The spread of curricula ‘alternative’ In a but rapidly increasing number of schools, history is disappearing as a discrete subject within the curriculum. This is particularly true in Year 7, the first year of secondary school (see Table 1). Although most schools (about 75% of those responding to the survey) reported that they still teach history as an entirely discrete subject in Year 7, 6.6% teach it as part of an ‘integrated’ humanities programme while a further 7.1% offer it within an curriculum, based around ‘alternative’ the development of specific skills or competences rather than around subjects. Nine of the 42 schools that referred to an curriculum’ specifically named the Minds’ (RSA, ‘alternative ‘Opening 2010) curriculum initiative developed by the Royal Society of Arts. Others referred to ‘enquiry’, and or to various kinds of integrated provision (‘clusters’, or ‘skills’ ‘competency’ ‘themes’ In two cases the programme was presented explicitly as a transitional programme ‘projects’). bridging the move from primary school, and four others saw its focus as to learn’. ‘learning [Insert Table 1 about here] Table 1. Teaching arrangements for history in the first year of secondary school (Year 7) What is striking is the variation between different types of schools in terms of the format in which they reported teaching history. Over 90% of the independent and grammar schools represented still teach history in Year 7 as an entirely separate subject, but only 72.3% of the comprehensives and 59.1% of the academies that responded claimed to do so. When invited to indicate whether they thought their alternative curriculum programme had impacted positively or negatively on pupils’ learning, only four of the 42 history teachers indicated that its effects had been positive. While most suggested that it was still too soon to tell, 18 teachers gave very negative assessments. They highlighted the pupils’ lack of historical knowledge and
The spread of ‘alternative’ curricula In a but rapidly increasing number of schools, history is disappearing as a discrete subject within the curriculum. This is particularly true in Year 7, the first year of secondary school (see Table 1). Although most schools (about 75% of those responding to the survey) reported that they still teach history as an entirely discrete subject in Year 7, 6.6% teach it as part of an ‘integrated’ humanities programme while a further 7.1% offer it within an ‘alternative’ curriculum, based around the development of specific skills or competences rather than around subjects. Nine of the 42 schools that referred to an ‘alternative curriculum’ specifically named the ‘Opening Minds’ (RSA, 2010) curriculum initiative developed by the Royal Society of Arts. Others referred to ‘enquiry’, ‘skills’ and ‘competency’ or to various kinds of integrated provision (‘clusters’, ‘themes’ or ‘projects’). In two cases the programme was presented explicitly as a transitional programme bridging the move from primary school, and four others saw its focus as ‘learning to learn’. [Insert Table 1 about here] Table 1. Teaching arrangements for history in the first year of secondary school (Year 7) What is striking is the variation between different types of schools in terms of the format in which they reported teaching history. Over 90% of the independent and grammar schools represented still teach history in Year 7 as an entirely separate subject, but only 72.3% of the comprehensives and 59.1% of the academies that responded claimed to do so. When invited to indicate whether they thought their alternative curriculum programme had impacted positively or negatively on pupils’ learning, only four of the 42 history teachers indicated that its effects had been positive. While most suggested that it was still too soon to tell, 18 teachers gave very negative assessments. They highlighted the pupils’ lack of historical knowledge and
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