Since the publication of the DfES initiative, Excellence and Enjoyment, in September 2003 there has been a national movement in primary school education towards a more ‘child-centred’ concept of the curriculum. There is currently a wide-ranging review underway, led by the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA), which will result in a new national curriculum in September 2009. The new curriculum will reflect a change in priorities from an outdated view of education as the accumulation of knowledge and skills from a narrow range of academic subjects, to a broader definition as the development of cognitive and social/emotional learning dispositions that prepare children for life and work in a rapidly changing, technological, world.
The ongoing changes to the curriculum at Surlingham School reflect these new priorities and initiatives. The school will continue to take an active role in the local learning network developing the use of the imaginative enquiry approach to learning called Mantle of the Expert. This way of working with children creates purposeful, meaningful and engaging situations for exploring the curriculum by working with the children to develop self-created imaginative situations for learning: These situations contextualise the content of the curriculum, so the children learn across wide subject areas and beyond the normal constraints of the statutory requirements. Much of the curriculum can be taught in this way, but not all, and the school will continue to provide a broad and balanced range of experiences for the children, some using the Mantle of the Expert approach, some not.
In the imaginary context the children agree to accept the responsibilities of a team of experts who are commissioned by a client to work on one or more projects within their range of expertise. For example, the children might work as if they are a team of archaeologists excavating an Iceni tomb for the Norfolk Archaeological Society. Or the younger children might by a team of fairy-tale problem solvers with the task of building safe, comfortable houses for the three little pigs, commissioned by their concerned mother.
If you would like to find out more about Mantle of the Expert there is a website dedicated to the approach at: www.mantleoftheexpert.com
For more information on the QCA’s plans for the new curriculum visit the QCA curriculum website
