Getting creative with your school's curriculum need not be a risky enterprise. Nick Bannister speaks to headteachers and experts about how to develop an innovative curriculum that focuses on both knowledge and skills
The future of the curriculum is subject to intense debate, like almost every aspect of the education system today.
Read the papers and it sometimes seems to be a stark choice – a struggle, even – between advocates for a progressive, learning skills-based curriculum and those fiercely promoting more traditional, knowledge-based approaches.
But in reality the choice for primary headteachers is less clear cut and a lot more nuanced.
An innovative primary curriculum that meets the needs of children today will combine the best of both approaches, says Gareth Mills, an education researcher and thinker who specialises in curriculum innovation.
“Whatever the current climate is it tends to polarise the debate,” he said. “It’s actually very unhelpful to have a debate about whether the curriculum should be based around knowledge or skills. A well designed curriculum will find space for all these things.
“We are in a period of curriculum change. However, one of the main thrusts is the increasing flexibility for schools to shape their local curriculum. I suggest that headteachers go back to first principles when they’re considering a new approach to the curriculum. It should be based on evidence of what makes good learning.
“We need to ask what our foundation is. We are educating the whole child. That means we have to think about knowledge as well as skills and attitudes.
“We know that giving students a degree of ownership in learning motivates them and makes them learn more deeply. It also gets kids to reflect on themselves as learners – to think about thinking. There’s a huge amount of evidence that says this is a good thing to be doing.”
This advice and more can be found in Mr Mills’ recent report on creative approaches to the curriculum, published by the National College for School Leadership. Why Curriculum Innovation Matters captures key features of the leadership of curriculum development and innovation in 40 primary schools around England.
The report emphasises the importance of leaders actively leading curriculum change and innovation. It also says that collaboration both within and between schools is vital.
Kingsholm CE Primary School in Gloucester contributed to the report. Collaboration with other schools was indeed key to Kingsholm’s approach to creating a more creative curriculum, explained headteacher Jan Buckland. The starting point on the school’s creative journey was to work with six other city schools, while it was also important to establish those first principles emphasised by Mr Mills.
Ms Buckland said: “This approach is much safer if you do this in partnership with other schools. It’s not so much of a step into the unknown if you are doing this with teachers from other schools.
“We wanted to make sure that standards in literacy and numeracy stayed focused but we still wanted to think creatively. We worked together about what we were allowed to do rather than what we were not allowed to do. It was very much about how we could deliver learning in a much more experiential way.”
The school is in a deprived inner city area and has the most diverse pupil intake in the city, with 19 per cent of pupils having English as an additional language. Many pupils join the school with poor language development.
Ms Buckland continued: “We ended up developing what we called the city curriculum. We used aspects of the city of Gloucester because the children did not know their locality. We are now much more skills-based and more objective-led. It is also more personalised and responsive to the needs of children. The philosophy underpinning this is still the same – we’ve used the curriculum creatively as a vehicle for improving the quality of teaching and learning.
“This allows us to look for cross-curricular links maybe three times a year. This starts with an experience which may be a visitor to the school or a visit. This gives pupils the ‘wow factor’.”
The school has an emphasis on thinking skills and children leading their activities and at the end of term the children share their learning. Ms Buckland added: “This might be through a themed assembly for parents. This happens at the last two weeks of term and we involve the children in planning the next term’s theme. “We assess what they know already and they come in with key questions that they want answered and we make sure that the children have opportunities to follow their lines of enquiry.”
But there are challenges with a cross-curricular approach, the head acknowledges. “One of the things that my staff have found hard is that they can lose their subject. You need a system for subject leaders to monitor where their subject is being taught. It’s about them being involved in planning and inputting into a skills ladder to make sure that their subject is being delivered.
“You also need to make sure you have regular conversations and walks around the school to see how things are being delivered so that they get evidence that they need in case of a subject inspection. And encourage a culture where colleagues keep evidence for one another.”
Collaboration inside and outside the school provides a strong basis for creating a more innovative curriculum. It is also important to make sure that you do not run before you can walk, says Sue Blackburn, head of Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge CE Primary School in Shropshire.
“You’ve got to get your staff on board,” she explained. “You need to make sure there is a common vision that is shared by everyone.
“Explore what you want to achieve and where you want to go, identify what your strengths are and realise that you can’t change everything all at once.
“When I came here in 2009 the school had a tradition of good standards, high results and the school had really wanted to expand on what it was doing and be more creative. Teachers were feeling that they wanted to break free from the QCA schemes of work a little bit.
“We started off looking at what we had to teach and then ditched some of the content and moved away from the rigid QCA schemes of work. We focused on local interest – our school was celebrating its 100th anniversary so this formed the backdrop of a number of cross-curricular themes. We were eager to experiment but one thing that we held onto was the National Strategies for numeracy and literacy.”
Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge’s approach shows that core knowledge and creativity are not mutually exclusive. One recent literacy project revolved around a Dalek’s mysterious appearance at the school. The very convincing, full-size Dr Who robot – made by the husband of a member of staff – made its first appearance at a school Christmas fair. Children were encouraged to track down the Dalek when it disappeared and then report clues to its possible whereabouts on a blog seemingly run by a Dr Who character, UNIT officer Major Tigerwell.
“You can’t ever fix the curriculum in stone,” Mr Mills added. “Even if we agree that we need a focus on certain aspects of subject discipline. That does not mean that we can’t take a thematic, cross-curricular approach as well.
“There are only two things that really matter. The first is what goes on in classrooms – the quality of the learning experience. You can plan for deep, rich, purposeful learning experiences for children and design a learning experience rather than deliver curriculum content.
“The second is how teachers take an interest as learning takes place. How they question, model, support and nurture children through their learning. There is a long list of research saying that this strategy works.
“What matters less is school structures or school types. What matters is what goes on in classrooms, what teachers do. That’s where we should put our energies, rather than school types.”
Thinking about a more innovative curriculum?
The 40 primary school heads who took part in the research for Why Curriculum Innovation Matters shared their advice for school leaders contemplating a more innovative curriculum. Here are the highlights:
1, Take time to revisit the core values and purposes of learning. Look for ways to innovate within your overall vision for learning within the school.
2, Design a curriculum that develops every aspect of a child. This means building in rich experiences that develop children’s skills, knowledge and understanding as well as their intellectual, practical, aesthetic, social and emotional abilities.
3, Use evidence of effective practice and research to help change.
4, Use your time well. Build development and enquiry-based CPD into the ongoing work of the school – and give innovations time to bear fruit.
5, Create a positive learning climate for teachers and pupils. Taking managed risks in a spirit of professional enquiry is an effective way to do this.
6, View the curriculum as a set of ingredients. What matters most is how teachers put the ingredients together to create powerful learning experiences that are relevant to the children and address their needs.
7, Engage and empower others – they will have the energy and imagination to drive improvement.
8, Creativity and discipline go hand-in-hand. Curriculum leaders need to be open-minded yet systematic about curriculum innovation.
Nick Bannister is an education writer and communications consultant.
Further information
Why Curriculum Innovation Matters can be downloaded by National College members in the publications section of the members’ library.
Read the papers and it sometimes seems to be a stark choice – a struggle, even – between advocates for a progressive, learning skills-based curriculum and those fiercely promoting more traditional, knowledge-based approaches.
But in reality the choice for primary headteachers is less clear cut and a lot more nuanced.
An innovative primary curriculum that meets the needs of children today will combine the best of both approaches, says Gareth Mills, an education researcher and thinker who specialises in curriculum innovation.
“Whatever the current climate is it tends to polarise the debate,” he said. “It’s actually very unhelpful to have a debate about whether the curriculum should be based around knowledge or skills. A well designed curriculum will find space for all these things.
“We are in a period of curriculum change. However, one of the main thrusts is the increasing flexibility for schools to shape their local curriculum. I suggest that headteachers go back to first principles when they’re considering a new approach to the curriculum. It should be based on evidence of what makes good learning.
“We need to ask what our foundation is. We are educating the whole child. That means we have to think about knowledge as well as skills and attitudes.
“We know that giving students a degree of ownership in learning motivates them and makes them learn more deeply. It also gets kids to reflect on themselves as learners – to think about thinking. There’s a huge amount of evidence that says this is a good thing to be doing.”
This advice and more can be found in Mr Mills’ recent report on creative approaches to the curriculum, published by the National College for School Leadership. Why Curriculum Innovation Matters captures key features of the leadership of curriculum development and innovation in 40 primary schools around England.
The report emphasises the importance of leaders actively leading curriculum change and innovation. It also says that collaboration both within and between schools is vital.
Kingsholm CE Primary School in Gloucester contributed to the report. Collaboration with other schools was indeed key to Kingsholm’s approach to creating a more creative curriculum, explained headteacher Jan Buckland. The starting point on the school’s creative journey was to work with six other city schools, while it was also important to establish those first principles emphasised by Mr Mills.
Ms Buckland said: “This approach is much safer if you do this in partnership with other schools. It’s not so much of a step into the unknown if you are doing this with teachers from other schools.
“We wanted to make sure that standards in literacy and numeracy stayed focused but we still wanted to think creatively. We worked together about what we were allowed to do rather than what we were not allowed to do. It was very much about how we could deliver learning in a much more experiential way.”
