Contributing to the new curriculum debate

The National Curriculum Review is up and running. It should be an interesting ride, especially for art teachers. The good news is that all those on the 'Experts Group' have spoken publicly about the need for a broad and balanced curriculum.
If you would like to contribute to the evidence which will be used to inform the review you can do this on the Department for Education website. I think you should.

Teaching is...

I spent the morning looking at and discussing assessment and APP with colleagues. I heard a wonderful quote from Christine which she remembered hearing years ago from an experienced headteacher. 'Teaching is just about finding out what children don't know - and then teaching it.' In a nutshell?

A 'virtual gallery' to support art and other things

Last year I was involved in an advisory capacity with a new publication for art and design teachers in Key Stages 1 and 2. I think this is an excellent resource containing programmes of study for each year and covering all the major disciplines including drawing and IT. I would recoemmend it for all art subject co-ordinators as it contains practical carefully sequenced programmes which illuminate skills and good practice in the subject.

The publication includes a CD with really good resources for teachers including a large number of visual images and references that can be used to support the work. But I really like the software to create a virtual gallery that is also included, almost as an afterthought. It allows teachers and children to create a virtual gallery using their own pictures. The programme allows you to walk round the gallery and it also has a feature that enables a catalogue to be printed. This means that children (classes) can curate and share their galleries. It gets even more interesting when you stop thinking of it as an art gallery and start to think how it can be used in other contexts where children can construct a learning environment for themselves or other children.

The publication is called Art Express and details are here www.acblack/artexpress.com. I have been playing about with the gallery and here is an example of what it looks like.

Briefing Note December 2010

Dear Colleagues,

Just a brief note to wish everyone well and to hope you have a good Christmas break after what seems to be an interminably long and fraught term. It seems that next year will herald change on a variety of fronts although it is still difficult to tell where it will all end up. I have been very busy this term and have not really had time to write much about art education and the changes - perhaps I will catch up over the break. But the possible demise of 'Specialism' as a force for good and the pursuit of the English Baccalaureate which does not include art is perhaps a concern. 

I have not had time to read it, so cannot endorse it, but I know that John Steers of the National Society for Education in Art and Design has published a critique of the White Paper. If you are interested the link is http://www.nsead.org/downloads/White_Paper_commentary.pdf

But the good news is that there will continue to be good schools with good teachers working hard in the best interests of their pupils. As always the system works on their good, professional common sense.

Best wishes

Dan

PS I did publish some stuff on assessment earlier, which I think is important earlier this term and this is having an impact in some schools (https://sites.google.com/site/assessmentpapers/)

NSEAD Facebook Forum

Just a quick post to note the NSEAD forum on Facebook. It is an open online forum and is regularly serviced by officers of NSEAD so it really does get up to the minute news, references and comments about art education. It is probably worth opening a 'professional' facebook identity to access this as it is a good thing to distinguish between personal and professional facebook profiles. NSEAD is the National Society for Education in Art and Design.

 

 

Assessment Papers and Practice

Last year QCDA developed exemplar materials to support the assessment of national curriculum levels in KS3 for all foundation subjects. These materials were published in July 2010. They are really helpful on a variety of levels. They provide a much richer illustration of both standards and the nature of the evidence teachers should use to assess their students. Perhaps more importantly these materials illustrate good assessment practice. They clearly move away from the practice of 'levelling' students every month: that is, making constant summative judgements based on limited and incomplete evidence.

The materials were deliberately developed to improve assessment practice and to align practice in foundation subjects with the principles of APP (Assessing Pupil Progress) that were already becoming accepted in core subject assessment. These principles involve breaking down broad summative judgements (levels) into clearly focussed formative assessment of the different aspects of learning that will help students improve. The materials illustrate how teachers should look at distinct aspects of performance and consider the nature of the evidence that shows students' achievement in that aspect. In doing so the materials support that formative assessment dialogue between teacher and student that is at the heart of teaching and learning: good 'Assessment for Learning' in effect.

However, the new adminsistration at the DfE has decided not to publish the guidance and assessment frameworks upon which the exemplar materials were based, despite the fact that both were completed at the same time. This is unfortunate as the one complements and informs the other. Together they provided a very good model of assessment in all the foundation subjects. However, these draft papers can be found here Assessment Papers. and are worth looking at and sharing amongst foundation subject teachers. The site also contains papers to support the use of FFT estimates in target setting - which are again relevant to all foundation subject teachers.

Specialist Schools and Networks

Michael Gove has announced changes to the Specialist Schools programme. It seems that schools will no longer need to be designated as a specialist school and that specialism funding will simply be reabsorbed into the overall funding package. Funding for SSAT to support designation will also cease.

While not announcing the abandonment of the principle it is hard to see how 'specialism' can remain as a significant feature of the educational landscape. For instance, a headteacher has told me that it is unlikely that the funding to support the 'family' of other schools will be sustainable. I would also imagine schools will wish to channel resources towards the less successful subject areas rather than the most successful.

It is true that, in many schools, specialist status has led to really significant improvement in the quality of teaching and learning in the subject. This did raise the bar and provided new exemplars, expectations and models of practice. This did spread to other schools - almost virally. However, expectations that specialist schools  would become the hub of significant, locally based, subject networks dedicated to innovate and improve have not often been realised. It may be that specialist schools formed regional networks with other specialist schools. But these seemed to be inward looking in the main.

There have been some very good examples of cross-phase working, especially where time was taken to establish personal partnerships between teachers based upon mutual respect. However, sometimes primary teachers have complained of being patronised and ignored. So 'specialism' as a concept has made a difference but may not yet have fulfilled all the potential for system wide improvement.

The announcement that 'specialism' is to be absorbed (and probably abandoned) does make it harder to see how subject communities will be supported. How the next generations of champions will be able to develop and share new ideas and practice is uncertain. This is a shame, especially at a time when nationally prescribed models of practice are being abandoned and teachers will be free to develop their own practice. This should not be done in isolation.