{"id":217492,"date":"2024-10-30T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=217492"},"modified":"2024-10-30T08:51:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T08:51:16","slug":"labour-needs-to-look-no-further-in-its-curriculum-review-a-solution-already-exists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/labour-needs-to-look-no-further-in-its-curriculum-review-a-solution-already-exists\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour needs to look no further in its curriculum review \u2013 a solution already exists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When the Labour party was voted into power on 4 July, one of its most pressing priorities was to \u2018modernise\u2019 the national school curriculum, with the prime minister himself commenting<\/a>: \u201cI (will) introduce a curriculum fit for the digital age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks later, on 18 July, a Curriculum and Assessment Review was launched to study the current education model, collect evidence and share its recommendations, which are due to be published in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parlous state of the national curriculum has been a long-ignored, badly-kept secret for a number of years. Simply put, it is trapped by tradition and isn\u2019t teaching students the skills they need for the future. Instead of inspiring the next generation of global thinkers and doers, the emphasis is firmly placed on the regurgitation and memorisation of facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI<\/a>\u2019s transformation of every walk of life only serves to hight this, yet students studying the national curriculum are not properly taught how to harness it and use it ethically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, employers are desperate<\/a> for the future workforce to have certain skills, such as critical thinking, yet students studying the national curriculum are not actively encouraged to develop them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starmer\u2019s vision for the future of education includes several key components. Namely, it must span from Key Stage 1 through to Key Stage 5, focus on both knowledge and future skills, and ensure that every young person leaves school with the best life chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I was reading these terms of reference<\/a> for the first time, I thought it had been taken directly from the International Baccalaureate (IB) website. The IB, at its core, believes in an identical philosophy: to develop students into resilient, self-motivated young people who contribute to making the world a better place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IB, like the prime minister\u2019s desired outcome, is structured so that it caters for students aged 4 to 18, through the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), Diploma Programme (DP) and Career-Related Programme (CP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students get a seamless, consistent and coherent experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This means students get a seamless, consistent and coherent educational experience, and build a strong foundation for future success. In each of these programmes, students study digital tools, how to be a global citizen and undertake interdisciplinary learning so that they can make connections between individual subjects and the wider world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emphasis on future skills alongside subject knowledge is, again, a fundamental part of the IB and I am relieved that Starmer has focused on this too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if we have this globally recognised curriculum that has been taught in England\u2019s schools for over 50 years, surely the prime minister and his party do not need to spend time and resources reinventing the national curriculum?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tried-and-tested model which encompasses the government\u2019s aims as well as the needs of businesses around the globe already exists. So why look further than the IB?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results speak for themselves. In the UK, Diploma Programme (DP) students are three times more likely<\/a> to enrol in a top 20 university compared to their peers, 40 per cent more likely <\/a>to obtain an honours degree and 38 per cent more likely <\/a>to be involved in further education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the average salary <\/a>for a DP graduate who studied Mathematical Sciences at university is \u00a330,000, compared to \u00a322,000 for A Level students who completed the same higher education course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All educators surely agree that it would be wonderful to witness students learning across a consistent continuum to develop skills and competencies that will help them thrive in the future. I see it at ACS Egham each and every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So my question to Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson is this: is the new curriculum going to have the courage to truly let go of an outdated and uninspiring system?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If so, then repackaging an existing model seems like a wasted opportunity when we could embrace one that is already being delivered to more than 1.95 million students across the world with proven impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everything the government wants to achieve through the Francis review is already being delivered in many of our schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311124,"featured_media":193076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"post-theme":[3550],"class_list":["post-217492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","post-theme-opinion-curriculum-review"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t