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Good morning. I\u2019m Martin Belam, and this is my first time in your inbox for First Edition \u2013 though you may already know me from Guardian live blogs, my Doctor Who obsession, and the increasingly silly Thursday news quiz I write.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m also old enough to have been part of the first ever cohort to take GCSEs instead of O-levels, and that exam upheaval has been followed by decades of successive governments tinkering with how children get educated. The latest attempt is a Bridget Phillipson-commissioned review of the entirety of England\u2019s national curriculum, led by Prof Becky Francis, which has recommended shortening exams, streamlining some subjects, and adding in new components she suggests will better equip pupils for the modern world.<\/p>\n
For today\u2019s newsletter, I spoke to the Guardian\u2019s education editor, Richard Adams<\/strong><\/em>, about the review, the government\u2019s response to it and why the process of deciding what children are taught seems so impossibly complicated.<\/p>\n First, here are the headlines.<\/p>\n UK news <\/strong><\/em>| David Lammy, the UK justice secretary, is under mounting pressure after two more prisoners, including a convicted foreign sex offender, were mistakenly freed.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n China influence <\/strong><\/em>| UK academics whose research is critical of China say they have been targeted and their universities subjected to \u201cextremely heavy\u201d pressure from Beijing. The Guardian this week revealed how Sheffield Hallam University complied with a demand from Beijing, halting a big project about human rights abuses in China.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n France <\/strong><\/em>| One of the men arrested on suspicion of stealing \u20ac88m (\u00a377m) of crown jewels from the Louvre is reportedly a minor social media star with a passion for motorbikes who has worked as a security guard at the Pompidou centre. He has been identified by justice officials as Abdoulaye N, 39.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Environment <\/strong><\/em>| There is still a chance for the world to avoid the worst ravages of climate breakdown and return to the goal of 1.5C if governments take concerted action on greenhouse gas emissions, a new assessment argues.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n UK politics <\/strong><\/em>| Lancashire\u2019s Reform-run council has been accused of \u201cselling off the family silver\u201d with plans to save \u00a34m a year by closing five council-run care homes and five day centres and selling off the land.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n <\/span>Shortening exam times will ease the strain on pupils.<\/span> Photograph: Gareth Fuller\/PA<\/p>\n In setting up a review of the national curriculum in England, Richard Adams says the government was looking for \u201cevolution not revolution\u201d, and Prof Becky Francis has delivered a report that broadly suggests the structure of education is right \u2013 but needs corrective measures.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t rip stuff up and start again,\u201d Richard said. \u201cShe\u2019s identified that the existing national curriculum \u2013 a broad but detailed description of what children should be taught at every stage in a state school \u2013 is not overly academic, but it has just got too much stuff in it.\u201d<\/p>\n The result, he says, is \u201cthe curriculum has sort of taken over schools and is seen as the beginning and end of what school should do. And that was never meant to be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Why did England get a national curriculum anyway?<\/strong><\/p>\n The modern national curriculum \u2013 which initially also applied to Wales, though not Scotland which has long had its own system \u2013 was introduced by Ken Baker in the late 1980s. Before then, what children learned in school was largely decided by teachers, local authorities and universities.<\/p>\n This excellent article by Mary James for the British Educational Research Association, tracking the history of the curriculum\u2019s development, contends that Margaret Thatcher\u2019s Conservative government argued this situation amounted to \u201ccurriculum capture\u201d by an educational establishment unaccountable to parents.<\/p>\n The 1988 Education Reform Act introduced the curriculum as a way to standardise what was taught and give central government far more control \u2013 a deliberate political shift away from local authority autonomy. The national curriculum\u2019s last major revision was in 2014 under then Conservative education secretary, now Spectator editor, Michael Gove.<\/p>\n What was the problem the report was trying to solve?<\/strong><\/p>\n Critics warned from the outset it might grow endlessly and swamp schools with content \u2013 and, Richard says, that is \u201ckind of what\u2019s happened\u201d. Nearly every reform since has promised to cut it back in one way or another.<\/p>\n Francis was asked to review everything from Year 1 to Year 13, covering every subject, every key stage and every exam. Richard described it as \u201ca sisyphean task\u201d, saying that schools are always under pressure to do more, but that they \u201ccan\u2019t keep adding new things without taking anything away. The school day is only so long.