NMSF / QCA Co-development Project

Making Learning Matter

The NMSF co-development project, facilitated by Nigel Wyatt (NMSF) and Helen Barrett (QCA), will seek to support curriculum innovation in groups of schools, or in individual schools. The intention will be to support the development of case studies which exemplify the impact of imaginative approaches to curriculum planning and delivery.

Background

This development work brings together two key strands from the 2007 National Middle Schools’ Forum Conference at the NCSL:

• Mick Waters, Curriculum Director, QCA, invited middle schools to become involved in the development of interesting examples of curriculum design which take children and learners as their starting points.

• The Middle School Matters booklet, developed by Headteachers in Hertfordshire, was adopted by the Forum as a statement of the values, aims and purposes of middle school education.(Available on the downloads page) 

The Middle School Matters booklet contains a number of key statements that underpin the middle schools’ philosophy. This project will encourage schools to implement new approaches to curriculum design that exemplify one or more of the statements in the booklet, and which take the needs of learners as their starting points. We will then publish examples of the impact of these statements in practice.

What do schools need to do?

·        help adolescents develop an appetite for learning

·        use the ingredients to create a learning feast

·        recognising individual taste, considerations and needs

·        see a big picture for curriculum

 Making Learning Matter, Mick Waters, NMSF Conference 2007