4D Literature State of play

Literature three – state of play

Curriculum 

The third piece of literature I have looked at is the new curriculum for 2014, which quotes ‘every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which balanced and broadly based, and which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society and prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experience of later life.’ This does support and build on the foundation of ‘All Our Futures Report, (Ken Robinson, 1998) In addition Maintained schools have to follow the curriculum but other schools don't, although they must offer a similar curriculum which is balanced and broadly based. My current work place is Academy and follow the core parts of the curriculum  and then IPC which is more project based blending the foundation subjects together, which applies more cross-curricular learning.

Furthermore I think I need to read the new curriculum again to get a clearer picture of it, although I have taken some extracts from it, that I feel are relevant  for my proposal.  This is because I am focusing on the nature of creativity with in a structure and cross-curricular learning (D &T/Projects) and in order to have the depth required I need have an idea of the broader curriculum within a primary school to give my inquiry some foundation.

Academy (IPC)

Willl add more on IPC throughout the next module, as this does reflect on the current state of play.

Design & Technology/IPC

Design and Technology has some similarities to IPC in that it does require a broad range of knowledge. In addition Graphic Design which is my main art form comes under Design & Technology, although I additionally completed an Access course in Art & Design. Design & Technology like IPC offer a broad range of creativity. My Afterschool club builds on the foundations of IPC and D & T, as well as Art & Design and computing, developing creativity and giving a purpose to learning, being innovative and developing entrepreneurial skills and applying core learning.  I am looking at the nature of creativity within a structure, so I can utilize and develop it, which could help some schools move forward or give new ideas, as well as develop my teaching. 

Art and Computers

(reflect more on - note to me)

Core subjects

(reflect more on - note to me)

Creativity and structure

(reflect more on - note to me)

Cross-curricular learning

(reflect more on - note to me)

Other subjects

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/260481/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_11-9-13_2.pdf

Design & Technology

Art and Design

Computing 

IPC

(add brief info)

Core Subjects

Maths

English

(add brief info)

Science

(add brief info)

Summary of other Subjects

(add brief info

Data and Performance - how schools and education is assessed and monitored

• Dashboard – overview of school performance

• Raise-Online - gives detail of how a child/group performs to their school.

• Department of Education - School and Local statistics http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/group.pl?qtype=GOR&no=H&superview=pri

• Ofsted  - Inspects and monitor school performance

• International Tests  - where the education in the UK is compared to the rest of world

Parents

add brief info

Further Information

Being a Governor

In September I became a LEA Governor of a different school to which I work.  One of the reasons I decided to become a Governor, because my feedback from Alan from my last module was to get deep into my practice. I thought becoming a Governor was a good place to start, as Governors are often the heart of the practice. They have access to the bigger picture, to which would strengthen my understanding of my practice and give me a deeper understanding of a how similar practices run.

I decided to apply to my LEA, as I felt they would be able to find me a place within distance of my own personal Community and allocate/recommend me to the right place. Plus becoming a LEA Governor gives you slightly more opportunities of training and developing leadership skills. Some of the training (short courses) I have had since being a Governor were on reading and understanding Data, introduction to being a Governor and being the Chair (although these courses are not limited to a LEA Governor). 

Being a Governor is also about being a critical friend to a school, so you learn to develop and raise questions throughout the courses. At the Chair training course we were given a proposal as a group of governors, each governor was then given a card and had to act/debate the role and scenario on the card. This activity was very good, because it got a good debate going and developed our critical thinking skills; I also felt this activity supported the skills being developed on my Professional Practice course.

I have found being a Governor very rewarding even with the amount of reading you sometimes have to do and within the short time I have been a Governor. The whole school have made me very welcome, they like you to visit, get involved if you can (depending on your on commitments) and encourage training.  At the moment I am learning and will develop myself and become more involved overtime (I have visited the school a few times now).

There is the question of whether a Governor should be paid, to bring in more skilled people and at times this has been debated online.  Personally I don’t think Governors should be out of pocket in terms of being released from work to visit the school during the day, as this could be considered as an expense. On the other hand, I also feel Governors shouldn’t be directly paid for doing the job. Because what is special about a Governors Body is that it is unique. It gives opportunities to people who may not otherwise be seen because they don’t have the academic qualifications but may have the skills or enthusiasm needed to develop and do the job.  It is also good to have a variety of experience and knowledge on a Governing Body, being paid could push out the uniqueness of it.

I think Governors are in some ways like jury members and on reflection of this, I think the current law could be promoted on the release of Governors and what is considered as reasonable time off should be broken down more. In addition encourage employers to pay for so many days a year (some companies do already.) There could be a small token payment to employers to do so from the Government or they could reclaim some kind of tax release, if it is a small company, so Governors are not out pocket for doing a Public Duty. The development and training of Governors could also be promoted, to encourage different people to come forward and for some employers to encourage and support their employees.

Further Documents

•  White Papers