11 to 14 curriculum review

ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the review of the national curriculum for 11 to 14-year-olds.

Government Response: Department for Education and Skills

Education secretary Alan Johnson said: "The new draft curriculum is designed to create greater flexibility for schools so they can ensure pupils master the basics as well as offer more stretching opportunities for those who excel.

"The curriculum should evolve to meet a rapidly changing world, and enable teachers to teach in a way that will continue to interest and enthuse their pupils.

"These proposals move us away from a ‘one size fits all’ curriculum to one that offers more flexibility to tailor teaching to pupils’ needs and aspirations. More flexibility for teachers, more interesting for pupils.

"More emphasis has been placed on developing in-depth understanding of the key ideas and practice of particular subjects.

"But crucially, it is balanced with the retention of tried and tested parts of the curriculum as well as giving young people better personal skills greatly valued by employers.

"I look forward to hearing views on the new curriculum before making final decisions this summer."

Party Response: Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Sarah Teather said: "This is a key age range to focus on, as gains made at the end of primary school are often lost when a pupil makes the move to the unfamiliar atmosphere of secondary school.

"But new subjects can’t be offered if there aren’t enough expert teachers.

"The government is still failing to attract enough graduates in maths, science and modern languages into teaching.

"Without talented teachers to lead Mandarin or Arabic classes, a new more diverse curriculum will remain a pipe dream for most schools.

"While this does initially seem like a move in the right direction, what guarantee is there that a new Secretary of State under a Brown premiership won’t want to change everything again?

"Teachers will relish new freedoms to make lessons more exciting and the school day more dynamic.

"It has been central government diktats that have held them back and I’m glad Alan Johnson has now realised that."

Stakeholder Response: PAT

PAT general secretary Philip Parkin said: "PAT will study the proposals and give a detailed response as part of the consultation exercise.  We welcome the new modernised, broader curriculum, offering a wider range of subjects, and plans to teach issues across subjects.

"However, we are concerned that the curriculum may be too prescriptive and not give enough scope for teachers to use their own professional judgment.

"We do not want to see an overcrowded curriculum that does not allow sufficient time for subjects to be studied in depth.

"It is also essential that teachers receive the training and resources they need to implement these changes.

"It will also be a challenge to recruit and train enough teachers so schools can offer languages such as Chinese and Arabic.

"Not all schools will have the appropriate language specialists so schools may have to pool their resources, sharing a teacher or perhaps using the facilities at local colleges, so they can offer a wider variety of languages to those pupils who opt to study them."

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Stakeholder Response: ATL

ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: "The proposed changes to the key stage three curriculum are a first step to the more flexible, teacher-led curriculum for which ATL has been fighting.  It looks like the QCA has started singing our song. 

"But, in the current climate, any more changes will be seen by teachers as one more crazy imposition.  Ideas about a new timetable must be allowed to develop from teachers and schools upwards, rather than being developed centrally and imposed on schools. 

"And, until the current testing and target driven system is abandoned, no real improvement to make the curriculum more and relevant will be possible."

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Stakeholder Response: NUT

Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The secondary curriculum is desperately overloaded. It constrains schools from tackling the needs of youngsters fresh from primary schools.

"Any reform, however, must include the message to teachers that their judgements about when and what to teach are respected. 

"Mixed messages are the last things schools need.

"The worst thing ministers should do is to proclaim a new flexible curriculum on the one hand but add a new set of non negotiable requirements on the other.

"Only one thing matters. Does the curriculum help maintain youngsters’ enthusiasm for learning? Cooking, Shakespeare and Mandarin are all important but at the moment they look like ministers’ bright ideas rather than part of a coherent curriculum that will enthuse teachers and youngsters alike.

"The best message schools could receive from ministers is that government has decided to remove the politicisation of the curriculum and conduct a genuine consultation with teachers, parents and indeed young people themselves.

"Decisions to strip the clutter from the secondary curriculum must be followed with a similar review for primary schools."

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Stakeholder Response: ASCL

ASCL general secretary Dr John Dunford said: "The overcrowded curriculum for 11 to 14-year-olds has been allowed to run for too long. It is high time that it was slimmed down.

"I strongly welcome the QCA report, which will give schools greater flexibility to decide what to teach to this age group.

"The curriculum has already been streamlined for primary school children and for 14 to 16-year-olds. Now it is the turn of 11 to 14-year-olds to benefit from the trend to give teachers more say in what they teach.

"We particularly welcome the secretary of state’s undertaking to increase flexibility for teachers. For far too long, teachers have been forced to teach a highly prescriptive, centrally directed curriculum and we are pleased that schools will be given more flexibility to take into account local priorities within a national framework.

"However, there is a danger that future ministers will fill the newly created space with their own priorities and the curriculum will become as crowded and inflexible as it ever was.

"Going forward, ministers must resist the temptation to add more statutory topics, trusting schools to teach the curriculum appropriate for pupils in their area.

"Within a smaller national framework, the QCA has come up with some innovative and interesting approaches, creating a menu from which schools will be able to choose what suits their style. This is the right way to form a school curriculum.

"English, maths and science will still be driven by the demands of the key stage three tests, taken by every child at age 14.

"Personalised learning – a government priority that we support – will be made more possible if this testing regime assumes less importance.

"The secretary of state’s recent proposals for when-ready testing are a move in the right direction, although the tests and league tables will continue to dominate these three subjects in a way that distorts pupils’ education.

"Tests for 14-year-olds should be a school-based progress check in the middle of secondary education, not the stress-inducing national circus that they have become.

"Today’s reforms present a challenge for schools to make use of the new flexibility and, at the same time, fulfil local and national expectations of what young people should learn, both to pass examinations and to educate them as responsible citizens."

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Stakeholder Response: CILT

A spokesman said: "The KS3 curriculum review published today by the QCA proposes offering schools greater choice in the languages they offer, relaxing the need to provide for at least one EU language.

"Language study, the review suggests, ‘may include French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Urdu and other major spoken world languages, depending on local needs and circumstances’.

"CILT welcomes this proposal, and the Government’s response to it as a way of aligning language provision more closely to the needs of the economy, both at regional level and nationally.

"We welcome the scope for greater diversification in the languages taught in schools, whilst recognising that the availability of resources, trained teachers and a knowledge base in those languages which have not traditionally been taught in our education system, will in practice be a constraint.

"Although it is useful to look to the future in terms of our language needs as a nation, there is no evidence yet which shows that European languages are less economically important than other world languages and we would advocate gradual progress towards a more diverse offer, which is planned and properly resourced, based above all on assuring the quality of teaching and learning.

"The opportunity to bring about a better match between language provision and the needs of the economy offers exciting opportunities in the context of the new specialised Diplomas for 14 to 19-year-olds.

"The types of courses on offer and the qualifications available need to be diversified, as well as the languages taught.

"Whilst recognising that the work-related dimension is not the only way of providing relevance and motivation to pupils, we look forward to Lord Dearing’s final report to provide the momentum for achieving a more diverse and economically-relevant offer of language learning for young people."

To send a comment to CiLT clickhere