ABSTRACT
Stephanie Northen, a writer with the Times E du cation al Supplement, is concerned that children are becoming stressed by the over-emphasis on testing and the implications that this is having on their lives. English primary schools, she suggests, have pursued a pedagogy and a curriculum linked to formal learning to the detriment of both free and structured play. This, she argues, has squeezed music, art, PE, and fun out of the timetable, and this has not been in the interests of children’s development or their engagement with learning. This chapter was first published as an article in 2003.
