I for one would welcome this new curriculum. As a primary school teacher forced to specialise in ICT and teach different year groups every afternoon would welcome anything that puts ICT into the curriculum where it belongs. My specialism is history which i am not allowed to teach!

Linda Clarke, Wiral, England

How does "mathematical understanding" differ from maths, "scientific and technological understanding" from science and technology, etc? It sounds like the difference between reading a magazine article about a topic and learning the topic itself.
As if there weren't enough uneducated people already.

Graham Rounce, London, UK

If we're teaching life skills then include touch-typing as soon as they get to use a keyboard. To watch a kid waste 20 seconds hunting for one letter is agonising. Otherwise - might be good if only it's done with depth, breadth and insight. And rigour - we already have teachers who can't spell

John, Péault, France

Take away peoples history and you take away their sense of belonging. Labour have spent 11 years messing around with education system and tinkering with statistics. How about they learn one lesson, leave the education system alone and every change costs taxpayers money!

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

So glad my daughter is in year six.

Margaret, Sale,

I have seen dozens of these reforms now and each makes a positive contribution to illiteracy and innumeracy.

Victor, NWKent, Swanley, England

This is supposed to be teaching for the real world but there is no mention of the most vital skill of all in this society - financial survival. Teach kids all about the rip-offs and traps that are laid for them: debt traps, mortgages, low-pay employers, poor pensions, private health, credit cards.

John Paterson, London,

For the previous comments, why don't you all look to the future and not the past? This is change for the better. There is nothing wrong with wanting to change a 100 year old education system that was designed for my great grandparents and not for me or my future children.

Michael, London,

Another excuse for dumbing down.

Ray, Bretange, France

What is taught in Primary School "IT"? Not how to programme or build a PC, so if it is just how to turn it on, type, click and navigate between programmes then why a separate subject. We teach English to kids but don't have separate class for writing or how to open a book. Change for change's sake

Simon, London, UK

The purpose of education is to prepare our children for THEIR future...in order to do that successfully our understanding of and approach to schooling MUST change. Education over the last 50 years has left our nation beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

Richard Gerver, Derby, England

The reason our kids dont know any thing is becuse we change what there soposed to know once a year with education reforms, how can they learning any thing when we keep changing what they are expect to know?

MR Jones, Liverpoool, England

Why not go back to what works with Primary children.
Teach Maths, English and Technology as seperate detailed subjects, but include them and any other subjects into diverse, interesting and worthy projects.
Teachers could work to their own strengths.
Over the primary years you get the balance right

John, Stockport, England

I am currently reading 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' by Robert T Kiyosaki. One of his lessons is that you would have to be born before 1945, in order to be guranteed a secure life, just on education. This is a move which I hope will, as Sir Jim says, help children to grow to solve real world problems.

Jack, Exeter, UK

Not mad - evil! Mind-broadening subjects repackaged as uncritical propaganda? Everybody smiles? I saw that in Stalinist Albania! Happiness was compulsory. Not smiling got long years in jail. Trying to leave got them chained to the back of a lorry which drove faster and faster until they were dead.

Gerard Mulholland, Paris, France

Sir Jim Rose is a genius! He has just added "understanding" to the subject names (i.e. maths becomes "mathematical understanding," english becomes "understanding english," science becomes "scientific and technological understanding," etc), and he got paid for it.

William, Ilkley,

Many schools are already adopting topic based learning, linking subjects together under themes. This is not like the topic education of the 70s. It is not making links for the sake of it. RE usually not included due to the locally agreed syllabus which links to the community the pupils live in

Liz Sloan, London,

The saddest thing about education today is that schools have to teach "citizenship". This is not an academic subject and should be taught at home by example, freeing up valuable time to teach core subjects. Small wonder our graduate applicants feel they "should of" done better in English.

Yvonne Cotterill, Telford, Shropshire

A rich capitalist's dream education is cooking up. History is far more important for innovation, democracy, freedom and human rights than computers. The UK is building what it has always intended, a nation of ultra ignorant sheep ready to be slaughtered at any time. Congratulations.

Andreas Andreou, Cyprus,

Actually,all the naysayers seem to be missing the point. Educational standards in England have long since dropped and something has to be done otherwise children's minds will continue to decline. This does place more emphasis on the teacher but could be a good idea. How effective is education today?

Paul, Tokyo,

Not thoroughly teaching history, geography and religion. Oh great, there goes our shared cultural background. I agree with J Jenkins of York, this new class will just be left wing indoctrination class.

Rich, Middlesbrough,

It sounds like a good plan to me, those who disagree seem to think that schools are solely responsible for the education. The way parents interact with their offspring will be just as, if not more, important. If you set them on the right course at home they should turn out just fine.

Rae, Cardiff,

The next stage in the dumbing down of the populous
INGSOC is alive and kicking.

