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Case studies
Choice, Challenge and Change
Curriculum innovation at work
St. John`s School and Community College
Patrick Hazlewood
Previously Headteacher of a school in Cornwall (1991-96),
Patrick Hazlewood was awarded his PhD in Effective Management
of Secondary Schools from the University of Exeter in 1994.
He is currently Head of St John`s School And Community College,
Marlborough. The school is an 11-18 Technology College with
1450 students on roll.
For those in schools charged with the delivery of the National
Curriculum the view through the classroom window is gloomy
and dull. The relentless drive to raise educational standards,
whilst laudable in principle, could be argued to be guilty
of crushing curriculum innovation, producing a culture of
measurement of standards through testing and ultimately a
profession populated by people who can only vaguely remember
what education of the whole person actually means. More seriously,
the freedom to educate in a way that places the needs of the
learner at the forefront of our thinking has been wiped out
by the immense pressures of accountability through ‘league
tables’, performance management and unsustainable workload.
Little wonder then that teacher recruitment and retention
is difficult. What sane person would enter a profession whose
working day demands total dedication to meeting targets that
have little relevance to the core purpose of their profession?
Who would sensibly sanction a curriculum that resembles a
long dark tunnel, running parallel to numerous other dark
tunnels (none of which ever meet) and expect the occupants
to relish the challenge of getting to the other end. For the
teacher, why bother entering at all?
If we accept that the core purpose of education should be
to create the conditions that allow all learners (both child
and adult) to develop a love of learning, to acquire the skills
and abilities necessary to provide access to further learning
and which inspire them to engage in lifelong learning then
we must also accept that this is a long way from the reality
of education in England at the beginning of the 21st Century.
It is probable that future generations could argue that education
policy and practice at the beginning of the century created
a society populated by damaged learners who could not adapt
to the rapidly changing demands of the technological and moral
dilemmas inherent in a developing world. They may also identify
that it was the point at which real learning really began
to go down hill with fully trained teachers, whose raison
d’etre was to impart a love of learning from a point
of expert knowledge, being replaced by adults other than teachers.
The current National Curriculum seems to be little different
to that of the 1960`s, which prepared children for a world
in which a job was for life. The time has surely come to recognise
that if we are to educate effectively for the world of tomorrow
then we will need to reject current curriculum constraint
and think again. In this century successful individuals will
need a comprehensive and global education in order to become
effective citizens. They will need flexible approaches to
learning, to be able to apply skills and knowledge flexibly
and be able to manage information and situations. When did
we actually teach children how to learn and how to think?
Are we not guilty of spoon-feeding learners in order to get
them through the various hoops at the end of each Key Stage
and are thereby failing to encourage them to take full responsibility
for their own learning? Learning to learn, learning to think
and "turning out people who love learning so much, and
who learn so well, that they will learn whatever needs to
be learnt” (Holt, 1965) must become the core of the
curriculum.
The work of the RSA in recent years has pointed to the need
to re-examine and re-define work and education (RSA, 1995
and 1998). They are not alone; many involved in the direct
delivery of education feel the same. Following the publication
of “Opening Minds: education for the 21st century”
(RSA, 1999) a small number of schools began to explore the
way forward for the future of education in the secondary sector.
As the Headteacher of St. John`s School and Community College,
a large (1450 students) 11-18 Technology College involvement
in the pilot coincided with a major realisation. After five
years of continually raising standards, from 55%A*-C GCSE
to 68%, we were beginning to reach the plateau of what could
reasonably be expected of the students. The staff had worked
exceptionally hard and well beyond the call of duty. Should
I continue to demand more and allow them to drive themselves
into the ground or should I accept that in doing better we
would need to start with a blank curriculum sheet? In so doing
it was important to confront the simple truth that we had
not really been as effective as we thought. In the secondary
curriculum it is probably the case that no one has an overview
of the individual child’s experience; subject specialists
do an excellent job but have very little idea what is being
delivered in other parts of the curriculum. Therefore no one,
except the child, knows when duplication of concepts/ideas
is taking place and the inevitable outcome is discontinuity
and incoherence. There is also the little matter of holding
learners back: current ‘wisdom’ would suggest
that one cannot do the Year 8/9/10 curriculum before the Y7
curriculum has been completed.
