Is it a radical and experimental shift – a real break with the traditional subject-driven timetable – as the curriculum experts argue?
Or is it just a gentle nudge on the tiller, cutting away a certain amount of “waste and duplication” in order to find a little more space for teachers to focus on the basics, as the government wants us to think?
I believe it is the former and that the government has either been hoodwinked by its advisers or, more likely, is too nervous of being accused of going all soft and trendy to be really honest about the radical nature of this change.