CPR started with three broad perspectives:
- Children and childhood
- Culture, society and the global context
- Primary education today and tomorrow
These are echoed in the title of the CPR’s final report: Children, their World, their Education. The first two perspectives provide the essential context for any meaningful discussion of schooling, not just in England but anywhere and at any age. The third perspective, dealing with primary education itself, was broken down into ten broad themes, central to which were questions of value, purpose, process, content and quality in England’s primary schools. For evidential purposes these were further subdivided into 23 sub-themes and over 100 research questions. Thus CPR combined analysis of the current system with exploration of the national and global challenges which lie ahead; and it has considered how, in the interests of both children and society, primary education should respond to these challenges.
The ten educational themes are:
- Purposes and values
- Learning and teaching
- Curriculum and assessment
- Quality and standards
- Diversity and inclusion
- Settings and professionals
- Parenting and caring
- Children’s lives outside school
- Structures and phases
- Funding and governance