Book Cover -- Title -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction: teaching and learning in the 1990s -- How children learnand fail -- Towards a sociology of learning in primary schools -- Wally's story -- Bilingual by rights -- Sex roles in the formative years -- Learner needs or learner rights? -- The teacher as a person -- Teacher expertise -- Teaching as a professional activity -- Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching -- A first try: starting the day -- Akemi -- Teacher expectations -- Life in classrooms -- Characteristics of good practice -- The rise and fall of primary education -- The 'three wise men' and after -- Teaching strategies -- An approach to personal and social education in the primary school: or how one city schoolteacher tried to make sense of her job -- The core curriculum: an international perspective -- The national curriculum: origins, context, and implementation -- Coherence and manageability: reflections on the national curriculum and cross-curricular provision -- The evolution of the topic -- Preserving integration within the national curriculum in primary schools: approaching a school development plan -- Successful topic work -- The classteacher and the curriculum -- Teachers' subject knowledge -- Assessment and the improvement of education -- Target setting with young children -- The organisation of the primary school -- Key factors for effective junior schooling -- The culture of collaboration -- St Andrew's Church of England Primary School -- Involving the whole staff in developing a maths curriculum -- Primary-secondary transfer after the national curriculum -- Parents' choice of school -- Involving parents -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on sources -- Index.