Pilots and Trials

KS3 Regional Pilot

Boys' Model School, Belfast

The following information is a transcript of an interview conducted with the pilot school at the end of the first year of the pilot.

 

The Senior Management Team of the school began by selecting 10 members of staff who might effectively and enthusiastically implement the revised curriculum. These people were also chosen on the basis of being able to represent as broad a spectrum of subject areas as possible. This Curriculum Team then attended the training provided by CCEA. They also met in school to review the training received and plan the way forward. The needs of the pupils, the ethos of the school and the desire to maintain a subject based curriculum all influenced decisions made in the planning process. It was agreed that a chairperson should be appointed from within the team and that implementation of the revised curriculum should primarily come from middle management.

 

The Team prepared a common presentation which was then delivered by each team member in departmental time. This introduced the key principles of the revised curriculum including the 'Big Picture', General Learning Areas, Statements of Requirement, flexibility and a skills based approach. Each department was made aware of the Curriculum Team composition and the role it would play in the implementation of the revised curriculum. Departments were then asked to draw up contents and skills overviews for Key Stage 3. Common documentation was used to ensure a consistent approach to the key elements of the revised curriculum.

 

It was agreed that the Learning for Life and Work should be delivered in two ways. The four strands of LLW would be delivered in a discrete modular programme and also through subject areas where possible. Citizenship, Employability and Personal Development already existed in a discrete modular programme. In addition to this the coordinators of each strand provided departments with content for possible inclusion in their units of work. This reduced content within the modular programme and created space to add Home Economics, which was not currently being delivered in the school.

 

The school held an Exceptional Closure Day at this stage to raise the profile of the revised curriculum and allow the time for departments to work together on producing Units of Work. Again common documentation was designed and used in the production of Units. It included Learning Intentions, Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities and Links to Learning for Life and Work. It also included Links to ICT, Literacy and Numeracy, as part of a school based initiative. Some departments chose to adapt existing Units of Work into the new framework; others took the opportunity to include completely new Units.

 

The curriculum team facilitated opportunities for collaboration across departments and a number of themes were agreed. Units were submitted to the curriculum team to ensure a consistent approach. Most departments tried to produce sufficient work for the entire year. Others preferred to wait to see how time-consuming new approaches might be in delivering new Units.

 

Training was provided by BELB on Assessment for Learning and a series of workshops are planned to address the training needs of staff on Assessment for Learning, Learning for Life and Work, Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities and Learning NI. These workshops were held during Curriculum Development Days in August 06 and hosted by staff from the curriculum team. Future training needs will also be addressed by the team.

 

The school faced a number of challenges in preparing to implement the revised curriculum:

  • Effective communication between the curriculum team and the other staff was initially problematic but was improved by the use of common documentation and whole school presentations.
  • Changing the mindset of content based methodologies towards a skills based approach was difficult initially.
  • The whole process was extremely time consuming.