#343: Curriculum review incoming

The new Labour government is turning its attention to the curriculum.

There are already new specifications which are going ahead. This includes the uncertain fate of the GCSE in Natural History - we are waiting for news of that.

Bridget Phillipson, the new Secretary of State for Education has announced a review of Curriculum and Assessment led by experts.

✏️ Today I've announced an expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review

🤔 What does that actually mean?

📺 Watch below 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/lRgzSw2BvK

— Bridget Phillipson (@bphillipsonMP) July 19, 2024

 

Our Curriculum & Assessment Review will give every child:

🧮 Strong foundations in core subjects
🎨 Access to music, sport, art & drama
🗣️ More digital, speaking & life skills

We'll deliver a broad, rich curriculum so children leave education ready for life, work & the future. https://t.co/54QrEWkwJZ

— Bridget Phillipson (@bphillipsonMP) July 19, 2024

The person leading that review is certainly an expert, having worked with the Education Endowment Foundation - we used their toolkit when developing our work on the D3 ERASMUS project.

Professor Becky Francis was also the previous Director of the UCL Institute of Education - another organisation I have been involved with in the past - firstly as somone who helped develop the GeoCapabilities project and as a UCL Fawcett Fellow for 2022-23.

Thanks you for all the generous and kind comments about my appointment by @bphillipsonMP to lead the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review. I am really overwhelmed by your support.

— Prof Becky Francis (@BeckyFrancis7) July 19, 2024

They will also take a look at OFSTED too.

The Labour government knows we need accountability to drive high & rising standards in education.

But today’s Ofsted system is high stakes for staff, low information for families — it needs proper reform.

Pleased to speak to HMCI about delivering the change our children need. pic.twitter.com/hsRmzjYq3V

— Bridget Phillipson (@bphillipsonMP) July 20, 2024

I look forward to seeing what emerges, and hopefully having a say in anything which touches on the geography curriculum and the place of geography generally.

One good outcome will hopefully be a focus on SEND and those pupils who need more support and removing overly strict behaviour policies.

The TES article here outlines what we know so far.

#200: OCR Consultative Forum #1

I've had some chance to digest and read through my notes from my attendance at the first GCSE Natural History Consultative Forum. 

I have previously been a member of the OCR Consultative Forum for Geography for some years and always find the meetings valuable.

The first meeting started with introductions to people with a wide range of experience and expertise, broadly in the area of Natural History. Some of them have been involved in various stages of developing the various documents that will ultimately become the subject criteria / draft specification that teachers will work with, along with various publishers.

There were a number of discussions that followed some presentations earlier. One of them was on the National Education Nature Park which I've signed our school up to.

It ended with a few discussions, where the ideas of the forum were gathered on a number of key questions.

Here's one for you to think about.

What support would you need, and what do you think will help overcome some of the natural uncertainty about starting to teach a new specification?

This is the 200th post on this blog. 

I started it as part of my preparation for potentially teaching the new subject when it appears. There are another two hundred posts in draft, and as the 2024 develops it would be good to think that we might see the subject criteria released so that the awarding bodies and publishers can start working on resources. I have a Google Drive folder full of resources, ideas, reports, images and field guides.

I'm going to explore a few habitats during the Christmas break and aim to put together a guide to how they could be used as a focus for student exploration.

As a final aside, it was good to see the progress made on the GCSE in British Sign Language (BSL). This was first announced in 2019, and the pandemic has been blamed for the delay.

The BSL Subject Content was released a few days ago - we need the Natural History GCSE to reach this point next.

The size of the document and nature of the contents may give some indication as to what will emerge, although the nature of the subject is a lot more 'political' and contested and defining elements will be less simple.

#121: Creativity required

I trawl through the mentions of GCSE Natural History on Twitter each month to see what people are saying and whether there is any news that is relevant. Back in June there was a mention of poetry, and I have now posted the first Natural History poem on the blog.

This tweet was from David Cooper, who writes about Place. Good to hear poetry being mentioned.

‘Poetry is hope in action’ (Clare Shaw): spent yesterday in & around @bristolmuseum discussing the new GCSE in Natural History & the need for young people to learn to love - a word that was used repeatedly & without apology - through culture & creativity as well as fact. pic.twitter.com/26yRJHkqBH

— David Cooper (@DrDavidCooper) June 18, 2023

I hope that teachers show a deal of creativity when it comes to creating their own school-specific resources.

Poetry is one way to achieve this.

Please share your favourite poems with a Natural History theme by commenting below.

#19: Natural History Reading List #1 - Sustainability Education - A Classroom Guide

The plan is to feature books on the blog that may end up in a reading list for departmental library of Natural History books for those departments offering the new specification.

These may be current books which may be purchased new, or classics which can perhaps be obtained second hand, or at reduced price. 

There will be some cross-references here to my GeoLibrary blog.

I would imagine that the final draft specification will also include a suggested list of additional reading, which won't be confined to books of course.

Thanks very much to Stephen Scoffham and Steve Rawlinson for giving me a copy of their book in April last year at the GA Conference 2022, and for the generous inscription they wrote inside it too.

There are many contributions in the book from familiar names and plenty to encourage teachers to consider their practice and how it connects with encouraging students to look after the planet and encouraging teachers to look at their lessons through the lens of sustainability. There are overlaps with some aspects of the suggested specification consultation, which will inform the final product that emerges.

As the title suggests this is definitely aimed at informing classroom practice.

It's a book to explore when considering where to strengthen the sustainability element of your school curriculum in whatever phase you work.

There are some familiar names contributing chapters to the book including:

Sharon Witt and Helen Clarke on our Watery Planet; 

Elena Lengthorn on Weather and Climate; 

Paula Owens on Special Places and 

Ben Ballin on our Unequal World.

My copy was a first edition, published by Bloomsbury.

Paperback, 278pp

ISBN: 978-1-350-26207-2