Section One:
The historical
context
At the core of the Plowden Report (1967) is this Another issue to be raised at this time was the
message: ‘At the heart of the educational process needs of children with a wide range of special
lies the child.’ The Report states: ‘Individual educational needs who were in general kept
differences between children of the same age are outside the mainstream of education delivery.
so great that any class, however homogeneous it There were a number of rigid categories of special
seems, must always be treated as a body of educational need, which were all largely medical in
children needing individual and different attention.’ diagnosis: ‘defective of speech, blind, partially
In relation to the curriculum, the committee was sighted, deaf, partially deaf, delicate, diabetic,
clear: ‘One of the main educational tasks of the educationally subnormal, maladjusted and
primary school is to build on and strengthen physically handicapped.’ As a result, these children
children’s intrinsic interest in learning and lead experienced a very varied type of education, often
them to learn for themselves rather than from fear directed to a special school when very young, and
of disapproval or desire for praise.’ The Report’s then not reassessed, though provision in a
recurring themes were individual learning, flexibility mainstream school may have suited them better.
in the curriculum, the use of the environment, This was not to be addressed effectively until after
learning by discovery, and the importance of the the Warnock Report in 1978.
evaluation of children’s progress
_
teachers should
‘not assume that only what is measurable is The changing face of media also began to have a
valuable’. significant effect on education at this time. Building
on the success of schools’ radio broadcasts such as
The primary classroom of the 1960s was, for many, Time and Tune, How Things Began, and Music and
a transformed environment. Resources of all shapes Movement of the 1950s, television programmes
and sizes were produced
_
these developments specifically for use within school began in 1967.
coincided with the availability of new plastics which They supported the ideas of child-centred discovery
opened up opportunities for richly colourful learning and offered an experience that combined
equipment to be available for all. Discovery entertainment with learning.
learning meant that shapes, beads, counters,
blocks, Cuisenaire rods, Lego, and toys for water By the end of the 1960s, there continued to be a
play and experimentation were all finding their way perception that the education system was of a high
into schools. Children were given opportunities to quality, but there were some disquieting views
learn through play, and these physical resources about whether this was a system that was serving
supported their learning at the Piagetian ‘Concrete all types of students well.
learning’ phase. Reading schemes and schemes to
teach mathematics were introduced too, and were
integrated with manipulative materials.
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