Pilots and Trials
Key Stage 3 Regional Pilot
Background
Fifteen post primary schools, from across the five education and library boards, have agreed to bring in the curriculum changes a year in advance. So from September 2006 these schools will be implementing the revised curriculum with Year 8 pupils.
Description of Development Work
This current school year has been an intensive year of training, planning and preparation. The Programme Management Board has welcomed the opportunity to try out the training programmes which have been developed for Learning for Life and Work, Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities and Assessment for Learning. A ‘course room’ area has been established on Learning NI (LNI) to support the schools and the designated Link Officers within the Education and Library Boards have contributed immensely to this overall support package.
Professional Development Events have been organised for Senior Managers, Curriculum Team Leaders and whole staff, in essence to reflect the CPD offered to all schools next year. Through this programme the schools have conducted initial audits to identify required changes to staffing, timetabling and additional training needs for staff. Departments are revising schemes of work in order to ensure that they are meeting the revised statements of requirement for their subjects and building in collaborative links with other departments. An opportunity as one teacher commented ‘to ditch the dull!’
Phase 2 of the pilot will focus on training for specific subjects, assessment and pupil profile. It is also intended to capture evidence on the manageability of the revised curriculum and assessment arrangements as schools begin to deliver these changes to their Year 8 pupils.
Schools’ participation and feedback on the appropriateness of training developed for the implementation of the new curriculum has proved invaluable in informing future programmes. Case study evidence of how schools planned for implementation will be available from June for all schools.
Participating Schools
More information is available on how each school planned for the implementation of the revised curriculum, by clicking on the links below.
BELB |
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NEELB |
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SEELB |
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SELB |
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WELB |
Making Change Happen - The Schools' Perspective
We talked to some of the pilot schools to pass on their advice to you on how they prepared themselves for change and implementation... more