Your views on the new curriculum

As usual we invited your comments. This is a selection from the wide range of opinions received.

Some of my children are already taught through extensive project based learning, but I am not convinced that it works. It would seem to me that there are significant amount of foundational principles in all subjects that need to be covered before mixing them all together in cross-curriculum studies. There is a whole lifetime ahead of children to widen their horizons and study all manner of things in a cross-curriculum fashion. There is no need for education to end at 18 or 21. Mine hasn't.

But if the basics of a variety of discrete subjects are not taught clearly then it is just not possible to advance into comparative and project based work. This becomes only an easy means of teachers avoiding teaching in depth...
Peter Farrington, Maidstone

I just hope that unlike when we had the last "shake-up", ie the introduction of the GCSE, that the teachers are more prepared and know what they are doing?!?! As the first year of GCSE students we spent most of our time in lessons with the teachers not having a clue as to what was happening or what they should be teaching us!
Missus, Herts

Brilliant article. I can't help but feel that a reduction of class size in all 4 key stage areas would be beneficial for both teachers and students.
Yusuf Husein, London, UK

How negative you are! I was one of the first students to receive a 'comprehensive education', which was also scathingly criticised at the time. I do not feel my own education suffered one iota and geared me to work in a multi-ability environment. I suspect you don't understand the logistics of teaching in a mixed-ability classroom or maybe you just fear change.

I've taught basic literacy and numeracy (and jobsearch skills) to adults (18-64) for many years and their are many diverse reasons that bring them to my classes, but the majority failed to achieve much at school, as they were slow (often with undiagnosed learning needs). Catch-up classes would have been a boon for such learners and an opportunity for staff to concentrate on the individuals, instead of the Curriculum and to be able to display the skills which brought them to teaching in the first place.

Logistically, I think the new scheme would be a nightmare. However, it will enable the students to learn more, be keener to attend classes and cut down so-called 'waste of an education'.
Susan Clark-Wilson, Bridgwater, UK

So teachers will now be able to free up loads of time in the curriculum to concentrate on stretching the brighter kids, and bringing up the slower ones. And exactly HOW is this to be done?? Do they expect this to happen within the same classes, or is this the nod to bring in complete streaming - i.e. grammar schools within schools? In any event the sensible schools will use this as a way of cramming more revision in for their able kids, to ensure league table performance, rather than having more time for the kids to learn cookery.
Brian Brown, Bicester, England

It really depends on what education is *for*: if the intention is to give every student what they want, then fine. But what happens when industry and commerce find nobody who can fill the jobs they are offering? Do educators have a responsibility towards society?
Peter, Swindon, UK

Would it not make more sense to concentrate on the four Rs at school? Reading, *riting, reckoning and reasoning instead of all the confusion which British education consists of today. How can children succeed if they still leave school without the basics? ...
Patrizia, Sheerness

What is being proposed is remarkably similar to 'A Curriculum for Excellence' which is the debate in Scotland. Your final paragraph is the nub of the issue. The 'reactionariness' which has dominated educational debate in the whole of the UK for the past three decades was a response to the unaccountable freedom exercised by many teachers which culminated in the notorious William Tyndale Primary School case. While the events in the school might have happened pretty much as reported, they were generalised, unjustifiably, to all schools in the UK, particularly those in England, and were the excuse for the highly prescriptive curricula driven by league tables which we have now.

While these responses, undoubtedly, produced a greater baseline of rigour nationwide, they stifled the creativity of teachers. ...

The challenge now is for the new generation of teachers to take the opportunity these new curriculum guidelines offer, for officials to stand back and for teacher unions to encourage teachers to rediscover their professionalism and to stop supporting the loudmouths who dominate the headlines at the annual conferences.
Alasdair Macdonald, Glasgow

Cut away the waste and duplication? For the last 10 years I've watched the government dictate every aspect of the school curriculum - right down to publishing schemes of work on a lesson by lesson basis. So where has this 25% waste and duplication come from?! More importantly, I'd really just like a chance to get used to what I'm expected to do - then I can find ways to do it well and support the children I teach. At the moment we're too busy trying to keep up to date with curriculum changes at all levels. I know how to do my job well. I want to do my job well. If we really need improvements then so be it, but just make your wretched minds up and THEN GIVE US A CHANCE!
Another Tired Teacher, Gloucester, UK

