Curriculum Co‐ordination: a lost opportunity for primary school development?

Abstract

While considerable attention has been paid in primary schools to school development planning and notions of management which originated in theories of organisational development, there has been little encouragement to link together concerns of curriculum, staff and school development through the work of the curriculum co‐ordinator. The current frameworks of curriculum co‐ordinators are surveyed in a questionnaire to 17 teachers and 78 final year students engaged in training for curriculum co‐ordination in part through school placements. The data confirm the view of co‐ordinator as consultant outlined in, for example, National Curriculum Guidance to Schools. It is argued that to take this limited view of curriculum co‐ordination is to lose the opportunity to exploit the school development potential of the role and to put at risk present primary school staffing structures.