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consider the individual needs, interests, and stage of development of each child in their care, 

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Askew, M., Bliss, J. and MacRae, S. (1995) ‘Scaffolding in mathematics, science and technology’ in Murphy, P., Selinger, M., Bourne, J. and Briggs, M. (eds.) Subject Learning in the Primary Curriculum: Issues in English, Science and Mathematics, London, Routledge/Milton Keynes, The Open University (E832 Module Reader).

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A scheme of work in the UK is an outline of learning objectives, teaching and learning activities, and assessment, normally written for a term or for an academic year for one subject for one year group. Such planning documents are used by teachers as a starting point for writing lesson plans.

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 ‘the mind is a kind of container of knowledge, and learning is a process that fills the container, implanting knowledge there’ (Paavola et al., 2004, p. 557)

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The teaching assistant is ‘scaffolding’ the children’s learning (Bruner, 1986), creating for them a zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1962) and guiding them to make new discoveries.

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 Within the activity there was ‘an implicit recognition of the importance of the voices of the learners’, which is ‘essential if we are to both understand what pupils learn from us and to value their contribution in the classroom’ (Eke and Kumar, 2008, p. 2).

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 Experiential learning was at the centre of the activity, prompted by the connection between the children’s engagement and their reflection on the experience (Zink and Dyson, 2009).

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Practitioners must consider the individual needs, interests, and stage of development of each child in their care,and must use this information to plan a challenging and enjoyable experience for each child in all of the areas of learning and development. Practitioners working with the youngest children are expected to focus strongly on the three prime areas, which are the basis for successful learning in the other four specific areas. The three prime areas reflect the key skills and capacities all children need to develop and learn effectively, and become ready for school. It is expected that the balance will shift towards a more equal focus on all areas of learning as children grow in confidence and ability within the three prime areas.  Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, to think about problems, and relate to others. Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play which is guided by adults.
In planning and guiding children’s activities, practitioners must reflect on the different ways that children learn and reflect these in their practice. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:
playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
(DfE, 2017, pp. 9–10)

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The Plowden Report (1967)
Children and their Primary Schools

A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England)

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1967
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Background notes

Historical context

The Central Advisory Council for Education (CACE) was established as a result of the 1944 Education Act. It lasted just twenty years - from its first report School and Life, published in 1947, to Plowden, published in 1967.

The 1944 Act required the provision of primary and secondary schools for all children. In the years following the Act, the new primary schools became something of an educational battleground. On the one hand, they were exhorted by many to experiment and innovate in terms of their curriculum and teaching methods. On the other, they were constrained by the pressures of 'eleven plus' selection for secondary schools - grammar schools for the minority who passed, secondary modern schools for the majority who failed. (The 'tripartite' system also called for the provision of technical schools, but few of these were ever opened.)

When it became clear that the selection system was failing most of the nation's children (a fact confirmed by the 1963 Newsom report Half our Future), some local authorities began planning comprehensive systems, with implications for the primary schools.

In August 1963 Conservative Minister of Education Sir Edward Boyle asked CACE 'to consider primary education in all its aspects, and the transition to secondary education'.

Harold Wilson's Labour government came to power in 1964 and renamed the education ministry the Department of Education and Science (DES), so it was Labour Secretary of State Anthony Crosland who received the report in November 1966, and it was published the following year.

By this time, the abolition of the eleven plus in many areas was enabling the primary schools to develop a more informal, child-centred style of education with an emphasis on individualisation and learning by discovery: in short, a 'progressive' style of education, which Plowden largely endorsed. But the trend was not without its critics, and the battle over different styles of primary education would continue for many years, with traditionalists blaming Plowden for what they saw as the failings of primary education.

Bridget Plowden

Bridget Plowden ( pictured) was born in 1910. Her father was an admiral, a naval historian and master of Downing College Cambridge. She became a juvenile magistrate and enjoyed charitable work, but she came to public attention when Boyle asked her to chair the CACE enquiry into primary schools.

Later, she became vice-chair of the BBC governors and then chair of the Independent Broadcasting Authority. In her eighties she was still involved with several charities, including the Council for Gypsy and Travellers' Children and the volunteer reading help programme in schools. She died in 2000 at the age of 90.

The Council's 25 members included Michael Young, author of The Rise Of The Meritocracy; Conservative MP Timothy Raison, then editor of New Society; Sir John Newsom, who had chaired CACE for its 1963 report; and Professor CE Gittins, who chaired the Central Advisory Council for Education (Wales) for its enquiry into primary education in Wales. (The translation of this into Welsh occupied four professors for nine months and sold 26 copies). The secretary to the Council was Maurice Kogan.

The report's recommendations

The report listed 197 recommendations which can be found in Chapter 32 of Volume 1.

The report online

The Plowden Report was published in two volumes:

Volume 1: The Report (555 pages) contained the report itself, consisting of 32 chapters, notes of reservation, three annexes, a glossary and an index.
Volume 2: Research and Surveys (633 pages) contained the research and surveys which underpinned the report.

The text of each volume is presented in a single web page, with the 400 tables, 60 diagrams and 46 photographs embedded in the text where they were in the original. Some of the tables are shown as images.
In Volume 2, I have not attempted to reproduce the layout of some of the questionnaires and forms. However, there are examples to show how they were set out in the original.

In Volume 1 the footnotes are numbered. In Volume 2 the symbols used vary from appendix to appendix. In all cases the numbers or symbols shown here are as in the printed version.

Anything added by way of explanation is shown [in square brackets].

Articles about Plowden

Further reading

Upload history

chapters 1-17 of Volume 1 on 30 August 2004;

the rest of Volume 1 on 25 October 2004;

the Oxford Review articles on 3 January 2005;

Volume 2 (complete) on 19 August 2007.

These notes were revised on 12 November 2012 and again on 26 June 2018.

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Plowden Report (1967) - background notes

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Plowden Report 'Children and their primary schools' (1967) - background notes