ABSTRACT
A frisson of anxiety was experienced by many when the DES paper A Framework for the School Curriculum tried to put some percentage figures into the debate about a core curriculum. I suspect the phrase that rippled the pool in the secret garden came in the first paragraph, when it said, ‘there is an accumulation of evidence, reinforced by the replies to DES circular 14/77 . . . and by the two surveys of primary and secondary education carried out by H.M. Inspectors . . .’