\u201d<\/p>\n He told me he knew a teacher who kept a meticulous list of every topic lobby groups wanted added to the timetable \u2013 compulsory swimming, basic first aid, internet safety. All worthwhile and well-intentioned, but the point, Richard said, was to ask: what stops happening to make room?<\/p>\n \u201cHas she actually solved that problem? It\u2019s not obvious. She\u2019s trying to shrink the national curriculum while also adding citizenship, financial literacy, digital literacy and things like being able to spot fake news. Whether that\u2019s possible is another question.\u201d<\/p>\n The order in which topics are covered might hold the key. \u201cOne of the things she talks about a lot is sequencing,\u201d said Richard. \u201cThat\u2019s really interesting to teachers and schools, and less so to the rest of us. She wants the curriculum sequenced properly \u2013 so children aren\u2019t taught the same thing twice, or at the wrong time. There\u2019s no point learning something in maths and then being taught it again in physics. Equally you don\u2019t want skill gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n Can we really expect the government to grasp the nettle?<\/strong><\/p>\n So far the official response appears broadly welcoming \u2013 albeit with limits. Francis recommended new diagnostic English and maths tests at Year 8, but Bridget Phillipson and the DfE had already jumped the gun by announcing a new reading test at that stage.<\/p>\n The idea of reducing the length of the exams pupils sit at GCSE, which looks set to go ahead, is, Richard says, \u201ca really direct and valuable thing Francis has done\u201d. Anyone who has tried to steer a child through the GCSE years will surely applaud.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s basically saying the structure works: GCSEs stay, A-levels stay, SATs stay. There\u2019s just tweaking around the edges,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n Richard mentioned that an impressive aspect of the report, which was a dense 197 pages of text, was that it drilled down into some really specific examples, as well as attempting to deal with the overall picture. He cited the example of the PE GCSE.<\/p>\n Francis identified that the academic content of the exam was bleeding into actual PE lessons, and so, he said, \u201cKids who are supposed to be doing PE \u2013 running around, throwing balls, trying not to get hit \u2013 are suddenly doing anatomy lessons on muscles instead\u201d. The suggestion is to rebrand the qualification to GCSE Sport Science to protect PE as an activity; also, he added, \u201cit sounds way cooler anyway\u201d.<\/p>\n The reforms introduced by Gove in the early years of the 2010 coalition government, Richard said, pushed pupils towards a core group of academic subjects, leaving things like design and technology, the arts and vocational subjects on the margins. One of the report\u2019s aims is to reverse that and protect what Francis calls \u201cenrichment\u201d \u2013 the extracurricular and real-world experiences that help build confidence, life skills and enjoyment of school.<\/p>\n The government has already announced pupils will be entitled to \u201cenrichment\u201d, although there is no extra funding, and schools will probably not have enjoyed hearing that Ofsted will be grading them on it.<\/p>\n Will this just be undone by the next government?<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the hardest things about education reform is that it takes a generation to see if it works. The government envisages having the new curriculum in place by 2029 \u2013 a timetable Richard said was \u201cincredibly tight. The sheer amount of work to rewrite the curriculum, retrain teachers, and change exams is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n But pupils entering Year 1 in 2029 won\u2019t sit GCSEs until 2040. That leaves plenty of time for further technological \u2013 and political \u2013 change. There is the real prospect that Labour\u2019s own reforms to England\u2019s schools will be coming into effect right after the next general election, when voters will already have had a chance to mark the party\u2019s homework for themselves.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n <\/span>Ammar Kalia, pictured with his brother Amun, mother Nutan and grandmother Sushma. Photographs taken circa 1998, at the Treaty Centre in Hounslow<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Ammar Kalia<\/p>\n Their practical use may have dwindled to almost zero \u2013 but 100 years on everyone still loves a photobooth<\/strong>; and this collection of stories (and images) from our writers on their favourite snaps is a beautiful encapsulation of why. Toby Moses, newsletters team<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Every day is a school day, and this piece taught me the phrase \u201cDon\u2019t come the raw prawn with me!\u201d entered Australia\u2019s lexicon via the riotous cabaret, vaudeville and showgirl-laden Tivoli circuit<\/strong>, which Rosamund Brennan informs us is being brought back to life in a musical. Martin<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n We all get a bit annoyed from time to time by the \u201cpavement etiquette<\/strong>\u201c of our fellow travellers \u2013 but Cameron Roh has taken it to fresh extremes, recording and marking bad behaviour. Just remember to walk in a straight line and avoid any sudden stops \u2026 Toby<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Sarah Martin went on Roblox<\/strong> \u2013 the platform with millions of young children using it to make and play their own games \u2013 and had a chilling and grim week which highlighted the seedier side of the multiplayer environment. Martin<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n The pressure is building on Kemi Badenoch, as the Conservative<\/strong> poll numbers continue to sink, and Henry Hill lays out the thinking behind the party\u2019s desire to keep her in place: let her failing leadership carry the can for the potentially disastrous local election results next year. Toby<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/span>Alejandro Garnacho fires in Chelsea\u2019s equaliser early in the second half.