ABSTRACT
This short piece is included as a complement to the paragraphs from the 1977 Green Paper (see pp. 51-4). It is reproduced from the foreword to the report of the national primary survey, which involved HM Inspectors of Schools in visiting a representative sample of English primary schools and in inspecting the work of over a thousand classes. The passage provides a very brief summary of the state of English primary education in the mid-seventies, as seen by the Inspectorate. It records the concern of primary teachers that children should be well-behaved, literate and numerate; it refers to ‘encouraging results’ in reading; but it also acknowledges that ‘in some aspects of the work the results overall are sometimes disappointing’. The report to which it was a foreword presented a description and analysis of primary education based on professional observation and evaluation rather than on hearsay or on wishful thinking. Its significance is discussed in the next extract in this section; many of its most important passages are reproduced in Volume 2 of the source book.
