A New Public Education for England

This is an argument for a new public education for England, but not for a new public school. The focus should be on aims, not structures. We should ensure that all schools (community schools, private schools, academies and religious schools) are working to realise the same nationally determined aims. The national set of aims should be determined not by ministers but by a Curriculum Commission. Its starting point should be the protection and nurturing of a liberal democratic community. This generates a number of major aims from which the Commission will also lay down more specific ones. Schools should be free to employ their own curricular vehicles (e.g. subjects, projects, whole-school processes) and other policies in pursuing these aims