ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the state of primary education up to and including New Labour's terms in office, it is worthwhile spending time considering some of the ways in which primary education has altered over time. Following the Labour government's circular 10/65 calling for comprehensive secondary education to be considered at the local education authority (LEA) level, primary schools became freer to innovate, freed as from the shackles of the 11-plus. Subsequently, in the 1960s and 1970s the belief was that primary age children need their own curriculum and pedagogy. In 1967 the Central Advisory Council for Education (CACE) produced the Plowden Report. The first Conservative Secretary of State for Education in 1979, Keith Joseph, abolished CACE in an effort to win back control from what was perceived to be far left-leaning organisations controlling the educational landscape. In order to control primary practice, New Labour used the mechanisms of: coercion and pressure; defining high-quality teaching; and the curriculum.
