Details emerge of former minister’s academy trust’s vision to “embed” knowledge curriculum in its primaries

Details of a well-connected academy trust’s “embedding” of a “knowledge curriculum” in its primary schools have emerged in documents released under Freedom of Information.

An official Department for Education “sponsor template” on Future Academies provides insights into its vision, with further glimpses also given in other documents related to an impending forced academy takeover in Hertfordshire.

One of them sees Future’s chief executive documented as suggesting that its provision will not be diluted for “less able” pupils, with its approach to teaching being “as independent schools have done” and that “our children learn Latin”.

The documents were released by the Department for Education under freedom of information to governors at the Barclay School, Hertfordshire, as they challenged its DfE-approved takeover by Future, which is scheduled to take place on Friday. 

The curriculum has recently risen to be much more prominent in the education policy agenda, driven largely by the proposed new Ofsted framework’s emphasis on it. Readers are likely, therefore, to find it interesting to see it being viewed as central by this trust.