ABSTRACT
It created a National Curriculum, with specified subject content for all children under the age of 16. This innovation was designed to ensure that all students were taught those things which the state considered important and to allow the Department of Education and parents to make meaningful comparisons between schools and teachers when testing of pupils occurred at four key stages. It also allowed schools to opt out of local education authority control by becoming ‘grant-maintained’ schools, receiving money directly from central government and enjoying the right to control their own budgets.
