By BBC News Online's Gary Eason

Official guidance on how much time England's primary schools should devote to teaching different subjects is more than a year overdue.

A booklet from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) had been expected last February.

It would have updated earlier guidance - which was never in fact issued.

The new version is promised in "early summer" this year.

The QCA said it would take "a detailed look at each of the issues where schools can exercise their judgement and make their own decisions about the curriculum".

"It offers a commentary on the possibilities and provides case study illustrations from a wide variety of schools."

Pressure

Teachers suspect the delay is because schools are expected to do so much they cannot find time for it all.

Sceptics say the reason for the delay is simple: A quart into a pint pot will not go

This is compounded by the turf war that might be expected to erupt among enthusiasts for different subjects, over the amount of time allocated to them.

That the timetable is under pressure was confirmed in the annual report from the chief schools inspector, Mike Tomlinson.

He said inspection evidence showed that English, in particular, was consuming huge amounts of time, over and above the requirement for a daily literacy hour.

"Indeed, half of schools allocate between one quarter and one third of taught time to English," he said.

Narrower

"Head teachers report that, when something has to give, it is often extended practical or problem-solving activities in subjects such as science, technology and art that are squeezed out.

"This represents a serious narrowing of the curriculum."

Curriculum advisers say the only way schools can make it all work is by integrating different subjects.

Earlier this week, engineering employers complained about what industry would regard as the artificial separation in schools between science and design and technology.

New areas

This integrated teaching is likely to assume greater importance, according to Chris Spruce, senior adviser for primary education in Buckinghamshire.

An example might be a discussion about toys from the past which children then wrote down - combining history, English and literacy.

The latest version of the curriculum also includes "key skills" and "thinking skills" which are supposed to be taught across all subjects - such things as applying maths to everyday situations and working with others.

"In my view they will become far more important than just the subject content, especially when you consider the sort of things that employers regard as important," Mr Spruce said.

He said primary school teachers had always tended to work this way more than their secondary counterparts, because they saw children the whole time, not just for their particular subject.

"If you talk to teachers, that's kind of how they think. They now have permission to do that."

The length of the taught week in primary schools varies from 20 hours to 26, according to the national summary report published separately by Ofsted, but more than three quarters of them have lessons for between 23 and 24 hours.

The percentage of time head teachers said they intended to devote to different subjects is shown in the table below:

Subject	%
English	29
maths	22
science	10
design and technology	4
information technology	4
history	4
geography	4
art	4
music	4
physical education	6
religious education	5

Source: Head teachers' reports to inspectors