WHOLE EDUCATION Expanding horizons


As part of our support for the work of the Whole Education


partners, we look at the RSA’s Opening Minds curriculum. Robert Hill explains


practical educational projects that prepare people for the real world.


F What is Opening Minds?


Opening Minds is now being used in more than 200 schools across the country. It promotes innovative and integrated ways of thinking about education and the curriculum, and helps students to develop the skills they need to be effective citizens and employees in the 21st century. Teachers design and develop a curriculum for their own schools based round the development of key competencies. Competencies are broad areas of capability, relating


to a young person’s capacity to understand and to do. They are developed through a mixture of instruction and practical experience: children plan their work, organise their own time, and explore their own ways of learning. The Opening Minds curriculum has five areas of


competence. These categories cover a broad range, offering students the opportunities they need to develop in areas critical to their social, economic and personal wellbeing. They are: Learning: challenging students to understand how


they learn, how to manage their learning throughout life, and how to think – crucially putting responsibility for learning and achievement back in the hands of the students. Citizenship: encouraging students’ understanding


of ethics and values, examining how society, government, business and technology operate, and how these systems and structures impact on the individual. Relating to people: focusing on managing and


being managed by other people, operating in teams and understanding how to manage personal and emotional relationships, stress and conflict. Managing situations: students actively working


out the importance of managing time, establishing personal strategies for managing change, recognising the importance of celebrating success, managing disappointment, and understanding how to recognise and manage risk and uncertainty. Managing information: nurturing the ability to


access, evaluate, analyse and manipulate information, and reaching an understanding of the importance of reflecting and applying critical judgement. Focusing on competencies means that Opening Minds teaching emphasises the ability to understand


the confines of test and examination specifications to a fuller preparation for life and work. Opening Minds, which is one of the partners


W


within Whole Education, typifies this broader approach to education. Not surprisingly, teachers using the Opening Minds materials report a positive effect not only on attainment but on attitudes to work and school. In short, Opening Minds and the other partner


organisations of Whole Education are improving the life chances of young people, both by giving them a broader education and by preparing them better for the next stage of their lives. Some of the early statements of education


ministers in the coalition government suggest that they wanted schools to focus entirely on the transmission of knowledge, to the exclusion of other aspects of learning. Those of us who met Nick


HOLE EDUCATION has been established to support schools and other education providers in giving a more complete education for young people, moving beyond


and to do, rather than rely solely on the transmission of knowledge. Students are enabled not just to acquire subject knowledge but to understand, use and apply it within the context of their wider learning and life. It also offers them a more holistic and coherent way of learning which allows them to make connections and apply knowledge across different subject areas.


Accreditation of Opening Minds


Schools involved in Opening Minds have led the way in showing how an imaginative competency-based curriculum can meet the needs of their school, engage learners and excite staff. They have been able to do this while still meeting the requirements of the national curriculum and examination boards and improving attainment. But like any new and creative initiative there has


been a wide variation of approaches between schools and within schools. This has provided the basis for innovation and learning, but, it has also brought with it a challenge to ensure that Opening Minds is always associated with high quality practice. An independent review of Opening Minds in 2010


recommended the introduction of an accreditation system to assure quality and strengthen the support available to schools. The charitable body that has been established by


the RSA to oversee development of Opening Minds has decided to phase in an accreditation system over the next two years. All schools, whether already implementing Opening Minds or new to using the framework, can now apply to become accredited RSA Opening Minds schools. Accreditation will be led by Opening Minds schools


for Opening Minds schools. It will also enable teacher- to-teacher and school-to-school support to be properly resourced and organised. This will provide a catalyst for further development, creativity and innovation as every time Opening Minds schools come together it results in the generation of new ideas.


By introducing accreditation, we are not looking


to provide one single template of the Opening Minds curriculum. We recognise the need to take account of a school’s context and we want to maintain the creativity and innovation that has been at the heart of the initiative. It is important that in implementing Opening Minds,


schools develop a curriculum that is appropriate to their own circumstances and meets the needs of their students. Accreditation is a means of supporting this journey, providing assurance that rigour and quality are at the heart of what Opening Minds offers to young people and extending the scope of Opening Minds to more areas of the curriculum. Once accredited, schools will join a community


recognised as being committed to developing and sharing innovation in practice which is also characterised by rigour and quality. Schools will receive three free CPD days per year at


an Opening Minds training school; access to a resource library including an implementation guide to help support curriculum development, an observation guide, and lesson plans; access to a website and practitioners’ discussion forum; access to the ASDAN accredited Award(s) developed by the RSA Academy; and an ongoing programme of CPD and events. The accreditation process will be “light-touch” and


developmental in nature. Support will be available to schools throughout the process. Schools new to Opening Minds will receive an


initial “walk through” visit, a subsequent two-day training visit at an RSA Opening Minds Training School for up to three teachers, and a further two visits to assess and advise on progress. For schools already engaged in Opening Minds, accreditation involves two visits from a training school representative.


