General issues

Secondary Curriculum Review
Author: David Barlex

www.qca.org.uk

Today QCA formally announced the Secondary Curriculum Review and invited consultation. This is seriously important. It is a chance to redress the disempowerment of teachers that has taken place since the introduction of the National Curriculum. It offers the opportunity for teachers in collaboration with learners to reclaim the curriculum.

Highlights
Head of Curriculum Development at QCA Sue Horner’s presentation included the following highlights.

• Driving the reform is the development of a curriculum that is suitable for the 21st Century, adaptable, challenging and inspiring.
  
• The curriculum should enables learners to linger longer (to secure learning), dig deeper (to reach conceptual understanding), cross boundaries (link subjects and go beyond the school gate).

Sue argued that learners need a curriculum that is more than the sum of its parts:

• being coherent (building on, not repeating),
  
• meaningful to all pupils (rationalised and useful), and
  
• making imaginative use of resources (supporting learning objectives and combining teacher expertise).

Rationale
According to Sue, this process involves rethinking the whole of the curriculum in terms of aims, giving a high profile to personal, learning and thinking skills linked to the learner’s personal development.

Rethinking subjects has taken place through a new framework for the programmes of study. Central is the Importance statement which informs key concepts, key processes and the range and content of what is learned through a variety of curriculum opportunities which schools will be able to organise as best fits their learners and teachers.

Creativity, cultural diversity and understanding and critical evaluation are seen as essential links in learning between subjects.

The overall intention is to have a curriculum which gives successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.

Timetable for consultations
The timetable for the process of implementation is as follows:

• 30 April 2007 – consultation ends
  
• 5 June 2007 – final proposals
  
• 1 September 2007 – new curriculum on line and training begins
  
• 1 September 2008 – implementation for year 7
  
• May 2011 – first assessments on new level description.

You can become involved by visiting the QCA consultation web site.

Challenges ahead
The QCA proposals will, to be effective, require teachers not only to be at the top of their game but also to play a different game. This will not be easy to achieve but successful efforts will give a curriculum that teachers and pupils will enjoy and where learning thrives.

The main issue as I see it is the ready availability of the sustained and substantial professional development that teachers will require to generate the culture shift necessary to replace the prevailing subject based silo mentality enforced by a competitive (as opposed to a learning) culture that prevails in many if not most of our schools. Whatever you teach, you can take this opportunity to get the professional development you need, from whatever source, to engage with reclaiming the curriculum.

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