It’s not hard to see why the scope, content and priorities of the National Curriculum can illicit strong feelings from pretty much everyone within the teaching profession.
It’s a statement of educational intent from the government of the day – a breakdown in black and white of what it wants to see teachers across all phases and subject areas striving for.
As Toby Marshall is at pains to point out on page 12, however, it wasn’t always like this. The idea of putting in place a centralised framework for what should be taught in schools was discussed and debated for a good long while before the introduction of England’s National Curriculum in 1988 – and ever since then, there’s been no turning back.
At the time of writing, the profession is waiting to see what the first major shake-up of the National Curriculum and assessment system in a decade will deliver. Early indications seem to suggest that steps will be taken to address educational inequalities, challenges in specific subjects and the changing technological landscape (including, yes, AI – see page 38 for more).
“The sheer intensity of exams season continues to take a toll on students’ mental health and wellbeing.”
We may yet be in for some surprises – but so far, at least, there doesn’t appear to be much desire to dramatically reinvent things at a systemic level. We can probably expect GCSE examinations to continue in their current form, potential coursework adjustments notwithstanding – but should they?
As Amy Sayer notes on page 28, the sheer intensity of exams season continues to take a toll on students’ mental health and wellbeing. Nervousness ahead of entering the exam room is one thing. Seeing a jobs market that’s more competitive and precarious by the year, and knowing that your place within it may hinge upon your headspace and composure during a handful of days in May and June is quite another.
Education policymakers can’t do much about the ratcheting up of economic pressures across wider society – but at a time when endless pressures to ‘succeed’, to ‘deliver’, to somehow ‘do more with less’ seem to keep piling on everywhere you look – perhaps there’s a case for making the on-ramp to further study, gainful employment and adulthood a little less overwhelming.
Enjoy the issue,
Callum Fauser – Editor
callum.fauser@theteachco.com
