* News
* Education
* Primary schools
This article is education related and share by twitter
Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up
• New curriculum will give teachers more freedom
• Second world war and Victoria not compulsory
Polly Curtis, education editor
* The Guardian, Wednesday 25 March 2009
* Article history
About this article
Close
Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary shake-up
This article appeared on p1 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Wednesday 25 March 2009. It was published on guardian.co.uk at 00.01 GMT on Wednesday 25 March 2009. It was last modified at 11.11 BST on Monday 18 May 2009. It was first published at 00.17 GMT on Wednesday 25 March 2009.
Children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second world war under proposals to overhaul the primary school curriculum, the Guardian has learned.
However, the draft plans will require some children to master Twitter and Wikipedia and give teachers far more freedom to decide what youngsters should be concentrating on in classes.
The proposed curriculum, which would mark the biggest change to primary schooling in a decade, strips away hundreds of specifications about the scientific, geographical and historical knowledge pupils must accumulate before they are 11 to allow schools greater flexibility in what they teach.
It emphasises traditional areas of learning - including phonics, the chronology of history and mental arithmetic - but includes more modern media and web-based skills as well as a greater focus on environmental education.
The plans
0 Comments