What a load of rubbish!!!! Smoke and mirrors - nothing more. ... The real problems have been blatently ignored; dreadful behaviour by many pupils; Performance Management and target-centred philosophies not suitable to children learning and a whole glorious set of new initiatives coming out of Government without any trialing week after week after week. None of these initiatives will solve anything. Just as none of the previous ones have solved anything.
David Cooper, Coventry

I don't know exactly what the new curriculum will entail - neither does anyone else, at this stage. But, for the first time in years, I feel optimistic. Perhaps the KS3 English curriculum will finally be set free once more. And there are still plenty of teachers just waiting to strike out on their own... We don't need the Booster Packs, thanks very much. Let's hope one of the first things to go will be those stupid triplets...
Fran Nantongwe, Norwich

For some years, in semi-retirement, I have come to the UK for the summer term and then again for the first half of the Autumn term. I have taken temporary teacher posts, or done Supply, and taught a total of 262 days in 27 schools. ... Never before having taught in schools, only in technical colleges and universities, I found myself appalled by the National Curriculum. It reduced teachers to mere curriculum-delivery operatives, and was so out-dated that it did little more than prepare youngsters to work in the mills that have closed. By impeding teachers from setting their minds to what will be the lot of today's young people and helping them to prepare for it, the NC rendered the schools unfit for purpose. The historians of the future will see the NC as having been institutionalised child abuse.
Martin Allinson, NE Thailand & UK

Under no circumstance must the little darlings be challenged or required to do anything that requires work or self-discipline. Whenever they just feel like doing something, or not doing something, they must be allowed to do so. They mustn't be inhibited in any way. And of course this "let them do what they want" attitude won't carry over to their out-of-school activities. They won't drop litter because it's too much trouble to walk 5 metres to put it in a rubbish bin, won't vomit and fight in the streets just because they want to, and assault anyone who challenges them. Self-discipline must be regarded as a dirty, bourgeois word, goodness we couldn't have any of that now could we? Ever looked around the country and wondered why so many children end up the way they do? And what might make them that way?
Jill Dandy, Droitwich

As a home educator I don't follow the National Curriculum anyway. I'm glad that under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 I am free to educate my child without the political restrictions or trends that come up every few years. I wish the Government luck but am glad that my child already gets personalised learning suitable to her age, aptitude and ability; these three are enshrined in our law but our Government has always ignored them in its bid to make education "one size fits all".
Liz Plant, West Sussex, England

Yet another bunch of changes from yet another bunch of politicians with no idea what they're talking about. When will this country do the sensible thing, and allow teachers to run schools, and doctors to run the health service? ...
Tony Seaton, Coventry Warwickshire

As a Scottish high school student I agree that teaching in schools is very, very boring. Everything we learn is because it will be in a test, if it wasn't in a test we wouldn't want to learn it because we would be wasting time. We don't do projects, we don't have school trips; fun is essentially forbidden. We can't even take PE unless we want to do it as a proper subject with exams etc. Teaching authorities don't seem to understand that kids will learn more, and want to learn if things loosen up. Why is it always just England's problems that are attempted to be solved, there are three other countries and about 10 million other people in the UK you know.
Kate Reid, Thurso, Caithness

I welcome the introduction of a new curriculum giving flexibility to examine real issues affecting the modern world on a cross-curricular basis. The issue however isn't so much teacher confidence as teacher competence to deliver such a curriculum effectively.
Brian Cox, Wooler, England

My mother is 85. She left school in the Shetland Isles at 14 being able to write neatly and well. There has to be a strong hand on the tiller of education to ensure the poorly educated don't become teachers who are left to their own devices so crippling the next generation. There is a simple solution: teach English like they do in Scandinavia or Germany. Children there are able to construct English better than many people I know in the UK under 30. The requirement for a quality curriculum shouldn't be turned into a cynical Monty Python joke.
Bob Gardiner, Kirkbymoorside, England

This article is symptomatic of the problems the BBC currently has. Firstly, it is vague, unsupported opinion, not news nor even analysis of news. Secondly, it is written from the usual BBC 'traditional bad: progressive good' standpoint and thirdly, it draws readers in with a completely inappropriate and irrelevant Monty Python reference in a blatant attempt to sensationalise a serious issue. I suspect that the writer would be surprised at all these charges because this is simply the way the BBC does things now and he and his colleagues won't see anything wrong with it. The Corporation has more trouble ahead.
Martin Hinton, Sieradz, Poland

Spot on with your analysis as ever, Mike. I think the key concept to grasp and work with in the framework of this new curriculum is 'personalised learning'. However, there should be ample scope for personalised teaching too, in the sense that it seems as if teachers now have a chance to get creative and apply their personal expertise and experience, rather than parroting and peddling the same tired old list of facts off the old curriculum.