<\/span> Photograph: Francesco Scaccianoce\/UEFA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Champions League <\/strong><\/em>| Having gone ahead through Est\u00eav\u00e3o Willian early on, Chelsea were pegged back by goals from Leandro Andrade and Marko Jankovic, the latter from the spot, before Alejandro Garnacho levelled to secure a 2-2 draw. Dan Burn and Joelinton were on target for Newcastle in their 2-0 win against Athletic Bilbao. Manchester City eased to a 4-1 win against Borussia Dortmund with Phil Foden opening the scoring and adding to his tally in the second half.<\/p>\n Tennis <\/strong><\/em>| Amanda Anisimova fought past Iga Swiatek 6-7(3) 6-4 6-2 in a winner-takes-all match at the WTA Finals on Wednesday to join Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals and stay in the hunt for a first crown on her debut in the season-ending championship.<\/p>\n Football <\/strong><\/em>| Destiny Udogie has been named as the Premier League footballer who was allegedly threatened at gunpoint by an agent on a north London street. The Tottenham defender was out with a friend when the alleged incident occurred.<\/p>\n \u201cLammy under pressure after two more prisoners mistakenly freed\u201d is the Guardian\u2019s<\/strong> splash this morning. \u201cNot again\u201d is the Daily Mirror\u2019s<\/strong> response. The Times<\/strong> has \u201cLammy snared by latest migrant release blunder\u201d. The Express<\/strong> deplores the \u201c\u2018Shocking\u2019 release of Algerian sex attack convict\u201d. The i paper<\/strong> has \u201cManhunt for new missing prisoners as deputy PM feels heat over blunders\u201d while the Metro says \u201cLammy grilled over latest jail bungle\u201d. The Mail<\/strong> moves the story along to \u201cPolice warn of a Labour soft justice crimewave\u201d. The Telegraph<\/strong> runs with \u201cPay per mile tax to hit drivers in budget\u201d. Top story in the Financial Times<\/strong> is \u201cChina will win AI race with America, says Nvidia\u2019s chief\u201d \u2013 unless, of course, we loosen regulations in the west, says Jensen Huang.<\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: Project Pure Hope<\/p>\n The ordinary Britons evacuating children from Gaza<\/strong><\/p>\n Majd is one of a handful of injured children from Gaza brought to the UK for urgent medical treatment. But why have there been so few? Nosheen Iqbal<\/strong> reports<\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: Ella Baron\/The Guardian<\/p>\n A bit of good news to remind you that the world\u2019s not all bad<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018Coming out as gay was one thing, but transitioning was a much more frightening prospect\u2019 \u2026 Oliver Radclyffe.<\/span> Photograph: Lisa Ross<\/p>\n Author Oliver Radclyffe remembers a day that began as a simple summer trip to the V&A, but instead became a transformational day for their gender identity.<\/p>\n Taking in the 2018 exhibition David Bowie Is, Radclyffe, \u201cfound myself standing in front of a small television screen on which the video for Boys Keep Swinging was playing on repeat\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAt that moment, I knew for certain that I wanted to rip it all off and become Bowie too,\u201d Radclyffe realised. \u201cI wanted to embody the slim-silhouetted, Berlin-era Bowie. And yet I couldn\u2019t, because to truly become Bowie, first I would need to be a man.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt took another few years before my transition was complete, but none of the things I feared came true,\u201d Radclyffe concludes. \u201cI wanted the freedom to play with gender like Bowie did \u2013 and now that I\u2019m comfortable in my body, I can.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday<\/strong><\/p>\n And finally, the Guardian\u2019s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning. I\u2019m Martin Belam, and this is my first time in your inbox for First Edition \u2013 though you may already know me from Guardian live blogs, my Doctor Who obsession, and the increasingly silly Thursday news quiz I write. I\u2019m also old enough to have been part of the first ever cohort to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[18701,1043,700,1121,120,4964,5600],"class_list":{"0":"post-32380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-ambitious","9":"tag-briefing","10":"tag-curriculum","11":"tag-labours","12":"tag-national","13":"tag-rethink","14":"tag-thursday"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Five big stories<\/h2>\n
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In depth: \u2018The structure works\u200b. There\u2019s just tweaking around the edges\u2019<\/h2>\n
What else we\u2019ve been reading<\/h2>\n
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Sport<\/h2>\n
The front pages<\/h2>\n
Today in Focus<\/h2>\n
Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron<\/h2>\n
The Upside<\/h2>\n
Bored at work?<\/h2>\n