NC11: Memorandum submitted by The Association of Professionals in
Education and Children's Trusts (Aspect)
1. The
Association of
Professionals in Education and Children's Trusts (Aspect) is the nationally-recognised professional association
for Local Authority school improvement staff, independent educational
consultants and, an increasingly broad range of children's services
professionals. Aspect's key focus is educational improvement and the
organisation seeks to furnish positive contributions to national educational
and general children's services policy development and implementation. Local
authority advisers on whole-school and curriculum development are predominantly
in membership of Aspect.
2.
The Association endorses the principle of a National Curriculum but believes
that fitness-for-purpose can be improved by prioritising adherence to a number
of broad principles, aims and objectives.
3. A national
framework that allows sufficient flexibility for local sensitivities and
priorities represents a potentially powerful and effective model.
The nature of curriculum
provision
4. Fundamentally, the curriculum
for children and young people needs to focus on encouraging learning for all,
by promoting understanding and questioning through the provision of a range of
experiences. A wide variety of experiences is required both for and
between individual learners.
5.
The core aim of such a curriculum is to provide and inspire children and young
people with a range of language and number skills, a broad and balanced range
of knowledge and other skills, attitudes that embrace learning in and out of
the classroom and positive social outlooks. Effectively, education provides the
essential grounding that enables later progress through life.
6. The growing mass of available
information renders the importance of enquiry and synthesis crucial. Rapid, and
sometimes unpredictable, technological and other changes mean that education
has to provide young people with skills which facilitate personal flexibility
in order to live and prosper in the future.
7. Addressing skills and
attitudes is at least as valuable as the base of desired knowledge. A move to
project-style curriculum programmes which promote the skills of learning is
appropriate, rather than a segmented subject base.
8. Curriculum provision should
promote collaboration between specialists as well as flexible pathways for
young people, with curriculum content appropriate to individual learners.
9. Curriculum organisation
demands coherent transition between key stages, with learning programmes that
allow for individual progression regardless of age and not rigid age-related
stages.
10.
Through the delivery of education in schools, it is important for children and
young people to develop respect for others as an important quality, alongside
other positive attributes such as self-respect and self-esteem. These
characteristics promote confidence and the capacity to co-operate throughout
the stages of life. Key core values and principles to be inculcated include
reciprocity, sincerity, honesty, integrity, tolerance and compassion.
11.
The increasingly global context within which we live needs to be portrayed at
an early stage, with the available PSHE
and citizenship frameworks offering relevant programmes. Such programmes
can be rendered appropriate to pupils' ages, abilities and backgrounds and
provide opportunities to address real life and topical issues promoting
tolerance and respect. This will
facilitate and reflect respect for the values and aspirations of the many
different cultural, ethnic, religious, political, economic, regional and local
communities catered for by schools.
12.
Technological and social change limits future planning, with any current state
of knowledge enjoying a short "shelf life". Nevertheless, each provision
planning cycle needs to have a vision for the future while building in high
levels of flexibility in order to adapt to changes in society's needs.
Irrespective of the given curriculum
content at any time, implanting learning skills and inspiring a desire to learn
are at the heart of educational purpose.
Impact
on Learning and teaching
13.
Pupils learn most effectively when they feel safe and secure and are healthy -
key elements of the Every Child Matters
agenda. They need to gain a sense of fulfilment and enjoyment to succeed which
underlines the fact that learning styles and the pace of learning vary for
individuals and these should be taken into account in planning provision.
15.
The pedagogical implications of recent research reinforce developments in
personalised learning and the impact of Meta learning, taking account of
different intelligences including emotional intelligence. It is important to
build the individual pupil's power to learn, making the social pedagogic
approaches found in other parts of Europe particularly interesting. The main implications underline the
importance of a "can do" ethos in schools.
16.
Equally, schools' abilities to deliver all of the Every Child Matters five outcomes for children reinforce the capacity
for overcoming barriers to effective learning. It is vital to stress that physical
and emotional well-being are pre-requisites necessary for pupils' to "Enjoy and
"Achieve". Stress, motivational deficits and stunted social development are all
basic contributors to under-achievement.
17.
Gender differences are manifested in commonly found weaknesses in boys' writing
and there is some evidence that there are gender-characteristic bases to
variations in favoured learning styles. Suitable personalised responses can be
found through multi-sensory approaches to learning and by deploying mechanisms
such as Brain Gym.
18.
Issues of girls' confidence and expectations, notably in mathematics and
science, also need to be addressed positively. Schools should consider how to
use role models in addressing gender issues and take care in the selection and
deployment of teaching resources.
19.
Learning impediments are often patently linked to family and domestic
circumstances as well as levels of poverty. Analyses of pupil achievement
present this clearly. All schools need contextualised provision together with
awareness of a broad spectrum of special educational needs, especially with the
increased incidence of dyslexia and ADHD.
