A University's Challenge: Cambridge's Primary School for the Nation - The Cambridge Education Research Series

A University's Challenge: Cambridge's Primary School for the Nation Author/s: Peter Gronn and James Biddulph A University's Challenge: Cambridge's Primary School for the Nation records the establishment of the University of Cambridge Primary School (UCPS). The UCPS is the centrepiece of Cambridge University’s new project, the North West Cambridge Development. A number of aspects of the school are discussed by those senior colleagues in the University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Faculty of Education who during 2011-15, played an important part in the conception, design, negotiation and implementation of this unique venture in English primary schooling. The UCPS is nationally distinctive, because it is the sole university training school (UTS) established by the previous UK Coalition government (2010-15). It is also unique internationally, because of its three-fold functions: its simultaneous provision of primary schooling, initial teacher education (ITE) placements and a research facility that is intended to drive forward a national research agenda and a set of evidence-based outcomes that are in turn intended to re-shape English primary schooling. Features: This book documents the establishment of a unique and pioneering venture in English primary education: the University of Cambridge Primary School (UCPS)―a school linked to a high globally-ranked research-intensive university. The UCPS will offer primary education, initial teacher education (ITE) placements and, through its research facility, will generate evidence-informed research outcomes to be offered as part of teachers’ professional learning. As the first school of its kind, the book documents a ground-breaking innovation in primary schooling. Under UK legislation, the UCPS is established as a free school. With this theme in mind, the book is the first of its kind to provide a unique and full-length case study of the evolution of a free school, from its conception and design, through to its construction and the implementation of its programme. Although free schools are not required to adopt the National Curriculum (NC), the UCPS is offering the NC, which it will be building on and extend in its approach to curriculum and pedagogy.