Examination of Witnesses (Questions 520-526)
18 JANUARY 2005
DR IAN
COLWILL AND
MR JOHN
WESTAWAY
Q520 Mr Thomas: You mentioned web site
again.
Mr Westaway: That is what we do.
Q521 Mr Thomas: If you are just going
to put them on the web site, are they going to have any effect
at all, whatever else you are going to do with them?
Mr Westaway: The first stage is
putting them on the web site. We mentioned when we appeared before
this Sub-Committee before that we are very much dependent on resourcing
from the Department for the work we do on ESD, and we do not have
the remit or the funds to disseminate this more widely, much as
we might like to do it. The web site is what we can do now.
Q522 Mr Thomas: So you are saying you
could not do anything else without further resources?
Mr Westaway: Not on the sort of
scale that would be needed.
Dr Colwill: Can I just return
to something I mentioned earlier which I hope is something that
is proactive on our part as opposed to waiting to be asked and
which is really trying to focus on the curriculum of the future.
The five-year strategy talks about a review of key stage three.
We have talked within our board about the value of looking at
key stage three. We need also to look at key stages one and two.
It is now, after all, something in the region of five years since
we last reviewed the curriculum. We have therefore launched a
fairly public debate designed to ask hard questions about what
should the curriculum of the future be, and we have identified
five particular dynamics of change—changes in society in
its broader sense, changes in technology, the global dimension,
personalisation, and also changes in our understanding of learning.
We are challenging various subject communities and assessment
communities to look at those areas and say what does this mean
in terms of what students' needs should be in the future and how
should they be addressed in the way in which we take the curriculum
forward. We are doing this quite deliberately out of the context
of a specific review because once you get into a specific review
it becomes more about what changes do you make to programmes of
study, et cetera, et cetera. This is trying to get to a much higher
level of thinking before we start turning this into the mechanics
of what we give to teachers in terms of a statutory curriculum.
What should be driving the thinking behind it? How does it change?
How are the aims and purposes that we set out in the last curriculum
(which are very explicit about sustainability and Education for
Sustainable Development) translated at the moment into what is
and how should they be translated in the future to what is? I
think there is a potential within that debate for us to re-visit
a whole range of areas, one of which would be Education for Sustainable
Development, and to ask that broader question about its role in
a curriculum for the future. As I have said, we have commissioned
a number of think pieces, one of which from the Department is
looking at the global dimension and the international strategy.
I have also referred to the particular think piece from Sara Parkin
on sustainable development. There are similar think pieces from
Tim Brighouse and Angela McFarlane on technology and such like.
So the aim is really to have a broader debate and get people thinking
about where should the curriculum be going before we suddenly
get to a "we are now going to change it" and we get
into the statutory consultation process. I see that as a proactive
opportunity for us to be picking up on ESD again.
Q523 Mr Thomas: I am sure you are right
in that sense. One of the concerns I still have is how an opportunity
like that actually delivers change. You yourself in your evidence
have referred to the patchy support for Education for Sustainable
Development at the regional and local level. We have had a lot
of evidence this afternoon and indeed over the last couple of
weeks about what to my mind boils down to a lack of leadership.
We have compared and contrasted what happens in Wales and where
it has come from is a statutory duty which is driving a different
process which is to know it is going to be better and change people's
attitudes. Of course we do not know that but it is a different
process and it is a more observable process. Do you agree with
the conclusion that there is a lack of sufficient leadership at
present on this issue? I am not asking you to point the finger
of blame.
Mr Westaway: I think there needs
to be more leadership on this issue.
Dr Colwill: Again, you have to
look at this in the context of something Brian Stevens said in
that there is a whole range of initiatives which are all well-meaning
which at the school become a whole series of competing initiatives
where resource and time become important and also where there
are different elements of leadership and sometimes the people
leading on an initiative are somewhere along the line leading
the other initiative.
Q524 Mr Thomas: Until a school is told
that this is as important as the literacy hour they will not react
in terms of designing the curriculum around that. Whichever information
regime Ofsted use, they will not inspect along those lines and
the whole educational community will not respond in terms of delivering
the support and materials necessary to deliver Education for Sustainable
Development.
Dr Colwill: And indeed strategies
will not include this as a key element in their delivery mechanisms
in changing schools.
Q525 Chairman: On that note, I think
we need to end the session. Thank you for coming along this afternoon.
Can I just say that we did talk about consultation and we did
talk about people taking the initiative in response to consultation.
You mentioned the consultation in respect of the future of the
curriculum and it would be very helpful to have the deadline
and any supplementary information on that.
Dr Colwill: It is not a consultation
as such, it is an initiative, but I will certainly send you the
materials. There is going to be a web site with materials on,
which will invite people to comment on the material
Q526 Chairman: Other than the informed,
how will people know that they will have an opportunity to contribute?
Dr Colwill: Ken made a speech
at BETT last week at which he launched it, and we were hoping
that there would be some press coverage. Unfortunately, the league
tables for GSCE results came out the same day and cake-making
was far more important than the Futures Challenge, it turned out.
Chairman: Such is the way of the world.
Thank you very much indeed.
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