Michael Gove's curriculum experts - who are they?

16 Jun 2010

We can expect an announcement soon about the membership of the Curriculum Committee which will advise the government on the overhaul of the national curriculum.

A few names have been bandied about already, including the historian Niall Ferguson who appeared to get the 'job offer' to rewrite the history curriculum during a public session at the Guardian Hay festival.

I understand that other likely names for the committee include:

Ruth Miskin, synthetic phonics expert.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, principal of the Mossbourne Academy in Hackney.

John McIntosh, former head teacher of  The London Oratory School.  He retired in 2006 and is a former member of the National Curriculum Council.

I understand that the search for other members is proving difficult, as the new government tries to find people from the teaching world who share ministers' views.  A call for help is believed to have gone out to the Prince's Trust Teaching Institute, which tends to take a sympathetic view of the traditional subject-based approach to the curriculum.

It is likely that the new committee will lean towards favouring knowledge over skills and traditional subjects over 'areas of learning'.

Watch this space for the announcement.

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