School prefers themes to subjects

By Katherine Sellgren
BBC News education reporter

Topic entry point: Mrs Goss launches the transport unit

They have released a hot air balloon in school, turned the school hall into an aeroplane, hunted for treasure in the school grounds and made a story tent in their classroom.

Pupils at Horley Infant School in Surrey can expect something unusual to happen at least every six weeks, as they move on to a new study area.

The infant school is one of 440 state schools in England and Wales using the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) which brings subjects together under one topic, rather than separating them out.

Developed by Fieldwork Education in the late 1990s for Shell's international schools worldwide, the IPC has 80 topics - "thematic units" - to choose from.

Pupils in Reception and Year 1 might study food, treasure, patterns, shopping or transport, while older pupils might cover celebrations, the circus, time detectives, myths and legends, feelings, airports or astronomy.

Each unit brings in knowledge from traditional subjects such as literacy, numeracy, science and history and is cross-referenced to meet national curriculum guidelines.

Each unit is taught typically for six weeks and, when a new topic is introduced, teachers stage an "entry point" as a way of getting pupils enthusiastic about the theme.

And so at Horley Infants, a hot air balloon launches the transport module and a pupil-made story tent provides a starting point for the myths and legends unit.

'Wow factor'

For Gaynor Goss, IPC co-ordinator and Year 2 teacher at the school, the curriculum has provided a much-needed freshness.

"The IPC excited us and we needed the flexibility of it. We needed something that gave us the 'wow factor'," she says.

"It's hands-on, it's skills based, it's more innovative, there's more energy to it."

Pupils made a story tent for the myths and legends module

Mrs Goss says while the school is still required to meet national curriculum requirements, teachers are able to be more innovative in their approach to lessons.

"The national curriculum tends to be more knowledge-based, so it's moving on from that," she says.

"Children take more responsibility for their learning - it taps into that enthusiasm."

Parents and pupils

Parents at the school receive "learning maps" every term, so they know which topics their children will be studying.

lan Evans, whose two older boys attended the school before teachers introduced the IPC three years ago, has noticed that his youngest, six-year-old Finlay, seems to have a greater zest for learning.

"My other two didn't appear to care as much, but Finlay has been willing to take the object he's learning about and do more with it than he's been asked to," he says.

I was very unsure. We've detected quite a lot of holes that we've had to fill, particularly in science Teacher Sarah Carliell

"He remembers a lot of things in quite a lot of detail. I don't remember the other two doing things in that depth."

Tracey Legg, whose son did not study under the IPC, says her daughter in Year 2 is very positive about school.

"Chloe's busy preparing for her presentation on her chosen country. Over the weekend she was researching it, finding a map, finding sticky labels for it - I never heard of Jamie even doing a presentation."

Eva, 7, says her friend's school sounds stricter and Lucy, 7, adds: "I think our school is a bit more exciting, like all the trips I go on."

Teachers' views

The teachers are generally positive about the IPC, saying it has given them a flexible structure to work from.

Reception teacher Debra Povey says: "The IPC has energised us - it's a great help for our planning, it's a starting point, you don't have to start from nothing.

"We're giving children the skills to go on and explore learning for themselves, we're giving them independence, we're not just giving them knowledge - 'this is this' - and it gives them a purpose for learning.

"It's a framework - it's a skeleton that we make appropriate for our children."

Sarah Clark adds: "The IPC gives you a starting point, whereas the national curriculum is more just the objectives and learning outcomes for the children.

"I like things like the entry point - but you can't always go on a trip or re-arrange your classroom in to a rainforest or whatever.

Miss Povey says the IPC has energised the school

"It's a very good starting point, but we've tweaked it a lot."

Sarah Carliell is less convinced by the IPC and says there are a lot of things it misses out.

"I was always concerned about it - I was very unsure. We've detected quite a lot of holes that we've had to fill, particularly in science.

"When we cross-referenced the national curriculum objectives there were areas that weren't being covered so we had to add on.

"It's made life easier by giving us a skeleton, but we've added a lot, an awful lot."

The school has also found that music, religious education and physical education do not lend themselves to the IPC format and teaches these subjects separately, as well as incorporating additional literacy and numeracy lessons.

Cost

The IPC does not come cheap - schools have to pay an initial £10,000 for it and an annual £1,000 to maintain their membership.

"It is expensive," says Gaynor Goss.

"We have to find value for money and it's very difficult to quantify. But when you hear the children talking positively, you do think it's worth it."

The IPC is currently used by 616 schools in 51 countries.

Several local authorities in England and Wales are now endorsing it for their schools.

Fieldwork Education is developing a middle years curriculum (Years 7, 8 and 9) for use in secondary schools.