Effective School Management

11
Managing and Adapting the Curriculum
MATCHING THE CURRICULUM TO THE NEED
The Education Reform Act 1988 defined for the first time a National
Curriculum that would serve everyone at school. Hailed as an ‘entitlement’,
it smacked of what is now known as a ‘one size fits all’ approach, introducing
inflexibilities that have since been recognized as unhelpful. Besides, it was
too crowded. Sir Ron Dearing was brought in to ease the requirements and
this process has continued (for example, students in Years 10 and 11 may
currently be disapplied from having to study science).
It is increasingly realized that different individuals and categories of
learners have different needs, as regards not only curriculum content but also
mode of delivery, depending on their preferred learning styles and aptitudes.
Moreover, different stakeholders have different perceptions of the
learners’ needs. The government, for example, is focused on ensuring that
the UK is internationally competitive, so it sets high store on standards
accredited by a nationally recognized certificate of some sort, and on national
targets of achievement by various cohorts of the population. These are used
as criteria of effectiveness of the education system. Learners, on the other
hand, have their own criteria, such as the avoidance of boredom. Parents
generally want their children to ‘do well’, leaving school with good grades
attesting to (especially) academic achievement, and leading to good jobs.
Employers, however, have significantly different ideas about curricular
outcomes and continue to complain that the education system does not
deliver on ‘employability’ criteria. The Royal Society of Arts has followed up
its ‘Education for Capability’ manifesto with a project entitled ‘Redefining
the Curriculum’ or ‘Opening Minds’, which takes account of the ‘knowledge
revolution’ and seeks to prepare people for work organizations of the 21st
century by proposing a competence-based curriculum (Bayliss, 2003a).
Associated initiatives, such as the ‘Campaign for Learning’ aim to promote
positive attitudes to learning and its facilitation.
At the same time, the growth of childcare, playwork, experiential learning
and early years education generally has challenged some of the old
assumptions about the nature of education (‘filling empty vessels with

---

178
EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
knowledge’) and reminded us of Thring’s definition of a teacher as ‘an
artificer of the mind’. Child development theory and research, and the
different pedagogical approaches of nursery nurses and of trainers in
commerce and industry are other influences that are driving nails into the
coffin of the traditional knowledge-based school curriculum.
Teacher training institutions and the ‘education establishment’ have been
generally slow to take these developments on board, so it is left to
progressive school heads to make the running, notwithstanding the strait-
jacket of the National Curriculum and the entrenched attitudes of many
experienced teachers. Guidance on addressing the problems of curricular
change is given in Part III. This chapter deals with specific areas of
curriculum management.
THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM
The introduction of the National Curriculum represented a major change in
our approach to education. While the ‘core’ and ‘foundation’ subjects
prescribed by the Education Reform Act 1988 are not substantially different
from those set out in the 1904 regulations, the advent of ‘key stages’,
‘compulsory assessment’, ‘standards of attainment’, and ‘national norms’
introduced a common structure that schools in the United Kingdom had never
previously known. To many teachers and heads, the National Curriculum
appeared as yet another unwarranted restriction of professional freedom, and
resistance to the changes was understandably heightened by inadequate
preparation for the introduction of such radical reform and an increase in
workload. Obvious benefits, however, are the greater ease of transfer between
schools and the creation of standards against which parents, pupils and
teachers can measure and agree progress.
There were fears that, in complying with the National Curriculum,
teachers might lose sight of the fundamental purposes of education. These
were restated in Clause I (2) of the Education Reform Act (and in subsequent
legislation) where it is said that:
The curriculum for a maintained school satisfies the requirements of this section
if it is a balanced and broadly based curriculum which:
(a) promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development
of pupils at the school and of society; and
(b) prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of
adult life.
We were therefore gratified to find in the 1990s that Ofsted inspectors are
specifically required to report on ‘pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural
development’ as well as on ‘standards, quality and efficiency’.
Fears were expressed that project work and interdisciplinary work would
suffer as a result of the new requirements. However, while schools needed to
refocus some of their efforts in order to ensure that mundane yet necessary

