes of work for each subject Table 26 Methods used by class teachers to assess children's capabilities on arrival in a new class Table 27 Measures most frequently used to ease transfer between schools Footnotes (1) See Annex to Chapter 3, Table 20 (2) See Chapter 1, paragraphs 36 and 37 and Note 12 (3) See Appendix D 
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