ABSTRACT
Since 1988 the curriculum of maintained schools in England has been required to be broad and balanced, and to promote pupils’ ‘spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.’1 A basic curriculum consisting of religious education (RE) and the National Curriculum (NC) was introduced to all maintained schools. Despite these explicit references to the higher purposes and areas concerning values in education, there was, during the 1990s, rising concern about the actual values young people were growing up with, highlighted by tragic and well publicised murders involving young people, for example the murder of James Bulger in Merseyside by two boys of early secondary school age, and the murder of a head teacher, Philip Lawrence, whilst carrying out his duties in London. This concern was eventually to contribute to a more explicit statement of the values that education should promote.
