Ofsted’s consultation about its new education inspection framework, with its focus on the curriculum, is leading Early Years practitioners to wonder what a curriculum for the youngest children might look like. Yet the notion of a curriculum for young children is not new. For example, Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (QCA/DfEE, 2000) was the […]
A UNICEF report in 2013 on the 29 most wealthy countries placed the United Kingdom as lowest in terms of children aged 15 to 19 remaining in education. Although, since then, there have been legislative changes to the ages of compulsory education in the UK, it is a telling comparison. It is particularly compelling when […]
The research context and the focus of the study Talk is critical to the education process as it is the medium of instruction as well as a way for children to present knowledge and develop ideas together. The latter quality identifies talk as a tool for collaborative ‘meaning-making’. Meaning-making is where understandings are co-constructed through […]
Much has been written about the curriculum as a product, but less about what qualifies as a broad and balanced process of curriculum development. We offer here our reflections on what that process should look like, from our experiences of leading change at whole-school and subject level. We did not set out with a fully […]
Within the United Kingdom there has been a significant amount of curriculum reform since the late 1980s, but the directions taken by Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been markedly different. The authors have worked for a number of years in both England and Scotland (presently in the latter) so will focus mainly on […]
As a teacher of mathematics, I heard many conversations about whether GCSE is a two- or three-year programme of study and in what order we should teach the various interconnected topics in mathematics. I agree that the second question deserved much consideration and deliberation but could never understand the first point. My belief is that […]
What is spatial ability? Spatial ability involves perceiving the location and dimension of objects and their relationships to one another. We use it to pack a suitcase, when stacking a dishwasher and even when getting dressed (e.g. turning clothes around, aligning buttons and button holes). We also need to be able to negotiate our way […]
Since 1988, the curriculum has been a requirement of every school in England. Its earliest aims sought to ‘equip children for a lively and constructive place in society’ and ‘to fit them to do a job of work’ (Callaghan, 1976). Over the last 31 years, the world and the challenges it faces have certainly changed. […]
Can mindfulness contribute to a broad and balanced curriculum that enriches life? Philippa Griffiths, PGCE (geography), University of Oxford Before embarking on my PGCE, research led me to an array of negative reports on poor teacher and student mental health. This sparked my interest in mindfulness, an intervention for improving wellbeing and has already been […]
Our students are growing up in unsettling times. Climate change, plastic pollution, political polarisation, isolationism, social atomisation and anxiety are just some contemporary challenges. However, there is a compelling case to make for a rebalancing of the curriculum towards a more positive outlook, and I offer some suggestions for how this rebalancing might be achieved. […]
School reports are an enduring feature of the education landscape. They form part of our personal history, fondly retained by parents well beyond a child’s school leaving age. The Department for Education requires schools in England to report to parents annually (Department for Education, 2015). There is widespread variation in reporting practice, and many schools […]
As a teacher and international school leader, I have always been interested in early leadership opportunities in school to help develop students’ skill sets. This article explores experiences of building opportunities for leadership within school to increase student impact in the community. A review of published literature relating to schools and higher education proposes a […]
As part of a well-balanced education, the PSHCE curriculum at St Mary’s includes initiatives to help pupils develop social and emotional skills, personal confidence and self-esteem. These focus on pupils’ academic achievement, character and wellbeing, with a philosophy that the latter two elements can support the former (Bott et al., 2017). St Mary’s is a […]
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. (Nelson Mandela) Over the past decade, online programmes have become an increasingly common method of learning for an increasingly diverse population of students (Allen and Seaman, […]
There is increasing concern within and beyond the teaching profession at how the primary curriculum in England in recent years has become unbalanced, with the emphasis on decontextualised literacy and numeracy skills and measurable outcomes. This was a major concern of the Cambridge Primary Review (Alexander, 2010), which critiqued and provided direction for practice in […]
What are the aims of our schools, and what do they communicate about values? The aims of education are contested (Garratt and Forrester, 2012), originating from a variety of stakeholders. For schools, this can often feel like a juggling act, adding newly emerging aims of education to current practices with limited time and resources. In […]
Impington Village College (IVC) is proud to have been an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School for over 25 years. Our international sixth form has students from 27 countries, from Brazil to the United States, and 20 different first languages, including Korean, Norwegian and Tagalog. We believe that the IB Diploma (IBDP) and Careers Programme (IBCP) […]
In January 2019, Damian Hinds announced that the DfE would be supporting schools to implement flexible working practices such as job-sharing, whereby two teachers perform the role of one full-time staff member, as part of the ‘Teacher recruitment and retention strategy’ (DfE, 2019). Hinds notes that job-sharing is relatively uncommon in teaching compared to other […]
Over the last 50 years, the concept of ‘science literacy’, or ‘scientific literacy’, has increasingly become the term used to describe the goal of science education (Roberts, 2007; Feinstein, 2011). In their seminal report ‘Beyond 2000: Science education for the future’, Millar and Osborne (1998) reviewed the purpose of science education, the focus of which […]
Over the 30-plus years of National Curriculum, balance and breadth have largely been a debate around the amount of time allocated between core and foundation subjects, with attendant concerns for standards of achievement in the former and quality of provision in the latter. In the context of high-stakes accountability, balance is skewed by attention to […]
