Curriculum
Curriculum innovation
Getting creative with your school’s curriculum need not be a risky enterprise. Nick Bannister speaks to headteachers and experts about how to develop an innovative curriculum that focuses on both knowledge and skills
struggle, even – between advocates for a progressive, learning skills-based curriculum and those fi ercely promoting more traditional, knowledge- based approaches.
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But in reality the choice for primary headteachers is less clear cut and a lot more nuanced.
An innovative primary curriculum that meets the needs of children today will combine the best of both approaches, says Gareth Mills, an education researcher and thinker who specialises in curriculum innovation. “Whatever the current climate is it tends to polarise the debate,” he said.
“It’s actually very unhelpful to have a debate about whether the curriculum should be based around knowledge or skills. A well designed curriculum will fi nd space for all these things. “We are in a period of curriculum change. However, one of the main thrusts is the increasing fl exibility for schools to shape their local curriculum. I suggest that headteachers go back to fi rst principles when they’re considering a new approach to the curriculum. It should be based on evidence of what makes good learning. “We need to ask what our foundation is. We are educating the whole
child. That means we have to think about knowledge as well as skills and attitudes. “We know that giving students a degree of ownership in learning motivates them and makes them learn more deeply. It also gets kids to refl ect on themselves as learners – to think about thinking. There’s a huge amount of evidence that says this is a good thing to be doing.” This advice and more can be found in Mr Mills’ recent report on creative approaches to the curriculum, published by the National College for School Leadership. Why Curriculum Innovation Matters captures key features of the leadership of curriculum development and innovation in 40 primary schools around England.
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he future of the curriculum is subject to intense debate, like almost every aspect of the education system today.
Read the papers and it sometimes seems to be a stark choice – a
The report emphasises the importance of leaders actively leading curriculum change and innovation. It also says that collaboration both within and between schools is vital.
Kingsholm CE Primary School in Gloucester contributed to the report. Collaboration with other schools was indeed key to Kingsholm’s approach to creating a more creative curriculum, explained headteacher Jan Buckland. The starting point on the school’s creative journey was to work with six other city schools, while it was also important to establish those fi rst principles emphasised by Mr Mills. Ms Buckland said: “This approach is much safer if you do this in partnership with other schools. It’s not so much of a step into the unknown if you are doing this with teachers from other schools. “We wanted to make sure that standards in literacy and numeracy stayed focused but we still wanted to think creatively. We worked together about what we were allowed to do rather than what we were not allowed to do. It was very much about how we could deliver learning in a much more experiential way.”
The school is in a deprived inner city area and has the most diverse pupil intake in the city, with 19 per cent of pupils having English as an additional language. Many pupils join the school with poor language development.
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“It is actually very unhelpful to have a debate about whether the curriculum should be based around knowledge or skills. A well designed curriculum will fi nd space for all these things”
Photo: Lucie Carlier
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