ABSTRACT
To many people outside education, and perhaps yourself if you are just about to begin your course of initial teacher training, the terms the primary school curriculum and the National Curriculum for primary schools mean the same thing. However, to people more closely involved with schools the two terms are, for a number of reasons, quite distinct. In focusing on the primary school curriculum (sometimes called the whole curriculum), rather than the National Curriculum, one purpose for this chapter is to make explicit the differences that exist between the two. In doing so, this book should serve not only as a guide to the major features and key ideas underpinning the (whole) primary curriculum but also as a guide to how each subject comprising the National Curriculum may be implemented in a typical primary school classroom.
