For the first time in a decade, the National Curriculum in England, the foundation of what is taught and learnt in schools and colleges nationally, is being reviewed and examined. This presents a unique opportunity for educators, parents, and stakeholders to help reshape the National Curriculum and ensure it equips learners with the essential skills to succeed in life and work.
In this webinar:
Attendees heard from Skills Builder Partnership’s Director of Education, Evelyn Haywood, who reflected on the opportunity to be part of and pioneer change within the Education system. We also heard from the Head of Policy and External Affairs, Alice Chan, who outlined what the Curriculum and Assessment Review is and how individuals and organisations can feed in.
The Curriculum and Assessment Review
The Department for Education (DfE) states ‘the Review will seek to refresh the curriculum to ensure it is cutting edge, fit for purpose and meeting the needs of children and young people to support their future life and work’. DfE’s aim is for the review’s recommendations to modernise the curriculum, ensuring it is relevant, effective, and prepares students for the challenges of the 21st century; and it has committed to ‘evolution not revolution’. Key considerations will include teacher workload, inclusion, and social mobility.
A public call for evidence is open until 22 November 2024, inviting input from educators, parents, students, and other stakeholders. The review panel will publish an interim report in January 2025, with a final report due in autumn 2025. These recommendations will form the basis of reforms to the national curriculum.
Why essential skills? How can we improve how essential skills are taught?
Across England, schools and colleges are already using the Universal Framework to build the eight essential skills into their curriculum. These include Listening, Speaking, Problem Solving, Creativity, Staying Positive, Aiming High, Leadership and Teamwork.
Cumulatively, more than 1.4 million opportunities for learners to build essential skills have been delivered by Skills Builder Partnership since 2008 (Impact Report, 2023). Research has shown that essential skills are crucial for success in education, employment, and life.
The DfE has highlighted the importance of social mobility in the Curriculum and Assessment Review. Our own skills research in 2022 highlights the ‘skills trap’ and the importance of avoiding it (Essential Skills Tracker, 2022). The ‘skills trap’ shows that starting in an education setting with limited opportunities to build essential skills can lead to a cycle of low skill levels, low-paying jobs, and reduced life satisfaction. Research suggests that higher levels of essential skills scores are associated with greater social mobility and improved outcomes in relation to career and life satisfaction.
The Universal Framework provides a comprehensive and structured approach to developing these skills. This is because the framework breaks down the eight essential skills into 16 teachable steps.
The starting point for the review must be the curriculum, assessment models, and qualifications that adopt the Universal Framework. In addition to adopting the Universal Framework, we recommend that the review consider the following features of effective curriculum and assessment design that are being successfully employed by schools and colleges across the partnership:
- Use of precise language in terms of essential skills and skill-steps
- Clear opportunities to build essential skills across the curriculum
- Clear opportunities to build essential skills through applied learning, career education and workplace experience
- Regular and ongoing learner-led and teacher-led assessment
By incorporating the Universal Framework into the curriculum, schools and colleges can help to develop the essential skills that are necessary for success in education, employment, and life. This can help to level the playing field and ensure that all students have the opportunity to achieve their goals, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
Key reflections from attendees
Attendees were enthusiastic about the potential of integrating the Universal Framework within the curriculum to develop learners' essential skills. They highlighted the importance of fostering a more joyful and engaging learning experience. Participants also emphasised the connection between developing essential skills, student confidence and preparing learners for life outside the classroom.
How do I feed into the review?
The government is seeking your input on various aspects of the curriculum, including social justice, inclusion, subject content, assessment, and qualification pathways.
You can submit your responses online as an individual or on behalf of a school or college - and there is no need to respond to every question. The responses can include anything and everything you deem relevant: views, experiences, case studies and examples. As a simple step, you can submit your case study to questions 25, 26, or 27 which ask for views on how the curriculum and qualification pathways could “better support pupils to have the skills and knowledge they need for future study, life and work”.
If you are on a programme with us, please reach out to your Education Associate who would love to hear from you.
The online survey can be found here and is open to responses until 22 November 2024.
