Implementing the Opening Minds curriculum in a secondary school in England: an alternative to the one-size-fits-all National Curriculum?

Abstract

The Importance of Teaching: The Schools White Paper 2010, which grants schools increased autonomy in curriculum development and implementation, heralded a new era of curriculum reform in England. This article critically examines how this process took place in a Catholic secondary school that decided to use the RSA Opening Minds (OM) curriculum with its Year 7 students. The discussion will be shaped by a range of perspectives, including the RSA point of view, literature on cross-curricular learning and Catholic education, student responses to a post-transition questionnaire, and the experiences and perceptions of the school’s OM coordinator. From this, the following aspects have been identified as warranting critical consideration and further investigation: adequate staffing and resourcing; staff expertise to ensure teaching competence across a wide range of subject areas; achieving a balance between creative approaches to learning that promote engagement and a focus on in-depth subject knowledge and academic achievement. Finally, we pose the question whether the implementation of the OM curriculum as practised in this particular school can assist students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who may have limited access to life-transforming educational experiences outside of school, to acquire cultural capital and ‘high status knowledge’.

Keywords:

• access to learning
• curriculum innovation
• learning competencies
• pedagogy
• secondary teachers
• subject knowledge

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the school's Opening Minds coordinator who so generously gave of her time to provide us with insights about this new alternative curriculum at her school.

Notes

1. The URL for the RSA OM Website is http://www.rsaopeningminds.org.uk.