---

MANAGING AND ADAPTING THE CURRICULUM
179
skills (e.g. spelling) are acquired, work in primary schools suggests that there
is no problem in meeting most of the demands of the National Curriculum
through the more imaginative approaches that have been developed.
MEETING THE NEEDS OF TOMORROW’S CITIZENS
One of the more certain things about the world in which today’s schoolchildren
will spend their lives is that the pace of change is likely to continue or even
increase. We may expect therefore that
(1) any ‘vocational’ knowledge and skills acquired may well be out of date
by the time the pupil seeks a job. Indeed, in scientific or technical
subjects, what is being taught in the schools and universities has already
been superseded as it is being taught;
(2) the future for children holds fewer ‘careers’ of a structured kind. Career
‘ladders’ have been replaced by ‘scrambling nets’ or even ‘climbing
walls’. Using another metaphor, those who are to succeed will have to
jump from raft to raft of new skills as their existing skills and knowledge
become redundant. This applies as much to the shop assistant or the
typist as to the technologist or the teacher, or the lawyer or industrial
manager; and
(3) employment patterns are changing: 97 per cent of UK businesses have
fewer than 20 employees, 15 per cent of the workforce are self-employed,
2.5 million people work from home and 70 per cent of job vacancies are
not advertised. All these figures are growing, suggesting that enterprise
is becoming ever more important for school-leavers.
It follows that the most essential needs of tomorrow’s citizens (as, indeed, of
today’s) will be those core skills which are of general application (e.g. personal
and interpersonal skills, problem-solving, creativity, communication,
numeracy) together with positive and flexible attitudes. Above all, they will
need the ability to learn, in order to cope better with unstructured situations.
While ‘work’-oriented skills are of some value in preparing pupils for their
first job, that is probably the limit of their usefulness.
Industry has often been accused of being reactionary in the demands it
makes of education (e.g. in insisting on correct spelling, punctuation and
clear, concise English expression as opposed to ‘creative writing’). However,
the report of the CBI Greater Expectations, Priorities for the Future Curriculum
(CBI, 1998), contained the following statements:
…
learning for life is a continuous process and developing employability is not
a narrow, marginal or separate activity.
Pupils’ understanding of how to learn is more likely to be captured if there are
different types of learning available.
The evidence does not suggest that there is a pressing need to permanently cut
back on other subjects to give more time for literacy and numeracy.

---

180
EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
The development of personal qualities and personal skills is one of the main
purposes of schooling … This development needs to be paramount if young
people are to be self-reliant and flexible enough to meet the challenges of the
future.
Development of key skills (communication, application of number, IT, working
with others, improving own learning and performance, problem solving)
should be a priority for the new curriculum, at all Key Stages.
There is strong and widespread support for these sentiments (Dearing, 1995),
and some of them were embodied in the National Education and Training
Targets, accepted by government, employers and trade unions (NACETT,
1995). NACETT’s third aim is ‘All education and training develops self-reliance,
flexibility and breadth, in particular through fostering competence in core
skills’ (now known as ‘key skills’), as listed above.
CREATING POSITIVE ATTITUDES
Positive managers, whether heads or heads of department, will recognize that
their role is to steer their school, college or department on a positive course
through the sea of change. Furthermore, they will need the support of the
‘stakeholders’ – parents, potential employers, local authority and pupils.
If we look at the ‘force field’ acting on the curriculum, it appears as in
Figure 11.1. Ofsted inspections, the National Curriculum and key-stage
assessments could be added to either side of the field. Currently we would
see them as weighing heavily on the positive side, but others’ perspectives
may be different.
In a negative environment, the school staff may be so preoccupied by
legislative demands, cut-backs, lack of resources, ‘difficult’ pupils and the
varying demands of the other stakeholders that an atmosphere of
hopelessness develops among both pupils and staff. No one is happy in an
organization which has lost its sense of direction and in which the constraints
seem overbearing. Energy is directed against the constraints instead of
towards a purpose (see Figure 11.2).
The first problem is to develop within the staff the attitude advocated by
Reinhold Niebuhr: ‘to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
the courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom
to distinguish the one from the other’ (Bartlett, 1987).
The positive organization is one in which the constraints are defined and
accepted but which tries to redefine and fulfil its purpose within those
constraints (see Figure 11.3).
The task of the school manager, and it is not easy, is not only to ensure that
a sense of purpose is maintained but also to ensure that the energy is being
focused in the right direction for today’s pupils.
There is no one simple formula for building a positive ethos within the
organization. It is less likely to be achieved through a dramatic programme

---

MANAGING AND ADAPTING THE CURRICULUM
181
than by a consistent attitude and a series of carefully planned steps which
will probably include the following:
(1) Sounding discussions with sympathetic members of staff.
(2) Sounding discussions with influential members of staff, especially the
most frustrated and recalcitrant. (Listen and note their responses and,
however negative the replies, do not argue but keep asking their views
on what should be done.)