Phil, BOLTON, ENGLAND

Is it any wonder that one can't have a proper conversation with the droids manning UK call centres, or be served properly in a shop, or even discuss business properly with suppliers when the UK workforce is so basically stupid?

Keep traditional subjects and develop young brains, don't ruin them.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

Sensible history is no longer taught at schools anyway. It's left wing propaganda to show our country in the worst possible light.i.e."Britains Slave Trade Involvement" and "Did we need to bomb Dresden " I bet they still keep those bits in and throw out the many, many things we should be proud of

Mike, Dunstable, England

There has long been a need for specialist teachers for Years 5 and 6. One teacher cannot teach all ten subjects to all required levels. I've been in primary schools where Year 6 boys were giving year 5 IT lessons because the [female] teachers knew less than the boys.

Joe, Hackney, UK

This experiment will just create an educational apartheid. Privately-educated students will gain in-depth, specialist knowledge and state school pupils will receive a watered-down ‘Google-style’ education. The gap between rich and poor is widening by the day.

James, London,

Learning about sums is important. Learning about MS Calculator is almost completely useless. The computer should be a learning aid, not a subject area.

Neil, Norwich, UK

At first, I thought this a ridiculous idea, but actually, we've got to the stage where education needs to be more effective for use in everyday life and out of school. It's worth a shot - education is the pits at the moment, so why not try a new approach?

Shiraz E, London, UK

So we are going to abolish History and Geography now. Well, why not - we have already abolished Physics and Chemisry. Why is Environment part of social studies though, not science?

Frank, Warington,

The govt has nothing better to do.

N Kini, London,

Let ' s go the whole hog : make media studies and sociology compulsory , and everything else optional .

Robin Kempster, Brighouse, England

It passeth my understanding,

but it probably looks good to folks who know nothing about schools and teaching.

ELI SORDO, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

"a curriculum for the 21st century"

A 21st century in which Britain will continue to move backwards while the rest of the world goes forward; all in the name of political expediency.

Richard Crow, Warsaw, Poland

To ER in Canada,The failing education system as presided over by this inept Govt. has already produced 2 generations of thickos!
It can be directly attributed to this egalitarian socialist attitude I.M.O.Some children are more receptive to education than others they must be selected to succeed

G.Harris, Worcestershire, England

The saying "If it ain't broke, dont't fix it" springs to mind here. Utter idiocy

Alexander, Oswaldtwistle, UK

Real English and Mathematics fell by the wayside many years ago. It was only a matter of time before other subjects followed.

john j, Peterborough, UK

Good to see that now Balls has ruined our pensions he is moving onto our childrens education...

Nick Norgate, London, UK

".. the school continually attains high academic standards while providing pupils with an extremely broad, well rounded education .."

This was from our recent Ofsted. Rose is talking as if this cannot happen under the present system.

What we need is more quality, not more change.

Phil Williams, Shrewsbury, UK

This is needed. The usefulness of some traditional subjects such as History or Religeous Education serve little purpose in many young lives. Its time for our schools to produce the best. Specialist learning not just ofr under achievers but for those that over achieve and should not be held back.

Andy Sears, Hitchin, UK

Another stunning example of 'Right-Speak rules UK': “We are trying to give primary schools flexibility to do less, but to do it better." Translation: pupils will know a lot more about a lot less. Kids aged 4 to 8 being taught to surf the web, instead of history or modern languages, is irresponsible.

Alan Hart, Paris, France

Themed teaching has underpinned Steiner and Montessori teaching principles quite successfully for many years now. Both philosophies stress the need for relationships and synthesis to be developed through teaching.

This sounds so refreshing-and maybe make learning and teaching fun again!

Judith Hudson, Presteigne, United Kingdom

Themed education was a disaster in the 70's. Teachers avoided the difficult and opted for the superficial. After Callaghans Ruskin speech, we had five areas of study suggested. All too open to watering down knowledge and understanding. The Nat. Curric. focused us. We must examine the cost of change.

Denzil Haenow, Cape Town, South Africa

Huge amounts of time are currently wasted on 'IT' ( kids pick it up in spite of school ) and so called 'Maths' when in fact what they need are high order arithmetical skills. Time allotted to Maths currently equals that spent on ( all languages ). One has to ask why?

david nordon-angus, cahors, france

It's a good idea in principle, but as always it depends how it is taught and to what level. Specialist learning is needed at some level, but most traditional subjects naturally have a cross curricular element

Neil Murphy, CROMER,

Someone once said that you should never wait too long for a bus or a new idea in education since "there will be another one along any minute now".
I had a brilliant primary education starting in the 50's, very traditional and it has set me up for life, let's go back to it shall we?

Dennis, Dorset, UK

Teaching by a method of indoctrination and expounding political ideology in schools, is not and nowhere near the same as showing children how to learn.

Children can only learn if they are given the tools to enable, deduction, evaluation and communication. Most problems in society come from people being told, and not from thinking for themselves.

