Aren’t you listening, Sir Jim?

Sir Jim Rose publishes his final report on the primary curriculum today. It seems little has changed form the interim report that was published last year. This morning he was interviewed by Jim Naughtie on Radio 4 Today programme about his findings.

Predictably he had nothing of any particular interest to say that wasn’t pure waffle. But I was interested in, and perturbed by, what he pointedly didn’t say or didn’t want to talk about.

For example he chose to ignore Jim Naughties response:

‘It sounds so obvious in a way, doesn’t it? That the basics, reading and writing, and to some extent numeracy, also depend on the ability to communicate in class. It’s a funny thing when you have to write that down’

And to Jim Naughties reference to the concept of children learning at their own pace he responded that there are:

‘…a lot of things that revolve around all that that need thinking through more carefully.’

He doesn’t want to talk about that I suspect because it would raise the issue of Year 6 SATS which he has been told not to go into in his report.

As ever there is more fiddling around with numeracy and literacy and of course the big idea, talking (and ‘word poverty’).

When asked about teacher’s concerns that the recommendations in the review are just tinkering, reordering, relabeling, adding to the teacher’s burden Sir Jim remarked:

‘There is no doubt that we have let the curriculum get too fat. And we do need to slim it down and we do need to give teachers far more flexibility and opportunity to be creative. However…..‘

So no addressing of these real issues yet then!

And his final remark was that the recommendations deliver:

‘A much better match of the particular learning paths of children.’

This is gobbledygook.

Seems it’s Sir Jim himself who needs to focus on his listening and speaking skills!