20. Individualised approaches should lead
to children and young people being empowered to understand their own learning
progress and on-going learning needs. They should be enabled to become
semi-autonomous in their methodology of learning working with school staff in
Meta learning approaches having the confidence to experiment and gain knowledge
from any mistakes made. Confidence and success are likely to ensue.
21.
Teaching styles need to be varied and to include "hand-on" experiential
situations for pupils who also should be allowed to initiate their own learning
if it is to provide good and lasting stimulation.
22.
Developments in the use of assessment data, with individual pupil target
setting underpinning teaching and learning, reflect the value of "classroom
research".
23.
There is considerable scope for utilising larger scale national and international research to inform curriculum
policy and practice.
24.
Local budget limitations often restrict the capacity for teacher and other
staff Continuing Professional Development which acts to the detriment of
overall development.
25.
High quality up-to- date ICT and other new technologies, and related staff
training and encouragement, are absolutely essential as classroom tools for
teaching and learning. The effective use of multi-media acts as a motivator and
stimulant for pupils; the connected skills are vital to 21st Century
life and the capacity to provide knowledge cannot be replicated in other ways.
Curriculum
and Assessment
26.
While the current emphasis is understandably placed on basic skills, social
skills and experiential learning, more attention should be given to promoting
strategies related to "how to learn", thinking skills and developing the
capacity of pupils to transfer learning between different situations.
27.
A meaningful, balanced and relevant curriculum must encompass mathematics, science, English, PSHE and the
foundation subjects, though a strong role for creativity and skill development
through practical learning situations is also vital. 21st Century learning is often more about new methods
of delivery than changed content.
28. Future developments need to take account of more
flexibility in curriculum provision, through innovative timetabling as well as pupil-
initiated projects and the use of exciting and accessible multi-media.
29. Greater consideration should
be accorded to the part that European models of social pedagogy can play in
ways of inter-connecting learning and care as well as small group work and
project teams to promote the development of truly personalised learning.
30. The general principles of
social pedagogy incorporate focussing on the children and young people holistically
so supporting overall development, encouraging constant reflection of practice
by professionals; greater appreciation of the impact of the learning
environment and higher levels of pupil involvement in their own learning. These
principles, reinforced by modern ICT, should be major influences on curriculum experiences
31. Early years curriculum should
embrace a more gradual entry into formal learning situations with greater value
placed on structured play, as appropriate for young children.
32.
More attention to the diagnosis of the different needs of children, including
those with specific learning difficulties, is required with less reliance on teacher
observation and intuitive reactions in order to influence curriculum provision.
33.
Assessment for Learning provides crucial mechanisms which promote individual
target setting and learning plans that allow teachers to focus on individual
pupils' needs, so providing effective accountability measures and ensuring more
meaningful outcomes.
Diversity and Inclusion
39. In meeting the different
learning needs and cultural backgrounds of pupils, practice varies greatly. Overall, classes remain large and many schools
are too stretched in terms of staff workloads and resourcing. Better
teacher-pupil ratios would release resources for effective planning and
innovation.
40. Inclusive education, while having merits, does, on occasion, potentially
disadvantage those with unmet needs, pupils unsuited to mainstream provision
and other pupils in the cohort from whom attention is diverted, as well as
spreading limited specialist resources thinly.
41. More resources are required
and closer analysis is necessary of how inclusive education can best be managed
to maximise meeting the needs of all pupils.
42. English as an Additional Language
(EAL) support requires greater investment to embed more consistent provision.
43. PSHE programmes can play a major role in advancing attitudes of
tolerance and understanding.
44. More consideration of those
with low-level additional needs has to be incorporated into the personalisation
agenda.
44. Securing the engagement of disengaged
and disaffected children and young people demands
the creation of a curriculum ethos that builds individual confidence to engage
with the education system which, in turn, requires more innovative and flexible
solutions in terms of provision and the learning environment.
45. If the
curriculum is to respond to the social challenges of "hard
to reach" children and young people, it
must be viewed in contexts that also address community and family cohesion.
46.The implementation of
the Children Act 2004 points to curriculum developments being set into a
multi-agency environment, with a cross-professional basis to service delivery.
Conclusion
47. The dominant curriculum
issue is identifying the progressive skills and attitudes that children and
young people require, together with bodies of relevant knowledge and finding
systems and styles that take account of individual need.
48.
The properly funded and ongoing professional development of those involved in
the delivery of a sustainable and modernised curriculum is a crucial issue.
49. The future curriculum has to promote a capacity and
disposition which makes for effective learners who are skilled at risk-taking
and persistent in coping with change, learning from mistakes, probing for
answers, experimenting and seeking a broad-based understanding of the world.
March 2008
