ABSTRACT
Planning for literacy in 2012 presents both opportunities and challenges. The demise of the National Strategies, with their national frameworks and detailed units of work, has left a vacuum for teachers. While this has left some teachers de-skilled and de-professionalised, for others it has provided opportunities to work more creatively. As Alexander points out, this is a shift in emphasis and teachers need to move towards ‘repertoires rather than recipes’ (2010: 37). As a repertoire, the many resources of the National Strategies, some of which still reside in the National Archives, are a fruitful source of teaching material. A second aspect concerns the two major reviews undertaken in 2010 – the Rose Review of the Curriculum and the Cambridge Review. Both have much to say about the nature of the curriculum, although they vary in many respects. Irrespective of these reviews, the coalition government is again consulting on a revised National Curriculum and indications signify a much more traditional subjects-based curriculum. The DfE (2012c) has indicated that less prescription may result, but whether this will offer real opportunities for teachers to have more say over what they teach is yet to be seen.
