What Comprehensives Schools do Better

Ultimately, most teachers in comprehensive schools, be they primary or secondary, are there because they believe that what they are doing is right, and also that it will do some good. In this chapter, the author need to think afresh about what young people should learn in school and how they should learn it. Almost as inspiring as the Norwegian national curriculum, because the people have made it themselves, is the curriculum statement agreed recently by the headteachers of every LEA primary, secondary and special school in Oxfordshire. Many comprehensive schools regard themselves as resources for all the people in their locality. At Peers the people have, amongst other features, a public library, sports centre, nursery, further education centre, commercial business employing fifty people, a 10-year-old link with a school in Tanzania, and an annual tea dance for 200 elderly people from all over Oxford.