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Working Draft: April - June 2008 A big picture of the curriculum

Qualifications and
rtcuKjm Authority
Three key questions

The curriculum aims to enable all young people to become

Successful learners Confident individuals Responsible citizens

Curriculum aims
who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve who are able to lead safe, healthy and fulfilling lives who make a positive contribution to society

Every Child
Be healthy Stay safe Enjoy and achieve Make a positive contribution Achieve economic wellbeing
Matters outcomes

Attitudes and attributes Skills

Knowledge and understanding
Focus for learning eg determined, adaptable, confident, eg literacy, numeracy, ICT, personal,
eg big ideas that shape the world
risk-taking, enterprising learning and thinking skills

The curriculum as an entire planned learning experience underpinned by a broad set of common values and purposes

Components Environment Events Extended hours Learning outside the classroom Lessons Locations Routines

Opportunities for Personalised - Assessment uses Resource well

spiritual, moral, Assessment Relevant, a wide range of Involve
social, cultural, In tune with develops offering challenge matched to
Aooroaches to to Iellmin9 need m for purpose learners' self- and support to purposeful evidence to learners learning need
1 1 i ' 10 eg enquiry ,nstructjon and integral to emotional, human encourage proactively in
learning active, practical. learning and esteem and enable all learners to and for a
range of
eg use of time.
intellectual and development commitment to make progress and learners to their own space, people,
theoretical teaching physical audiences reflect on their learning materials
development their learning achieve own learning

Overarching themes that have a significance for individuals and society, and provide relevant learning contexts:
Whole curriculum
Identity and cultural diversity - Healthy lifestyles - Community participation - Enterprise - Global dimension and sustainable development -
dimensions
Technology and the media - Creativity and critical thinking.

Communication, Creative Knowledge and Personal, social and Physical Problem solving, reasoning
Statutory language and literacy development understanding of the world emotional development development and numeracy
expectations
A&D Ci D&T En On HI ICT Ml MFL Mil PE PSHE RE SC
PWEW»FC

To make learning and teaching more effective so that learners understand quality and how to improve

Looks at the whole Uses information Uses 'critical Uses a wide .-. Uses a variety Involves the whole
child eg curriculum Intelligently to friends' to offer range of contin o * °' *ecnnil<ues to Chooses school community
Evaluating impact aims, progress in identify trends and insights and measures, both irnnrovement collect and assessment fit eg learners, parents,
skids, subjects and dear goals for challenge qualitative and analyse for purpose teachers, employers,
dimensions improvement assumptions quantitative " information governors

To secure
Accountability Attainment and Behaviour Further involvement in education,
CMcpartdpaHon Healthy Rfostyto choices
measures Improved standards and attendance employment or training

L.^.^^ I 1 •
I

Adapted with thanks to colleagues at the Council for Curriculum. Examinations and Assessment (CCEA)
National Curriculum 2008

Key concepts Key Processes

English Competence Creativity Cultural Critical understanding Speaking & listening Reading (reading for ' Reading (the author's Writing (composition;
understanding craft) technical accuracy

Art and Competence Creativity Cultural Critical understanding Explore and create Understand and evaluate
design understanding

Geography Place Space Scale interdependence Geographical enquiry Fieldwork and out-of- Graphicacy and ieograplncal
Physical & human Environmental interaction & Cultural understanding 8 class learning visual literacy communication
processes sustainable development diversity
Chronological
. Banding
ication &
tion I
v»vi
mpart ol
echnology

Music Integration of Cultural Critical Communication Creativity Performing composing and listening
practice understanding understanding

Citizenship Democracy & justice Rights & responsibilities Identities & diversity: living Critical thinking & enquiry Advocacy & representation Taking informed & responsible
together in the UK action
Economic Career Capability Risk Economic Self-development I Exploration Enterprise Financial capability
wellbeing & understanding
financial
capability
Personal Personal identities Healthy lifestyles Risk Relationships Diversity Cntical reflection Decision-making & managing risk
wellbeing

•
www.geography.orq.uk/conference
Statement of values
The National Curriculum statement of values has been misunderstood, says
Graham Haydon, (www.teachinQexpertise.com/articles/values-education-
resource-the-national-curriculum-statement-l )
Haydon, G. (2007) Values in Education, Continuum: London
Meanwhile, the agency that started as SCAA (School Curriculum and Assessment Authority)
and continued as QCA was, without much fanfare, engaged in another initiative, rather
grandly titled the National Forum for Values in Education and the Community.

This was a group of 150 people, drawn from various walks of life and ethnic and religious
backgrounds, who tried to see if they could agree on a statement of values that were held in
common across Britain's plural society.

The forum did produce a list of values, and a public polling exercise showed that most
people agreed with the list. The statement has been included in National Curriculum
documents since the 1999 revision. As of April 2007, you can still find it on the National
Curriculum website at www.nc.uk.net/nc_resources/ html/values.shtml, and it has been
retained in the documents on changing the secondary curriculum that QCA put out for
consultation earlier this year (see the March issue of this column, and www.qca.org.uk/
secondarycurriculumreview/lenses/building/values/index.htm).

I rarely encounter teachers who are familiar with this statement, let alone say that they use it.
People who are aware of it often have a rather negative view.

Missing the point

With respect to Sir Keith Ajegbo, whose report is important reading {see the March issue), this kind
of criticism misses much of the point. When the statement was first published, many people
probably did not read the preamble that explained its purpose. Extracts from that preamble were
still included in the 1999 National Curriculum documents. The latest QCA consultation documents,
unfortunately, omit the preamble altogether, and actually say that 'the national curriculum is based
on [this] statement of values'. It was never the remit of the original forum to provide a value-base
for the whole curriculum (1 know; I was one of the 150). Nor was the intention to provide a set of
values that could somehow in itself resolve disagreements arising from the diversity of our society.

The intention was a much more limited, but still important one: to demonstrate, to people who
claimed there could be no common ground of values in a plural society, that it actually was possible
to find quite widespread agreement. If you try to do this, then of course you will have to avoid some
controversial issues on which not everyone will agree (you will not find any direct reference, for
instance, to the morality of same-sex relationships). In that sense, any resulting statement is bound
to be 'watered down' in comparison with a whole range of possible and diverse sets of values that
different groups might support.

So is the statement 'politically correct'? Yes, if we can interpret that as meaning that the end-result
that has been endorsed after a process of discussion and negotiation. Such a process is bound to be
political with a small p, and is none the worse for that. People will argue for their favoured positions,
but what comes out in the end is something that everyone can sign up to. So some people wanted a
strong statement in support of marriage, while others wanted recognition of diversity of family
relationships. The end result has a wording that everyone accepted (look it up). That is actually not a
had illustration of how nponle ran finrt aerppmpnt while not hurvine their diffprpnrev