If students and teachers have a sense of personal commitment to and ownership of what goes on in the classroom, we may see standards of behaviour and achievement rise.
Mark Williams, Richmond, London

One thing I did notice about the report on the new curriculum is that political indoctrination appears to be on the syllabus, teaching about the EU seems to feature prominently in several subjects.
Stephen Hollinshead, St. Ives, England

I welcome the changes, but I am not sure how to implement them. Something in my bones tells me that the diet we are offering in my school is wrong, and has been wrong for some time. Unfortunately, because GCSE is still so crusty, the results have not reflected the problem. Decent results - let's not change.

The crucial thing seems to be a whole school approach, taking concepts and letting them develop over a lot of the school week. To expect an individual subject to deliver in 3 times 45 minutes per fortnight is not good practice. I can produce a redefined curriculum in my subject, as can all my colleagues, but there is a real onus on those with leadership responsibilities as well. No initiative is more important than this curriculum change. They should forget all the other twaddle they will receive, and even those they have already started and devote their time to this one TO GET IT RIGHT
Pete Nyman, Blackwater, Camberley. United Kingdom

I am currently training to become a new teacher and welcome this new curriculum as I hope the talents and energy of teachers can really be put to use and allow them to inspire and teach the pupils to the best of each ability. More flexibility in the curriculum can only enhance this.
Martin, Taunton, United Kingdom

As a Headteacher on her way out of the profession because of lack of support for my zero tolerant approach to behaviour in my school, perhaps this new approach could extend to Primary Schools where we can make writing fun especially for boys. Unless it begins early, secondary school is too late.
Christine Darlington, England

Some time ago I asked a colleague who taught chemistry 'what proportion of your pupils use chemistry after they leave school?' "Oh," he said cheerfully, "about 2%." The two main subjects, English & Maths, score much higher, but many topics within those areas have little carry over. Class teaching in schools is a wasteful process: some useful skills are acquired, but much knowledge is forgotten unless, as maybe with a language, one goes on to use it. On the other hand, how can a teacher supervise the www-assisted personal study programmes of 24 students?

A possible solution is if government prescribe part, the teachers in a particular school decide on part (the Principle of Subsidiarity) and pupils find their own way to another part. Within there parts, things must be 'interesting'- partly a matter of the curriculum, partly of the intelligence and ability of the teacher. Good luck, chaps!
Dick Pettit, Nordborg, Denmark

Another 'dud' round fired across the bows by an inept bureaucracy that will fail miserably, as usually, to see the importance of a relevant curriculum delivered in an inspiring way by vibrant educationalists. We want more education and less schooling!
Jim, Derbyshire

I have spoken to teachers in England about this, and so far as I can see, this is all for the good. As students see the relevance of and cross-curricular connections between subjects, then their grades in those subjects should rise accordingly, PROVIDED that the assessment tasks (tests, etc.) are not just based on the rote learning of 'knowledge' but instead ask students to apply their learning in real-life situations. Of course, this is what some international curricula have been doing for years....
Laura Swash, Divonne-les- Bains, France

"They can pursue learning through cross-curricular themes." Just like we did when I started teaching, then - and yes, it was at secondary level. And no, I have not reached retirement age. "La change/meme chose" springs to mind.
Sue, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

But the old contradictions remain: how can teachers offer child-centred learning and meaningful learning experiences whilst fitting every lesson into the rigid organizational straightjacket demanded by Ofsted inspectors and the government?
DCA, Maidstone Kent

In the 30 years that I've been a teacher I've seen teaching go from a profession to a white collar job ! Successive governments have politicized education for their own ends devaluing the role of the teacher and turning learning into a statistical contest ! Education should be an end in itself not used as some kind of 5th column in global trade wars !
Leo A., London, UK

Too little, too late for my two children (and thousands more) and I feel bitter about that.
Jane, Burton On Trent

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