I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the Inset training day of a local group of primary schools the other week. I chose the curriculum as my topic, and spoke about some things that I think we ought to be tackling in primary history that we have perhaps tended to neglect in the past. But I also made it clear why I had chosen that subject as a focus. I don’t have the subject knowledge to be able to do the same for design and technology or music.

I’d imagine that few people do. Up until now, we’ve been rather content to ensure that primary teachers are able to teach English and maths to a high standard, and to “have a good stab” at the other subjects that pepper the afternoon of the timetable. In some large schools, you might have the luxury of curriculum leaders who are experts in their field, but, even then, it isn’t uncommon to find that the geography subject leader dropped the subject at 14 and would much rather be leading art.

It doesn’t help that our focus has been narrow for so long that even our teachers have been channelled through it. Most NQTs now wouldn’t even have been born before the introduction of the national curriculum, let alone have been to school before it.

Those who might have shown great talent for teaching music, art or design and technology were instead forced to prove again and again their skills in the two main subjects. Who’d blame them now for choosing another profession? Mine can’t be the only school that finds itself with more pianos than pianists.

Given the choice, I’d rip the whole thing up and start again - or at least, breathe new life into the middle school system. There, specialism could start sooner but without completely unpicking the merits of the generalist system in primary schools.

It’s surely no longer feasible to expect one person to have a sufficiently high standard of knowledge and skill in all the statutory subject areas to be able to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum right up to Year 6.

Of course, if the Department for Education is really serious about raising the game for all subjects, then perhaps it’s time to talk about bringing primary funding in line with secondary. An extra £1,000 per pupil would go a long way to helping out with a broad and balanced curriculum.

Michael Tidd is headteacher at Medmerry Primary School in West Sussex