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Disciplined Innovation in the primary curriculum

Take this opportunity to renew your curriculum thinking and the place of Citizenship education in primary

May 2010

Introduction...

Many Primary schools and local authorities have already begun preparing for the new primary curriculum which was planned for introduction in September 2011 and based on the review led by Sir Jim Rose. A wealth of new support materials have been produced for teachers by QCDA. However, when the schools bill was passed by parliament in April 2010, the revised primary curriculum was not included.

Although this means that there will be no new statutory curriculum for Primaries, ACT nevertheless encourages schools to explore, innovate and develop new curriculum thinking and then share thir ideas. The Primary curriculum needs to evolve in line with the revisions to the Secondary curriculum and this is an opportunity.

At ACT we have recently been talking to heads and teachers in Primary schools and found huge enthusiasm for the opportunity for curriculum renewal, especially in regard to Citizenship education. We hope the following may be useful.

Photo from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/new-primary-curriculum/

Disciplined Innovation

Helping teachers and pupils think about how new learning approaches can work

ACT encourages schools to develop disciplined innovation in curriculum planning, inspired by the Areas of Learning opportunities as described by the proposed new curriculum. By this we mean teachers should reflect on what they are doing well in Citizenship education and take the opportunity provided by the new resources and thinking of the AoL. The key to this is exploring different learning approaches building on current success.

Start by having a look at what was suggested in the Historical, Geographical and Social AoL. This should help you think through what you're doing now and what could be improved. Make sure you have an hour or two to do this. New Primary Curriculum

Photo from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/new-primary-curriculum/

What have we found out what teachers like or dislike about the Historical, Geographical and Social Area of Learning that came into schools in February?

We have found that teachers are overwhelmingly inspired by the opportunity the AoL approach gives for curriculum planning. They see this as a twenty first century approach to learning that allows schools to determine the curriculum content and direction with their pupils. This approach enables more personalization and differentiation, allowing schools to make their own choices about appropriate things for their learners. It is seen as being more conducive to staff strengths and opens up creative learning; indeed it spawns the creative curriculum-a theme often repeated in discussions we had with teachers and heads.

Teachers also like the better progression that would develop from the AoL approach, this was exemplified by being able to better describe how geography, history and citizenship education can be linked and exemplified in context in powerful and exciting ways. This includes better alignment with the way the revised secondary curriculum is working in Keys Stages 3 and 4.

You can find out more here

Photo from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/new-primary-curriculum/

What are the big ideas in the AoL approach worth developing?

ACT found that Primary teachers were really keen about four things

Being able to take the opportunity to develop pupils’ political understanding and active citizenship, especially in the context of global learning and environmental learning. Have a look at this film clip

Being able to choose the work appropriate to the school and children. This is especailly true in the way the AoL describes the range and content, helping children decide on learning. The language of the AoL is powerful, exciting and will enthuse pupils.

Having greater clarity about the purpose of learning. Having the ideas and knowledge well described means that pupils will be able to enjoy their learning and writing rather than simply doing persuasive writing for the sake of it. The AoL approach enables teachers to easily develop this practice. Schools can the opportunity to develop Citizenship education as the subject because it is more visible and better articulated in the AoL.

Connecting subjects and children. The thinking behind the AoL approach enables cross curricular work to be made very clear. Go to this part of the QCDA website about curriculum design

Photo from http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/new-primary-curriculum/

What should Primary schools be doing at the moment?

ACT believes that in addition to thinking about new curriculum planning through disciplined innovation as suggested above, Primary schools can seize the opportunity to look at the following:

Assessment, recording and reporting

Take this opportunity to re-think assessment and tracking progression, especially by linking the 8 Level Scale to the Early, Middle and Later stages framework. This film may help and the levels for Citizenship, though not statutory are available here.

Whole school thinking

Go back to the ACT Self Evaluation Tool for PSHE and Citizenship education and take the opportunity to look again at how Citizenship education is managed in the school, how it impacts upon the schools and the community and whether or not the school is making the most of what Citizenship education can offer.