{"id":8062,"date":"2022-03-03T09:01:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T09:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8062"},"modified":"2022-03-03T09:01:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T09:01:28","slug":"the-dfes-new-model-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2022\/03\/03\/the-dfes-new-model-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"The DfE's new model curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"

They've been quietly planning to change the curriculum down in Sanctuary Buildings. \u00a0But this has nothing to do with climate or other environmental issues; far from it. \u00a0It's a change to something much more significant \u2013 history. \u00a0The government plans to radically shift the history curriculum away from Mr Gove's favoured \"our island story\" which I unfairly sum up in a footnote*<\/strong><\/p>\n

The DfE plan is to make history much more diverse and global. \u00a0A\u00a0\"new model history curriculum\" is being drawn up to tackle issues such as migration and cultural change. \u00a0It will stop the urge to defenestrate statues, DfE ministers hope.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/a> quotes the Minister of State, Robin Walker:<\/p>\n

\"This is about the range of opportunities there are within the curriculum to teach world history and the relevance of that to modern Britain. \u00a0Do we want people to learn about the Tudors and the Second World War? Yes, absolutely. \u00a0But we want to do it in a context of understanding the world and understanding Britain\u2019s place in the world. \u00a0I don\u2019t think you can do that by [doing] what happened for quite a period of time in too many schools \u2014 focusing on 20th century European history again and again and again. \u00a0I want to see a well-sequenced and broad curriculum, building a common knowledge among students, both of the established canon of history but also a more global perspective. \u00a0If we can get that right, we will have something which is going to be relevant to more students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker said\u00a0that the new model history curriculum would \u201cre-emphasise the breadth and richness of what you can teach, how that helps to build a better understanding of history and the concepts and critical thinking you need to be able to engage in history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Just to be clear, this is not a change to the national curriculum; rather, it's a\u00a0model curriculum<\/em>. \u00a0This is a new term for an established idea. \u00a0It's really non-statuary guidance from the DfE for all schools. \u00a0Remember QCA's\u00a0Schemes of Work? \u2013 that was non-statuary guidance.<\/p>\n

The Times says that as such it can go into more detail than the national curriculum does and sets out what schools are advised<\/em> to teach to reach the highest quality of lessons. \u00a0The national curriculum can be changed only through legislation but ministers can issue guidance (model curricula) as and when they see fit, subject only to scrutiny by the House of Commons education select committee. \u00a0Such a model curriculum was issued for music in 2021 (think more Beethoven fewer Beetles).<\/p>\n

The National Curriculum, although statutory, isn't really a curriculum but a list of topics to be covered. \u00a0And it isn't a legal requirement in every school because of the existence of academies and independent schools. \u00a0I'm told by those who really understand such matters that, because the model curricula are not statutory, this means that they will have more of a signalling role to leadership teams about what they should be doing in their school curriculum. \u00a0Given Ofsted's current interest in the school curriculum (ie the national curriculum + everything else that goes on) through its\u00a0new inspection framework it looks likely that how schools react to these models will be of interest to it.<\/p>\n

So, you hear me wonder, why can't we have a model curriculum for environmental issues? \u00a0 Maybe it's next on the list. \u00a0... . \u00a0But of course it's not, as model curricula, it seems, only apply to subjects. \u00a0But what a failure of imagination; a bureaucracy stuck in its rut; doing only what it can and not what it should.<\/p>\n

...........................<\/strong><\/p>\n

* \u00a0<\/strong>Given, as Denis Lawton reminded us, that\u00a0curriculum is always a selection from culture,\u00a0far as I can see, our Island Story \u2013 this Sceptred Isle \u2013 goes something like this ...<\/p>\n

Building Stone (and other henges) \/ Romans invade and bash us \/ Vikings & Danes come to bash us as well \/ Alfred biffs back\/ Harold the hero loses on penalties at Hastings\u00a0\/ Normans bash us long and hard \/ Edward bashes the Welsh and Scots \/ Biffing the French at\u00a0Agincourt \/ Tudor divorces \/ Gloriana scatters the Armada \/ Getting rid of the awful Stuarts \/ Biffing the Irish and the Scots (again) \/ Being sadly keen on slavery \/ Our invention of the Enlightenment and Industrial revolution \/ Bashing Napoleon \/ Abolishing the corn laws and slavery \/ Victoria Queen & Empress \/ Getting drawn into WW I \/ Depression, appeasement & Munich \/ Bashing the Nazis \/ Building Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land \/ Suez \/ Winning the World Cup \/ Joining the EU \/ Leaving the EU \/ ...<\/p>\n

...........................<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lawton wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Curriculum is a selection from the\u00a0culture of society of aspects which\u00a0are so valuable that their survival is\u00a0not left to chance, but is entrusted to\u00a0teachers for expert transmission to\u00a0the young.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They've been quietly planning to change the curriculum down in Sanctuary Buildings. \u00a0But this has nothing to do with climate or other environmental issues; far from it. \u00a0It's a change to something much more significant \u2013 history. \u00a0The government plans...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}