The West Midlands Centre for the Cambridge Primary Review

The University of Wolverhampton’s School of Education is delighted to announce that they are to host the West Midlands Regional Centre for the Cambridge Primary Review (CPR).

This initiative is being supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and has been given a boost by the new government’s advocacy of greater professional freedom.The West Midlands Centre will be co-ordinated by Diane Swift, please contact Diane if you wish to find our more about the centre or contribute to its work.

The CPR National Primary Network is a direct response to requests from teachers and others following the publication of the review’s final report, Children, their World, their Education.

The network aims to:

• Support and influence local and national policy development through exemplifying excellence in learning and teaching 
• Empower teachers and children through developing expertise in pedagogy (learning, teaching, curriculum assessment) and leadership
• Improve the quality of primary education experienced by the nation’s children, especially those who suffer material, social or educational disadvantage.

Our regional centre is particularly concerned to facilitate collaborative activities across the fourteen West Midlands Local Authorities. The CPR is unequivocal in its view that high quality primary education is best secured though an informed broad and balanced curriculum rather than an exclusive emphasis on literacy and numeracy, essential though these are. The CPR recognises that such an ambition is best supported through high quality initial teacher education and continuing professional development.

Forthcoming Events

West Midlands Regional Centre Launch Event
7 March 2011, 1.30pm - 4pm
Further information

Colleagues are invited to join us to consider Communication, Creativity and Mapping. A group of West Midlands teachers will be exploring ways in which they can use and develop children’s mapping capabilities as a way of communicating learning. This CPD event will also enable teachers to explore aspects of connected curriculum planning.

The National Curriculum Review - Call for Evidence

In early March a group of our BEd trainees are going to participate in a philosophical enquiry to share their thoughts on the National Curriculum Review. We will post their thoughts here, so watch this space to find out what the next generation of teachers thinks.

Interested in developing your PSHE programme to include philosophical enquiry? We are looking for a small number of primary schools to become involved in a small scale research project to explore the use of philosophy for children approaches in their PSHE provision. If you think that you might be interested in this work then please contact Diane.