ABSTRACT
The Education Reform Act of 1988 established a ‘broad and balanced’ National Curriculum as a statutory entitlement for all pupils in all state schools in England and Wales. Yet, it was always acknowledged that, in practice, the National Curriculum would not be the same in all schools. Important aspects of curriculum design, planning and crucially approaches adopted in teaching remained matters that, quite appropriately, individual schools and the teachers within them would make decisions about. We are arguably no more able to make generalisations about the quality or appropriateness of individual learning experiences within schools across England and Wales than we were prior to 1988. The requirements of the National Curriculum for Physical Education (DES/WO, 1992) were ultimately such that students could still experience a differing range of activities within their physical education, and could be grouped in various ways, taught using more or less directive approaches and assessed by differing means. Thus, the development of a National Curriculum and specifically NCPE left issues of equity and inclusion as needing to be positively engaged with by individual teachers (see for example Barton, 1993; Talbot, 1993).