It is a very significant step for a highly successful, oversubscribed
school to embark on a path such as this. However, in March
2001 work commenced on developing a curriculum that would
place the learner at the centre. The five competences from
the RSA framework (learning to learn, relating to people,
citizenship, managing information and managing situations)
formed the framework for the new curriculum. The existing
curriculum delivery position of subjects being taught discretely,
of children moving every hour to yet another teacher was ruled
out. Coherence in the curriculum was regarded as essential
if the learners were to make sense of the experience and be
able to make visible connections between each facet of the
curriculum. The curriculum from the student’s view should
be a continuous experience rather like opening a book and
proceeding to be engaged and captivated by an exciting story
unfolding before their eyes. The teacher and teaching team
(six teachers per team as opposed to the normal thirteen plus
teachers for each group) for each chapter (module) become
the courier for the story and interpreter for the child’s
journey. The interpreter helps to make sense of the story,
encourages the child to go beyond the superficial meaning
and suggests pathways to aid deeper understanding. The teaching
style requires critical reflection on the part of both learner
and guide (teacher). Use of strategies to develop preferred
learning styles, exploration of multiple intelligences, use
of emotional intelligence, key skills and core competences
flow through all aspects of the work. At every stage the learner
is required to take responsibility for his/her learning; tasks
are deliberately open-ended, and risk taking (with ideas and
information!) is encouraged. There is no such thing as ‘wrong’
on the journey nor should any child feel constrained or inhibited.
Real learning comes from experimentation with ideas, from
having the freedom to work in a way which does not recognise
limits or boundaries and that places sharing of ideas without
fear at the forefront.
An important aspect of the Year 7 course is that it builds
directly on the Primary school experience. The seamless transfer
enables the children to adapt rapidly and securely to the
large Secondary school. The introductory module examines learning
styles, skills for independent learning, including intensive
ICT training, emphasises the core competencies and sets the
scene. The six modules, written without reference to the National
Curriculum, are taught in rotation. An example of the unfolding
story comes from “Going Places”: the story starts
with an introduction into travel and why people move from
place to place both historically and today. Stereotyping,
customs and styles of world music become enmeshed in journeys
through time, the crusades, basic navigation, finding the
way using co-ordinates, folk tales, castles and medieval invasions,
ballads, and pilgrimages. The journey visits China, India
and Italy and ends at the outer limits with a vision of the
universe of Stephen Hawking. En-route the students will have
built siege engines, used algebra, investigated forces, movement
and power; they will have met Leonardo de Vinci and discussed
his scientific inventions. Each module seeks to inspire and
enthuse in such a way that learning is fun but it also clear
why certain subject matter is being covered. The notion of
homework is also being diminished. Going home is an opportunity
for extended learning! Quite a lot of the ideas encountered
are not usually addressed before Year 9/10.
The pilot, with 85 students (one third of Year 7), proved
to be more successful than we had hoped. Both internal and
external researchers evaluated the project, using the other
two thirds of Year 7 as the control group. The first project
evaluation report will be published at the end of this year/beginning
of next. The early findings are compelling: in the initial
thinking we laid down certain guiding principles which were
that this curriculum should not leave the participants in
an academically or socially disadvantaged position compared
with the control group, that teachers should not feel professionally
exposed and that parents should not be given cause for concern.
Our findings surpassed our wildest expectations: compared
with the control group the pilot group performed significantly
better in English and Maths in the national Year 7 tests.
In internal tests (using KS3 SATs papers) the pilot performed
at about 15% better in Science than the control group. The
pilot group is directly comparable with the ability profile
of the rest of the year. Behaviour in the pilot was also found
to be significantly better than that in the control group.
The pilot children claimed to really enjoy learning and the
teachers…? This was probably the biggest surprise; teachers
claimed to really enjoy teaching again, could be found enthusiastically
talking about learning and teaching strategies and in the
words of one, “I’m finally doing what I came into
the profession to do”.
It is not, however, a story of “Once upon a time...”
and “...happily ever after! There are many difficulties.
The first of these is that the statutory hurdles at KS3 and
4 still exist. Coverage of the National Curriculum is essential
to ensure that students are not disadvantaged. The management
structure of the school also needs to be in sympathy with
the approach to teaching and learning; the old department
style model no longer works. Before being able to embrace
this radically different approach to the curriculum, a significant
change in management philosophy has to be embedded in the
organisation. Collegiality, professionalism and equality of
status in an organisational climate of trust have proved to
be vital ingredients to curriculum change management. Professional
development has become another major issue. It has always
been high on the list of priorities but the Integrated Curriculum
team have extended needs. They need to learn more about how
the brain works, how learners learn to learn, and effective
strategies for extending learner capability. The teaching
team is highly motivated to do this because they are doing
what they came into the profession to do – create and
facilitate a learning environment that encourages and values
learning.
If education in this country is to meet the needs of both
individual and society in the 21st century then a significant
change in strategy is overdue. Standards, structures and assessment
have their place but not at the expense of destroying the
desire to learn and the pleasure of learning through discovery
and learning for its own sake. Reform of the curriculum is
our only hope if we are to nurture well-educated and competent
citizens capable of adapting to the demands of the rapid change
of the 21st century. The opportunity is still with us to revisit
the philosophy of education and determine what schools and
learners should look like. The time has come to let sunshine
flood through the classroom window!
References
Holt, J. (1965) How Children Learn, Penguin
RSA (1995) Redefining Work
RSA (1999) Opening Minds; education for the 21st century
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