ABSTRACT
It appears that drastic action is now thought necessary, at least for two years, in order to drive up standards in the EMITS subjects (English, mathematics, information technology and science) in the primary curriculum. As for the rest, despite official assurances that schools will need to ‘have regard’ to all of them, they are not to be closely inspected either in general terms or with emphasis on individual Levels, however vague. So in practice there is a danger that there will be cut-throat competition between the minor foundation subjects, at both local and national level, especially – and shamefully – in places where the prior mastery of language and number is least likely.
