ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the history and nature of primary education in the UK, including its boundaries and links with early years and secondary education. A number of competing traditions have been seen to influence the shaping of the primary school curriculum. What emerges is a complex picture with some variation between the four nations of the UK and a number of significant political interventions, especially towards the end of the twentieth century. The role and responsibilities of teachers in relation to the school curriculum have been a matter of considerable change and we begin to see how the professional identities of primary school teachers relate as much to children as they do to knowledge.
