Headmaster's Blog

Published, Edinburgh Evening News, 14th June, 2010

When Is a Curriculum not a Curriculum?

Curriculum for Excellence is the most divisive debate in education in living memory. Its introduction has polarised opinion both in local communities and in education circles.  It has regularly been vilified for its vagueness, for its lack of clarity and for its lack of prescribed content. But, for me, these criticisms miss the point entirely. However, they have come about as a result of expectation: an expectation that teachers will have a prescribed curriculum to deliver. Without this, the security blanket of being told what to teach is removed and this makes even the most able practitioners uncomfortable. So, the biggest mistake of all is that it was named ‘Curriculum’ for Excellence, as it is not a curriculum at all. As well as providing a refreshingly positive methodology, it is a series of outcomes and experiences that all pupils should gain throughout their school years with schools free to develop the content they feel best fits the desired outcome. Whilst that is actually highly desirable, it is also quite a complicated process to introduce, develop and evaluate.

To add further to the confusion, we still have only a limited idea of what the examination system will look like and this makes secondary school teachers extremely nervous. It is simply not good enough to introduce a curriculum, however worthy, if the assessment design is not in place. It is like playing football without goal nets. We still have a lack of quality information regarding syllabi, weighting of marks, length of courses, when pupils will sit examinations and so on and so forth.

Here is one example of the confusion that faces school management teams up and down the country: What is termed third and fourth stage is meant to provide a general and broad education until the end of S3. This being the case, the likely effect is that pupils will actually have a reduced number of examination subjects in S4 as a single year will simply not provide the amount of time required to be presented in 8 subjects (currently the case in S3/S4). So, either schools will present candidates for fewer subjects (narrowing the curriculum) or schools will start preparing pupils from the beginning of S3 (the current situation). Is it any wonder we are confused? Add in to the mix that the Scottish Qualifications Authority in their infinite wisdom has significantly changed the Science syllabi at Higher for the year after next, immediately prior to the changes Learning and Teaching Scotland will announce for the design of the new Higher, and this shows a lack of joined-up thinking that makes Mr. Blobby look like a genius strategist.

In practice, then, primary schools will be doing fabulous work on the new curriculum whilst secondary schools twirl their fingers and await more detail. Parents need to know that teachers, therefore, are not just being ‘dinosaurs’ resistant to change but that they are genuinely concerned about the lack of really important detail.

And yet, there are probably very few teachers indeed who do not believe in the underlying philosophy of CfE. So, all of the criticisms aside, why do I believe in what the new curriculum seeks to do?

Well, it continues to ensure our focus is primarily on helping youngsters to become articulate, literate and numerate but it attempts to go further so that children become better equipped with skills which will allow them to enquire, reflect, problem solve, strategise, analyse and create. It tries to make what children are learning relevant to the world in which they live and, indeed, to a future that we have yet to imagine. It provides context and the opportunity to link learning across the curriculum, not in superficial ways but in meaningful ways.

Further, we need to understand that a national curriculum (and the thinking behind it) is crucial to the development of our young people. These are children who will one day lead their nations and it is therefore essential that they learn in a secure environment, where discipline, self-belief and the value of our fellow human beings is central to the learning process. Without developing an ethos where caring for others or valuing differences in culture or religion is seen as worthy, we create citizens who are intolerant and incapable of perspective. This would be the greatest failure of all. 

 CfE seeks to meet this challenge head on by creating, or at least encouraging, a strong, values-based ethos where children learn in an environment that is thoughtful and mutually supportive.

My fervent belief is that Curriculum for Excellence provides us with the platform for a worthy 21st Century Education and each of us should be applauding it. It is unfortunate, but entirely understandable, that it has not yet galvanized or inspired the profession. Someone, somewhere, really needs to pull their proverbial finger out and engage the profession in a way in which they have thus far failed to do.

Parents often ask me what the priorities should be within education. I usually remind them of Skinner’s quote, that is to say, ‘Education is what remains after what has been learned has been forgotten’. This quote makes parents, and teachers too, of course, reflect on what the function of a good school truly is.