A case of ‘common sense’ not being that common, even amongst those that ‘believe’ themselves to be our leaders.

Ian Bryan, Reading,

Most primary school English textbooks use Science, History and Geography topics as their starting points for lessons. IT has long been integrated into most subjects. RE often overlaps History and Science. Most of the ideas are less novel than they appear at first sight.

Joseph, London, UK

So instead of a generation of children who surf the internet we will have a generation of ignorant children surfing the internet...

Farrukh, Woking,

Seeing 'scientific and technological understanding' as a single subject struck warning bells for me. The risk is that if you focus too much on teaching applications, children will miss out on the fundamental principles. Applications can be learnt very easily after the principle is understood.

A Physics Teacher, Midlands,

Children at primary level don't need in-depth history they need a broad narrative history - effectively The Story of Britain - so they understand how the country got to be how it is today. This is even more essential now we have many immigrant families who don't have any understanding of our past.

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

IT is a skill not a subject in itself unless you are studying it in depth. You are either a user or a IT nerd. GCSE ICT is in between and pretty useless.

How to use IT should be taught as part of existing subjects. Word processing in English, spreadsheets in Maths, and using the web in any.

John, Wirral, UK

So ditching religious dogma for the new environmental dogma. Human and social studies boils down to how to be a conforming nobody in the collectivist globalized society being built. Deliberate dumbing down continues apace - get 'em young and keep the family out of it is the order of the day.

RobT, Manchester,

IT skills are not necessary. Using IT is like driving a car. It is not necessary to understand how it works. How many can accurately describe the phases of the four stroke combustion process?

Generations have been handicapped by obscene excesses of intellectual socialism dating back to the 60s.

Geoff C Arnold, London, UK

"History, geography and religious studies would come under the banner of human, social and environmental understanding."

No longer will school be about learning and understanding - and thinking for yourself - but indoctrination in thinking the right way. The final victory of the 'right on' left.

GB, London, UK

Unbelievable nonsense, especially on mathematics. Children need to become fluent in 'sums' and other calculations. Only then can they confidently and correctly apply those skills to everyday use.
As for 'human, social and environemental' - read socialism, holocaust and climate change.

J Jenkins, York,

This is a recipe for turning out a generation of ignoramuses.

ER, London, Canada

a completely new idea on education but through the transformation, we still have many things to deal with.

Sophia, Shanghai , China

Literacy and numeracy have already gone. But at least our kids will know how to access face book properly. A must in times of crisis.

Geraldine Leale, Ascot, England

In principle, good: education for the world outside; but are there enough teachers with the ability, vision and knowledge of the "real world" to teach in this way? Unfortunately, I doubt it.
Testing of basic knowledge and skills is still be essential, and Rose does not cover this - big omission.

Robert Davey, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Schools are meant to educate children (read, write and arithmatic), not job training. If schools don't do this, who will?

Eric Hulbert, Durban, South Africa

What we need our children to learn is how to communicate with other humans not some virtual entity - so in an age of moronic SMS messages we need more literacy not less. On the surface the changes seem to have some rationale, but I am deeply suspicious of education theorists.

Bill, Perth, Australia

understanding physical health and well being?
this guy sounds like he wants to teach kids what to do in every situation they might ever encounter, never mind that thats impossible. surely kids should be encouraged to be more enterprising and adaptable so they can take opportunities that are there

will, grimsby, uk

Great, just what we needed, this country has a grim future.

Jay, London, UK

You can get rid of art and design too ..... too wishy washy

Roger Lorton, Nongprue, Thailand

Yet another round of folly from ideologues who want to reinvent the wheel to prove they are smarter than the rest of us. Make reading, writing and arithmetic compulsory, and leave the rest the the teachers. High calibre people will only become teachers if they are given autonomy.

Oliver Chettle, Bedford,

Sounds fairly like a good idea.
That's surprising coming from the government.
But keep R.E. , although religion should become obsolete, we need to know about why people believe things and the historical and social context. Get rid of faith schools instead.

Leon Andrews, Brisbane,

Every boy wants to be a computer specialist. They don't seem to know that it's a very Mathematical discipline. As for educational computing - where the computer actually can be a help - that died when Acorn and the BBC computer died.

richard, bangkok,

This program looks great!. As an educational policy professional and also a Business and Economics Professor I have advocated such a system for almost 30 years. Here in the USA no one wants to look at such a positive and trans formative change. Starting with a child's passion and covering 'subjects'

Ed Lyell, Alamosa, CO, USA

Just get rid of religious education is the biggest waste of anyone's time.

Matt Roberts, Manchester, UK

Wasn't it Swift who said "Common sense is in spite of, not the result of, education"?
Sounds like this'll mean kids with little or knowledge of anything. Or the ability to think.
Will this mean parents sending their kids to Wales or Scotland for an education?

Martyn Taylor, Swindon, England

Oh God, here we go again.

Michael Taylor, Malton, UK