ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a reappraisal of autonomy and one or more new developments within primary education. It reflects another new direction in primary education – the development of increasing interest in management ideas applied to schools, perhaps prompted by the need to react to some of the issues. Most of what has been said in the chapter is about the problems of the primary school contraction. It is important to recognize the opportunities which that same contraction will give rise to. Civil servants in Britain operate at various levels of autonomy, from the tightly circumscribed work of a clerical officer to the very broad scope which, say, a Permanent Secretary has in interpreting government policy. The greatest challenge is to find practical ways of getting the primary teacher to accept this grander conception of her role.