Why be involved?


Many Opening Minds teachers have reported improvement in academic and independent learning,


Chairman of Whole Education, Dr John Dunford, says that it is a good time for teachers to open their minds to the possibilities now available to them


Gibb, now the schools minister, were encouraged to read The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them by ED Hirsch, an American English professor and philosopher, who has written about what he calls “cultural literacy” – the idea that young people need a background of knowledge in order to understand literature. Hirsch wrote the book in 1996, causing a considerable


stir in America where elementary education had, he alleged, become anti-knowledge, causing a weakening of the country’s educational performance and widening the gap between rich and poor. He criticised courses in topics such as thinking skills


and emphasised the importance of knowledge being absorbed from an early age. In 2006, he published The


Knowledge Deficit, reinforcing his case for learning factual background knowledge. These books are worth reading and there is much to


commend in Hirsch’s argument. Skills cannot be gained in a content-free situation; knowledge is the core of intellectual development. However, the alleged ills of American elementary


education are not the context of primary and secondary education in the UK in 2010, where teachers know that knowledge has a big part to play in all parts of the curriculum. The secretary of state, Michael Gove, has stated


that a good education comprises both knowledge and skills – absolutely in line with the thinking behind Opening Minds and Whole Education. We accept the


OR MORE than 250 years, the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a force for social progress. The RSA has a long history of working towards good education being available to all, and of developing innovative,


general and subject-specific skills, confidence, behaviour, enjoyment, attendance and relationships. Students are more engaged with school and lessons,


more independent as learners, have developed real- world skills, and have higher self-esteem. Also, the focus on more active learning strategies and


the use of a mix of independent and collaborative work together with a wide repertoire of teaching and learning approaches has supported student development. In an independent survey of teachers and senior


leaders from Opening Minds schools, more than nine out of 10 are “supportive” of the programme. Teachers feel that Opening Minds helps them to


enhance their effectiveness, improves their practice and builds their confidence. They also feel that Opening Minds values their professional skills and judgement through their direct involvement in creative curriculum development and delivery.


SecEd


• Robert Hill is a former advisor to Tony Blair. He now works as an independent policy analyst and chairs the RSA Opening Minds Steering Group.


Further information


The cost for accreditation for existing Opening Minds schools is £1,600 (a list of schools who qualify for reduced rates is online). For schools new to Opening Minds, it costs £3,500 as additional support and training is given. Additional support visits to gain accreditation cost £500 each. Accredited schools pay a £750 annual registration fee. Email rsaopeningminds@rsa.org.uk or visit www.thersa.org/projects/opening-minds


Whole Education is a collaboration between leading non-profit organisations in education that share a common set of beliefs and actively support schools in helping to provide young people with a “whole education”. These beliefs about education include


the need to value every educational pathway – vocational or academic – to encourage and celebrate active learning, to trust in the professionalism of teachers, and to create pupils who are adaptable and creative, independent learners, and good citizens.


Whole Education aims to increase


awareness of the need for this kind of approach to education and enable the necessary changes in education policy. Whole Education partner initiatives work with more than 5,000 schools and colleges, as well as youth organisations and charities. Whole Education is hosting a one-day


conference on December 6 entitled What are schools for? This event will focus on how to provide young people with the learning experiences to help them develop the capabilities they need for the future. For more information on this event,


email charlotte@wholeeducation.org. For more details on Whole Education, visit www.wholeeducation.org or email info@wholeeducation.org


central Hirsch theme that knowledge is important, but we encourage the teaching of it in a way that also develops skills, both intellectual and personal. So Opening Minds teachers report not only


improvements in knowledge acquisition, but also strong development of the skills of independent learning, personal confidence, self-esteem, presentation skills and so on. Young people enjoy their learning more and teachers enjoy teaching them. In the words of an Opening Minds learner: “We think about what we’re learning more, and we understand more.” With the greater freedoms to be given to schools in


their curriculum planning, teachers can think deeply about the best way to develop both knowledge and skills. Provided that the core of knowledge in what will be a reduced national curriculum is included, teachers will have more freedom to think about how they teach and how children can best learn. Opening our minds to such possibilities will be an exciting part of being a teacher in this decade.


SecEd


• Dr John Dunford is chair of Whole Education and was formerly a secondary head and general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.


SecEd • October 21 2010


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