So what are the four curriculum ‘things’ we need government education departments to be clear on?
1 – The Functional stuff. How to add up, communicate, operate a computer, calculate the size of a carpet and balance your cheque book… er.. online bank account.
2 – The Social Stuff. The stuff that defines the Englishness, Welshness, Scottishness, Britishness of our society. This would be Citizenship, Civics, PSHE, Shakespeare, RE and the like.
3 – The Stuff employers want. This is a little harder but it is the essential stuff that makes learners employable. It’s more likely to be the likes of project management, customer satisfaction, creativity, attention to detail and problem solving, but might also include some subjects like English, Maths, Science, MFL and so on. Maybe there are two routes here?
4 – The stuff learners want. This might be the stuff to get them to FE or HE as well as the stuff that burns their interest and focusses their passion. It might be subjects, maths, physics, chemistry, music and art. But it might also be engineering, robotics, computer gaming/programming/hacking, agriculture, plumbing or tap dancing.
So what proportion of each and in what school and when?