Curriculum review: what would you change?
5th February, 2007The QCA curriculum watchdog begins a consultation today on the review of the 11-14 secondary curriculum (key stages 3 and 4). “This work is part of a broader vision to develop a modern world-class curriculum that will inspire and challenge learners and prepare them for the future. The consultation runs until 30 April 2007.” (QCA website)
Here are few soundbites — amongst others — which caught my eye (bold formatting is my own):
- “Teachers in English secondary schools will be given more freedom to tailor lessons to pupils than they have for 20 years” (Guardian)
- “[these proposals should] move us away from a ‘one size fits all‘ curriculum to one that offers more flexibility to tailor teaching to pupils’ needs and aspirations” — Alan Johnson, Education Secretary
- “Our biggest curriculum challenge is to sustain a desire to learn.” — Mick Waters, QCA curriculum director
- “We want to encourage schools to be innovative in the way that they plan the school timetable” — Ken Boston, QCA Chief Executive
- “…more emphasis on using the curriculum as a whole to develop … initiative, enterprise, and the capacity to learn independently” (DfES press release)
Great news. But what would you hope to see as part of the curriculum review?
Futurelab is always looking for ideas. Find out how you can 
Bob Harrison
Ben Williamson
Dan Sutch
Richard Sandford
Leon Cych
Martin Owen
Sarah Grier
Tim Reader
February 7th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Much more concentration on the ICT section on digital media creation is required – pupils need to learn how to blog, manipulate images, develop an online presence, etc.
I would move spreadsheets entirely to the Maths POS – my year 5’s are doing KS4 spreadsheets and certainly don’t want to do more for the next 6 years!!!
Move publishing to the Literacy curriculum as I spend more time as an IT teacher teaching literacy when I teach Publishing and Word Processing than I do teaching the software itself.
Develop a curriculum that encourages the use of OpenSource software as a way of tackling piracy and the digital divide.
There needs to be a .Mac style account for every child in the country, open to all operating systems and software, that allow them to build up an ePortfolio and online presence in a safe way.
February 7th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
It’s more about Higher Education, but I wrote an essayabout the future of education a little while ago. It really argues that government funding is the fossil fuel of education – you can’t simply carry on doing more with less and it’s going to run out. So you need to re-think it completely and that includes schools. The above comment is a great start too.
December 18th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
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