When we think back to our own school days our memories are of those instances when we found something to be funny, challenging or, at worst, humiliating. Today, I believe, the truly successful school is the one that relishes the first two and creates an ethos where the third is unacceptable.

The basis for a sound education has to be fundamentally founded in the notion that learning should be enjoyable and about more than just the simple accumulation of facts. Education intrinsically develops our spirit, our emotional core. As soon as learning becomes tedious or pressured, children switch off completely or become incredibly anxious about their ability to learn. A good education, then, becomes more than just learning for the sake of knowledge. It becomes empowering and creates choice and independence. Learning should be a journey of joy, wonder and excitement.

The education system is now so reliant on summative assessment (i.e. examinations) that the education we truly want for our children is in danger of being lost altogether. We have come to the stage where if we cannot measure something then it is not worth doing and we are the poorer for it. That is why assessment for learning is a positive move from the Scottish Executive as is the much-maligned Curriculum for Excellence.

As well as my very serious concerns over summative assessment, my other major worry is the blinkered belief that the function of the good school is to teach children everything. Our knowledge-based curriculum is becoming so over-crowded that we are in danger of covering everything but doing nothing particularly well. Again, Head Teachers must stand firm and allow their schools to prioritise. Clearly we need to listen to what parents tell us, as well as being true to our own educational philosophies, to ensure our core aims of ensuring children are literate and numerate are kept at the very top of our agendas.

By de-cluttering the curriculum and by discriminating against continual summative assessment, we free teachers to focus on their own strengths, to take children on voyages of discovery, to allow personal learning and teaching styles to flourish, to remove the pressure that comes from testing and when all of this is allowed to happen, what do you think happens? In the real world, children and teachers begin to truly enjoy the teaching and learning process. We begin again to realize the fundamental need to have fun, to develop a love of learning, to create a nurturing, caring ethos, to support children through their learning without the need for fear or restrictive demands.

We can offer an education system to be proud of and I, for one, am absolutely committed to the new Curriculum for Excellence, as it will allow teachers to develop teaching programmes worthy of the students who sit before them.

We have to provide an education that is valuable to our pupils, not just for today, but also for thirty or forty years hence. We must ensure that our focus is primarily in helping youngsters to become articulate, literate and numerate but as much as these qualities are essential we must go further and ensure that children are being equipped with skills which will allow them to enquire, reflect, problem solve, develop strategies, be analytical and be creative. To do less would be to disadvantage an entire generation. In addition, we need to think of children as future adults. They are people who will one day lead their nations and it is therefore essential that they learn in a secure environment, where discipline, self-belief and the value of our fellow human beings is central to the learning process. Without developing an ethos where caring for others or valuing differences in culture or religion is seen as worthy, we create citizens who are intolerant and incapable of perspective. This would be the greatest failure of all.

Schools must now ensure a strong, values-based ethos where children learn in an environment that is thoughtful and mutually supportive. They must focus on the unquestionable need for literacy and numeracy whilst, at the same time, giving children the breadth and variety of experience that will round them as human beings. We must draw back from the stifling requirements of summative assessment and we must prioritise within our vast knowledge-based curriculum.

Schools develop well when differences are not only tolerated but also welcomed. We live in an age where society, or perhaps government, seeks to ensure ‘consistency’, but in so doing, parameters are inadvertently set that create a ‘one size fits all’ mentality. This is dangerous. We need schools to be different from each other; each offering their own priorities and areas of expertise. Why? Because no one system of schooling works for every individual child – we need to address that fact rather than ceding to the belief that education can only be delivered in one way.

A 21^st century education should take children by the hand and show them the wonder of learning, and in so doing, create a generation of people thirsty for knowledge but, more importantly, it should teach us compassion and thereby enable wisdom. To educate properly we need to care less about the storing of facts and more about the lighting of fires, less about league tables and more about wider achievement, less about examination results and more about the citizens we aspire to be, less about conforming to the norm and more about celebrating differences. Scotland could be leading the way and should be leading the way – we just need to have faith in what each and every one of us knows in our heart, that education is far more important than the simple learning and retention of facts.

My fervent belief is that Curriculum for Excellence provides us with the platform for a worthy 21^st Century Education and each of us should be applauding it and welcoming it with open arms.