ABSTRACT
Privatization is an ungainly and provocative word, and many will think it inappropriate when applied to the school curriculum. It may appear particularly inept at a time when a national curriculum has been centrally established by statute. Throughout the period of compulsory schooling the greater part of the timetable will be devoted to the foundation subjects: mathematics, English, science, history, geography, technology, music, art, physical education and, at secondary level, a modern foreign language. Some of the future curriculum development will be large in scale and centrally directed; but perhaps more significant will be the continuous development conducted at the work face by teachers themselves. The informal curriculum need not be a hidden curriculum. Its values and codes of conduct can be made evident to all: staff, parents, governors and the public at large; not so much by way of written aims and objectives in glossy brochures, but as they are perceived in action.
