Designing your school curriculum: improving outcomes for learners Grand Curriculum Designs is a pioneering new professional development programme for school leaders and other educators. Building on its successful pilot with schools around the country, and the growing national interests in curriculum innovation, the programme is expanding nationally during 2013-14. Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education has recently stated: ‘I predict that in the months and years to come, the best curricula will be developed and refined in schools across the country by teachers, for teachers’. The programme enables schools to use their increased autonomy and freedom to innovate, enrich and redesign their school curriculum so that learners experience a world class curriculum. A curriculum that provides learners with the knowledge, competencies and attributes they need to thrive as children and young adults in the 21st Century.
Programme aims This programme provides participants with: the vision and skills needed to lead the design of curricula that are flexible and responsive to the needs of students and communities a grounding in the key principles and processes of curriculum design a guided opportunity to carry out a rigorously evaluated curriculum innovation project membership of a dynamic community of practice, sharing work and progress with other curriculum designers The programme is based on four key principles: young people need to learn both knowledge and competencies to enable them to thrive a locally generated curriculum should integrate with and have equal status to the national curriculum teachers should work in partnership with others to create a curriculum designed by, with and for a locality an innovative curriculum design process is in itself a valuable school improvement tool
Programme content and structure The programme builds on a number of approaches, including the RSA’s Opening Minds and Area Based curriculum frameworks and curriculum design programmes from around the world. Day 1 What do we understand by curriculum? Day 2 What do we understand by local curricula? Day 3 Leading curriculum change. Day 4 National celebration of curricula innovation projects. Inter-sessional activities Participants engage in a dynamic online learning community and apply their learning through a curriculum innovation project undertaken within their own school context. The project will be designed to have an impact on students, parents and the wider community. Celebration The programme will finish with a national celebration and a learning conversation, when participants across the country will come together to share the outcomes of their curriculum innovation projects. Accreditation All participants will receive an RSA certificate in curriculum design and have the option to gain 30 Masters level credits through the Institute of Education’s Independent Study Module. Fees for 2013/14 £950 per school for up to two participants.
What participants say about the programme and its impact on their learning ‘The programme has taught us that we’re preparing young people for the future, not for Key Stage 4 assessment!’ ‘I now see the value of collecting baseline evidence and the different ways of evaluating impact…it’s not just about vague feelings and gut instinct’. ‘We’re not just talking about a prescribed list of subjects on a timetable but something which shapes pupils’ futures and impacts on their lives in substantial and meaningful ways’. ‘We don’t now assume that we know what our parents and our community’s aspirations are…we ask and we listen!’
Programme dates Day 1 Thursday 7th November 2013 Day 2 Tuesday 28th January 2014 Day 3 Tuesday 1st April 2014 Day 4 Thursday 17th July 2014 Venue The Institute of Education 20 Bedford Way London WC1H 0AL Registration To register for this programme email gcd@ioe.ac.uk