ABSTRACT
Innumerable books and articles have been written about the school curriculum, its purposes and aims. Many contrasting opinions and emphases have been expressed. Nevertheless, at the end of the twentieth century there is a widespread view in official, as well as in professional circles, that the 'present statutory arrangements, including the National Curriculum, lack a clear vision of what the parts, individually and collectively, are designed to achieve'.3 Such agreement is hardly surprising. The original aims of the National Curriculum were set out in the most general terms. The Education Reform Act of 1988 stated that a maintained school should have a 'balanced and broadly based curriculum' which
promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society; and prepares such pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.
