2. what are you trying to achieve co dev toolkit - activity or.01
- 1. ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.’ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland The first step in your curriculum journey is to be really clear about what you are trying to achieve. What are you educating your young people for? What do they need to know, to understand, to be able to do and to be like? The National Curriculum Handbook includes a statement of curriculum aims, although research suggests that very few people use these to design their curriculum. Over the past year, school leaders, teachers and other education professionals have been working with QCA to come up with a more accessible and usable version of the aims. They have agreed that the curriculum should enable all young people to become: • successful learners, who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve • confident individuals, who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives, and • responsible citizens, who make a positive contribution to society. These new aims relate closely to the five outcomes identified in Every Child Matters. RE SOUR C E •RE S O U R C E• RE SOUR C E •RE S O U R C E• WHAT are you trying to achieve? Curriculum aims A CTI VIT Y 1 © Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
- 2. TALKING POINT: Do you agree with the current aims? Read through the current national curriculum aims with colleagues (resource A). • Have you ever read these before? • How helpful do you think they are? • To what extent have they influenced your curriculum design? RE SOUR C E •RE S O U R C E• TALKING POINT: Do you agree with the new aims? Take a look at the new curriculum aims (resource B). Do you and your colleagues agree that the overall aims of the curriculum are to enable all young people to become: • successful learners • confident individuals, and • responsible citizens? In partnership with schools, QCA has begun to identify the knowledge, skills, attitudes and attributes that might sit beneath each of these headings. Do they seem relevant to the learners in your school? In what ways could the new aims influence the way you design your curriculum? RE SOUR C E •RE S O U R C E• PRACTICAL ACTION: Producing your own set of aims Using copies of resource C, can you come up with a detailed set of aims that reflects both the national aims and your own local context? What would you expect to see in your young people when they become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens? RE SOUR C E •RE S O U R C E•