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Our Review of Year 9 and 10 Curriculum

Marie Stribling —

We are continuing our work on reviewing the curriculum - what we teach and how we teach it - at Years 9 and 10. While these junior levels are our main focus, it is likely that this review will lead to some changes also in Years 11-13 over time.

A major driver of our review is the worldwide interest in and research being done about how education can best prepare students for the future. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has launched “The Future of Education and Skills 2030” project. The aim of the project is to help countries find answers to two big questions: What knowledge, skills, attitudes and values will today's students need to thrive in and shape their world? How can education develop these knowledge, skills, attitudes and values effectively?

The OECD’s working group are co-creating "design principles" for changes in curricula and education systems that will be relevant in different countries over time. Some of these principles include:

· Giving students ‘agency’ or control over their learning

· Making learning transferable into different contexts

· Giving students choice within their learning

· Helping students see connections across their learning

· Linking learning to real world contexts

In the early stages of our review we have identified the need for teachers to place an explicit focus on transferable skills at the centre of their teaching programmes. These transferable skills are communicating, contributing, collaborating, thinking, self-regulation and having a maker mindset. This year we have extended our review to look at what we teach (and how much of it), how we teach it, and what structures will best support learning for students.

We are keen to hear your views about what you might see as important in your students’ learning process, and invite you to complete this short survey online.