Programme of support

A comprehensive programme
Leading curriculum design and change
Subjects
The Diploma
Our partners

A comprehensive programme

A comprehensive programme of support is available to help you to design a unique, coherent and challenging curriculum for the learners in your school. This website is the main online resource for the new secondary curriculum, sharing information, guidance, case studies and a bigger curriculum picture. However QCA has been working closely with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and other organisations to make sure there is a coherent package of face-to-face, online and hard-copy support available for all schools.

Training and support are being tailored to meet the needs of people with different curriculum roles and responsibilities in a school and will be led by different organisations.

Leading curriculum design and change

Between September and November 2007, the DCSF will deliver four national conferences for headteachers. The conferences will set the secondary curriculum changes in the context of wider 11-19 reform.

The National College of School Leadership (NCSL) and Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) are working together to provide support for headteachers and their curriculum deputies on whole-curriculum design and leading curriculum change. Workshops will be held in each of the nine government regions in autumn 2007 and spring 2008. Networks, led by curriculum-design practitioners, will offer local workshops and ongoing support for curriculum deputies.

Subjects

The Secondary National Strategy (SNS) will provide support for English, mathematics, science and ICT subject leaders. This will be provided through the regular programme of local authority-based subject-leader development meetings during the spring term in 2008.

Local authority strategy managers, consultants and school-improvement partners (SIPs) will be trained and briefed to enable them to offer effective support to schools. Key national strategy frameworks for teaching are also being revised in light of changes to the programmes of study for English, mathematics, science and ICT. These will be presented electronically and will provide direct links to Strategy resources and materials. Subject departments will be able to use this resource to evaluate current schemes of work and plan ahead using yearly learning objectives and lines of subject progression. The new frameworks will cover both key stage 3 and key stage 4.

CfBT Education Trust are working with ten national subject associations to offer subject support for art and design, citizenship, design and technology, history, geography, languages, music, PSHE (personal wellbeing and economic wellbeing and financial capability), physical education and religious education. An online Curriculum Making Guide is being developed for each subject. The guide will include video case studies, activities, downloadable resources, webcasts and recorded presentations to help subject leaders reflect on, and make decisions about, their new curriculum. In addition, there will be 90 regional subject-leader briefing events held from January 2008 (one for each subject area in each of the nine government regions). Regional subject advisers will be available after the events to offer further advice and guidance at school level.

The Diploma

Diplomas are a new type of qualification, developed to appeal to different learning styles and motivate young people to participate and achieve.

The Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) and the SSAT are together developing three days of practitioner training and coaching, and materials to develop the Diploma workforce. Alongside this, the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will be launched in phases and fully operational by January 2008.

Two key pieces of guidance help teachers and curriculum planners understand Diplomas in the context of the new secondary curriculum.

Non-statutory guidance consistent with the revised programmes of study at key stage 4. This guidance supports curriculum planners and teachers in making decisions about Diplomas and devising schemes of work.
Design for success: shaping your curriculum to accommodate the Diploma . This guidance helps schools and their partners begin re-designing their curriculum to make the most of the new opportunities.

The guidance is based on the first five lines of learning for first teaching in 2008. Similar guidance is being developed for the second and third phase diplomas.

Insights from Diploma pathfinders is another useful resource for schools. This publication arose from QCA's work with eight Diploma Pathfinders in 2006-7. It captures key lessons learned by the Pathfinders and suggestions which schools are encouraged to adapt to local circumstances.