Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of Great Books programmes of education.

The department has not made an assessment of the Great Books programmes of education.

However, the department is clear that English is fundamental to learning and provides the skills and knowledge pupils need to communicate with others, both in school and in the wider world. English provides opportunities for pupils to develop these key communication skills through work on spoken language, reading and writing.

All state-funded schools must offer a broad and balanced curriculum which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils. As part of this, maintained schools in England must follow the national curriculum.

The national curriculum focuses on the key knowledge that should be taught. Within a broad statutory framework, set out in subject specific programmes of study, schools have considerable flexibility to organise the content and delivery of the curriculum to meet the needs of the majority of their pupils and to take account of new developments, societal changes, or topical issues.

Attaining proficient standards in language development and the reading and writing of Standard English are the keys to unlocking the rest of the curriculum and key indicators for future success in further education, higher education and employment.

The curriculum places a greater focus on reading and requires pupils to study a range of books, poems and plays to encourage the development of a life-long love of literature. Within the framework of the national curriculum, schools make their own choices about which specific programmes or resources they use.

Academies have greater freedom in how they operate, but they are expected to teach a curriculum that is comparable in breadth and ambition to the national curriculum, and many choose to teach the full national curriculum to achieve this. Academies may use their freedoms to develop their own curricula, tailored to meet the particular needs of their pupils or their local area or the particular ethos of the school.