Call to get rid of ‘tick-list’ approach in class

Tim Oates gave a lecture to academics, school and college leaders in Yorkshire in which he said that English schools should learn from the most successful education systems around the world.

He told a meeting at Leeds University that schools in Asian countries such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan focused on fewer areas within subjects such as maths and as a result pupils reached a higher standard.

He also said other countries worked to ensure all pupils grasped a certain subject before a class moved on as a whole group.

Mr Oates said: “In this country a teacher can think their job is done when they have given someone the right label. In higher performing jurisdictions they see their job as being done when a pupil has understood something and their group can move on together.”

He also told his audience that the National Curriculum should map out areas of learning the state expected schools to teach rather than list topics designed to get pupils interested in school.

The Government ordered a review of the National Curriculum for five- to 16-year-olds last year.

At the time Education Secretary Michael Gove said the current National Curriculum was “substandard”.

The Government also said that it had “come to cover more subjects, prescribe more outcomes and take up more school time than originally intended”.

The Department for Education said: “It is the Government’s intention that the National Curriculum be slimmed down so that it properly reflects the body of essential knowledge which all children should learn and does not absorb the overwhelming majority of teaching time in schools.”

Mr Oates told education experts in Leeds that the amount of things in the curriculum had led to an “acute overload which has led teachers to move with undue pace through material and encouraged a tick-list approach to teaching”.

He also warned that the current system led to a “narrowing” of teaching in the final year of primary school as teachers were focused on achieving success in the key stage two standard assessment tests.

Mr Oates said that while carrying out the review he faced pressure from lobby groups looking to ensure subjects which represent their interests were included in the National Curriculum.

He said this ranged from chess to farm visits, parenting skills and warning pupils about knife crime.

The National Curriculum was first created in 1988. Mr Oates said work to revise it since then has been too “introspective” and not looked to learn lessons from international developments.

However he warned against “cherry picking” policies from abroad without understanding the history and culture of the countries.

He also said the National Curriculum should look to avoid repetition in subject areas.

The review was launched in January and first proposals will be published next year, including new programmes of study for English, maths, science and physical education.

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