Enterprise curriculum

• Further resources

Rethinking Year 7 curriculum: easing the transition and developing skills

Website

www.queensbridge.bham.sch.uk

Key challenges:

• To what extent will this curriculum help develop young people who are successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens?
• What sort of long-term partnerships exist with other schools and agencies, including voluntary and community organisations?
• What sort of learning relationships do we want to foster?

Overview:

Queensbridge had been performing poorly, so new ideas and a revised curriculum was needed to address immediate problems and integrate the school into the community. The aim was to give students skills that would be valuable both in the traditional learning environment and beyond formal education.

Approach:

Two areas of innovation within Queensbridge School are: Creative Agents and an Enterprise Curriculum.

Creative Agents

The concept of Creative Agents was introduced by the Head. Creative Agents liaise with teachers to help initiate sustainable projects that enhance the curriculum and develop both staff and students. They also work with teachers to discover innovative approaches to learning. As a result students gain more understanding of outside world, its impact on their lives, helping them make sense of their place in the world.

Creative Agents make links with local organisations that can support the school through partnerships, sponsorship and first-hand delivery. With colleagues from the South Collegiate (Birmingham) the school has leased a floor of a neutral office block on the High Street, housing small businesses. Queensbridge hope to use the floor over the long term, particularly for pupils who find it difficult to fit into school. And there's potential for an enterprise that pupils could run or be part of - helping them to develop enterprise skills useful both in education and in work.

Enterprise Curriculum

Lessons are modelled on the primary curriculum to make the transition from primary to secondary easier. Lessons are personalised, so students can work at their own level. Other subjects have ability sets, and it's a mix of individual and collaborative tasks. The teachers have time for department planning, for making observations, and decision making.

The Enterprise Curriculum was introduced for Year 7 to prepare students for the future. The majority of lessons are Enterprise, plus two periods of English, and one of art, music, French, PE, and dance each week. One teacher from the Year 7 team (who also acts as form tutor) teaches six weeks of Enterprise lessons. At the end of this period, students work with another teacher for the next six weeks and so on throughout the year.

While the main part of the National Curriculum's content remains, the focus is on developing students' skills and qualities. For example, instead of 'learning Science', students will learn to be inquisitive scientists and rather than 'doing History', students learn what it takes to be an effective historian.

The six modules over the year have different themes relevant to students' lives and the world today, including: making the community safer, improving the school, and empowering the students. Students are assessed in the following skills:

• Creative Thinker: How effectively do students think creatively and imaginatively, generating theories and exploring ideas?
• Independent Inquirer: How successfully do students identify problems and questions that need resolving, and then confidently plan appropriate solutions?
• Team Worker: How successfully do students collaborate with others and constructively support their peers?
• Reflective Learner: How accurately can students identify and judge their own learning and the surrounding issues?
• Self-managers: How well can students organise themselves to be prepared for lessons and to meet deadlines?
• Effective participator: How well do students engage with issues in their school and wider community and take responsibility for bring about improvements?

The results are spectacular: Queensbridge is now in the top 6% of contextual added value schools.

Key learning and recommendations:

• The staff are given time and materials, including inviting speakers, to encourage them to think about the future, not just the next couple of years. The meeting opener may assist this type of discussion.
• The Enterprise curriculum leader involved the department in planning, encouraged observations, included everyone in decision making and supported the teachers.
• Ideas may originate from the leadership team but all teachers have the opportunity to contribute and shape the work. There is a sense of ownership.