Join us
And find out why ATL is the fastest growing union in the education sector
Cambridge review calls for radical reforms
16 October 2009
A newly-published report on the British education system has made several key recommendations for radical school reforms.
Chief among the suggestions made in the Cambridge Primary Review are a call for children to start school aged six and the recommendation that Sat exams should be scrapped.
Dame Gillian Pugh, Chair of the review, said: 'If you introduce a child to too formal a curriculum before they are ready for it then you are not taking into account where children are in terms of their learning and their capacity to develop.
'If they are already failing by the age of four-and-a-half or five it's going to be quite difficult to get them back into the system again.'
The Cambridge review, which was based evidence from eight surveys, 1,052 written submissions and 250 focus groups, represents the biggest analysis of primary level education in the UK for 40 years.
Based at the University of Cambridge, the fully independent review was supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.