ABSTRACT
The year 2000 was revolutionary for education in England. For the first time in the country’s history, all state schools were given a common framework of curricular aims. What are the implications of this revolution for the school curriculum itself – not least for the subjects that make it up? Nearly all of these were part of the curriculum before 2000. At that time they were not directed by a national framework because there was no such framework. How closely have the new overall aims matched the aims of the subjects? How far should the latter now evolve so as to improve the match? How far indeed should the curriculum be planned on a subject basis at all? School subjects are, after all, only vehicles to achieve certain ends: they are not self-justifying entities. Now that we have a set of overarching aims, could these be realised by other kinds of curricular vehicle?
