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John Coe was a founding member of the National Association for Primary Education (NAPE) and a tireless advocate for children’s right to live fully at every stage of their development. Sadly, we lost John earlier this year, but his wisdom and insights continue to guide us.

NAPE is proud to announce that John Coe – an Enlightened Voice for Primary Education is now available to pre-order—a collection of his writings that will ensure his ideas remain accessible to future generations of teachers, parents, and educators. To honour his memory and give you a taste of his thinking, I want to share key insights from a conversation we had back in 2018 for the podcast.

https://nape.org.uk/

– John Coe’s extensive career: He qualified as a teacher in 1949 and worked across multiple roles including headteacher, inspector, advisor, and university lecturer, giving him comprehensive insight into education from classroom to policy level.
– NAPE’s founding purpose (1980): The National Association for Primary Education was established because primary education was neglected in terms of resources and respect, with its vital role in children’s development not properly recognised.
– Inclusive membership model: From the inaugural meeting, NAPE’s membership was intentionally open to teachers, assistants, parents, and families—not just professionals—emphasising partnership in education.
– Living life at the appropriate age: A core NAPE principle is that children aged 0-13 should live fully at each stage rather than viewing primary education merely as preparation for secondary school.
– The consumer vs. partnership problem: Government policies over 30 years have positioned parents as consumers of education rather than partners, creating adversarial relationships and damaging collaboration between parents and teachers.
– SATs impact on curriculum: The emphasis on standardised testing has created a “test-directed curriculum” that narrows learning, postpones enriching activities like music and PE until after tests, and pressures children to pursue constant success rather than learning from failure.
– Homework as enrichment: Rather than practicing school skills at home, homework should involve parents enriching children’s experiences through visits, reading, and exposure to diverse activities that schools lack time to provide.
– Teacher pressures: Primary teachers face enormous accountability pressures, uncertain job tenure, and assessment-driven demands, yet 80% still work hard to establish productive relationships with parents despite these obstacles.
– Centralisation of control: The shift of power from local authorities to central government and agencies like Ofsted represents a “black lie” about school autonomy—schools appear independent but are completely controlled through inspections and assessments.
– Future communication: NAPE’s future depends on Internet-based communication and social media to reach younger parents and teachers, moving away from traditional membership models toward podcasts and online engagement.

5 Key Quotes

1. On the core purpose of primary education: “The view of education as a whole, which NAPE continually campaigns against, is that the primary stage is merely a preparation for the proper education which occurs at the secondary stage… it’s experience that enables children to learn and to grow, and the richness of that experience at that stage of life that’s very important in shaping them as men and women.”
2. On childhood and living in the moment: “We have a test directed curriculum in primary schools… parents have come together in recent years to form organisations… very active, which looks at primary education as much more than the standard assessment tasks with which government confronts the children.”
3. On learning from failure: “The impact of the sats has been to constrain education, to limit it to a search for success, and to deny the natural failure which will come to all of us at some time in our life… learning from one’s mistakes are one of the most important ways of learning.”
4. On the illusion of school autonomy: “The rhetoric is that schools are free, autonomous, they can make the decisions. But this is a lie. This is a black lie. Because the control of schools through the inspection of schools, through Ofsted… the control the government has, central government has over schools is complete.”
5. On language learning across the curriculum: “Children learn [English] all the time, everywhere to every minute they spend in school… the curriculum should be rich and rounded and broad, so that the children, every moment they’re in school, every moment, whatever they’re talking, yes, even in the music lesson, even in the PE lesson, they will be learning English.”

NAPE council, when considering a suitable, lasting legacy for John decided that a selection of his writings should be gathered together in a bumper edition of the Primary First Journal. You can preview and purchase this as a digital download at:

https://national-association-for-primary-education-shop.fourthwall.com/