ABSTRACT
Pressed with the demands of implementing the changing statutory elements of the national curriculum many teachers have placed the development of the non-statutory elements in abeyance. The documentation of the core and foundation subjects has enabled teachers to plan curricula fully and completely. However the documentation of the cross-curricular themes has been far less easy to handle. It takes the form of slender booklets of suggestions from the National Curriculum Council. Though these suggestions are helpful and interesting nevertheless they provide incomplete and uneven coverage of key elements of curriculum planning. The chapter discusses the main elements of a curriculum plan and examines the extent to which the Curriculum Guidance documents address these elements. One can remark that on key areas which give rise to anxiety and concern by teachers who are implementing the national curriculum — relationships between the cross-curricular themes and statutory national curriculum subjects, curriculum content, teaching styles in implementing the themes — the documents are patchy.