The school is in a deprived inner city area and has the most diverse pupil intake in the city, with 19 per cent of pupils having English as an additional language. Many pupils join the school with poor language development.
Ms Buckland continued: “We ended up developing what we called the city curriculum. We used aspects of the city of Gloucester because the children did not know their locality. We are now much more skills-based and more objective-led. It is also more personalised and responsive to the needs of children. The philosophy underpinning this is still the same – we’ve used the curriculum creatively as a vehicle for improving the quality of teaching and learning.
“This allows us to look for cross-curricular links maybe three times a year. This starts with an experience which may be a visitor to the school or a visit. This gives pupils the ‘wow factor’.”
The school has an emphasis on thinking skills and children leading their activities and at the end of term the children share their learning. Ms Buckland added: “This might be through a themed assembly for parents. This happens at the last two weeks of term and we involve the children in planning the next term’s theme. “We assess what they know already and they come in with key questions that they want answered and we make sure that the children have opportunities to follow their lines of enquiry.”
But there are challenges with a cross-curricular approach, the head acknowledges. “One of the things that my staff have found hard is that they can lose their subject. You need a system for subject leaders to monitor where their subject is being taught. It’s about them being involved in planning and inputting into a skills ladder to make sure that their subject is being delivered.
“You also need to make sure you have regular conversations and walks around the school to see how things are being delivered so that they get evidence that they need in case of a subject inspection. And encourage a culture where colleagues keep evidence for one another.”
Collaboration inside and outside the school provides a strong basis for creating a more innovative curriculum. It is also important to make sure that you do not run before you can walk, says Sue Blackburn, head of Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge CE Primary School in Shropshire.
“You’ve got to get your staff on board,” she explained. “You need to make sure there is a common vision that is shared by everyone.
“Explore what you want to achieve and where you want to go, identify what your strengths are and realise that you can’t change everything all at once.
“When I came here in 2009 the school had a tradition of good standards, high results and the school had really wanted to expand on what it was doing and be more creative. Teachers were feeling that they wanted to break free from the QCA schemes of work a little bit.
“We started off looking at what we had to teach and then ditched some of the content and moved away from the rigid QCA schemes of work. We focused on local interest – our school was celebrating its 100th anniversary so this formed the backdrop of a number of cross-curricular themes. We were eager to experiment but one thing that we held onto was the National Strategies for numeracy and literacy.”
Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge’s approach shows that core knowledge and creativity are not mutually exclusive. One recent literacy project revolved around a Dalek’s mysterious appearance at the school. The very convincing, full-size Dr Who robot – made by the husband of a member of staff – made its first appearance at a school Christmas fair. Children were encouraged to track down the Dalek when it disappeared and then report clues to its possible whereabouts on a blog seemingly run by a Dr Who character, UNIT officer Major Tigerwell.
“You can’t ever fix the curriculum in stone,” Mr Mills added. “Even if we agree that we need a focus on certain aspects of subject discipline. That does not mean that we can’t take a thematic, cross-curricular approach as well.
“There are only two things that really matter. The first is what goes on in classrooms – the quality of the learning experience. You can plan for deep, rich, purposeful learning experiences for children and design a learning experience rather than deliver curriculum content.
“The second is how teachers take an interest as learning takes place. How they question, model, support and nurture children through their learning. There is a long list of research saying that this strategy works.
“What matters less is school structures or school types. What matters is what goes on in classrooms, what teachers do. That’s where we should put our energies, rather than school types.”
Thinking about a more innovative curriculum?
The 40 primary school heads who took part in the research for Why Curriculum Innovation Matters shared their advice for school leaders contemplating a more innovative curriculum. Here are the highlights:
1, Take time to revisit the core values and purposes of learning. Look for ways to innovate within your overall vision for learning within the school.
2, Design a curriculum that develops every aspect of a child. This means building in rich experiences that develop children’s skills, knowledge and understanding as well as their intellectual, practical, aesthetic, social and emotional abilities.
3, Use evidence of effective practice and research to help change.
4, Use your time well. Build development and enquiry-based CPD into the ongoing work of the school – and give innovations time to bear fruit.
5, Create a positive learning climate for teachers and pupils. Taking managed risks in a spirit of professional enquiry is an effective way to do this.
6, View the curriculum as a set of ingredients. What matters most is how teachers put the ingredients together to create powerful learning experiences that are relevant to the children and address their needs.
7, Engage and empower others – they will have the energy and imagination to drive improvement.
8, Creativity and discipline go hand-in-hand. Curriculum leaders need to be open-minded yet systematic about curriculum innovation.
Nick Bannister is an education writer and communications consultant.
Further information
Why Curriculum Innovation Matters can be downloaded by National College members in the publications section of the members’ library.