This chapter offers a comparative analysis of primary curriculum and assessment policy in England compared to other countries. The purpose is to enhance understanding of England’s curriculum and assessment priorities by providing an account of the ways in which primary curriculum and assessment policy in England conforms to and deviates from international trends. The chapter is in three parts. The first part offers an overview of current curriculum

and assessment policy in England and goes on to compare England with 21 other countries. The focus of analysis is curriculum orientation, subject headings and the official arrangements for primary assessment. This first part of the report draws primarily, though not exclusively, on secondary sources, specifically the International Review of Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks (INCA) Archive1 which is an ongoing compilation of information on education in some 20 countries. The second part attends more closely and in more detail to curriculum. It compares

curriculum policy in England with policy in the other countries/parts of the UK: Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and with three countries outside the UK: France, Norway and Japan. By comparing primary curriculum as detailed in government websites and other official sources of the respective countries, this part of the report enables a more penetrating exploration of differences and similarities in curriculum policy in England. The third part of the chapter follows the pattern of the second but with reference to

assessment. The identification and discussion of the convergences and divergences may support policy

makers as they deliberate about future reforms of curriculum and assessment in England.

ENGLAND IN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT