Jump to content

The International Primary Curriculum

ldr magazine

Jo Speller, headteacher of Ryders Hayes School in Walsall, writes about her experience of introducing a new curriculum at the school.

Let me take you back to 2007 when we first adopted the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). We were ready for a change as the (then) Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) topics were not meeting the learning needs of our children. We considered trying to construct a curriculum, but quickly realised the enormity of that, so looked at other options and discovered the IPC.

We liked what we saw; its rigorous, topic-based, cross-curricular approach to learning, its focus on skills for the 21st century, how it promoted discussion at home and created opportunities for learning 24/7 in an interesting, personalised way, how it was inspiring for all children, and how it could meet the needs of my forward-thinking staff who are all very committed to helping children learn how to learn. We were also impressed with the way the IPC was cross-referenced with the National Curriculum giving us a tool to check coverage and identify gaps.

We trialled one IPC unit with a plan for gradual introduction, but the staff were eager to implement IPC immediately once they saw how engaged the children were. So we introduced IPC across the whole school from September. Then in November Ofsted arrived! We were just up and running but the inspector was impressed with the rigour and creativity of the IPC and how we were using assessment for learning to quickly evaluate how the children were learning by tracking the development of their skill progression. We were graded outstanding for curriculum.

My challenge in introducing the IPC was to ensure my staff had enough time to get to know it; to look at the topics, to build the learning that already worked well in our school into the IPC learning approach, to select a good balance of topics to ensure good coverage, to establish a monitoring and evaluation process, and to ensure time for reviewing the learning and refining plans as we progressed. As for challenges from others, there were none. From the word ‘go’ the children responded exceptionally well as did the teachers who reported a change in their role, acting more as facilitators in learning than teaching in a didactic way.

For me, curriculum freedom has been an incredibly positive thing with improved standards, engaged children and inspired staff.

I do think curriculum freedom is important – in the right hands. You need to ensure appropriate skills and knowledge, assessment and progression, and enough flexibility to make it your own.

It requires a cycle of scrutiny and improvement, as well as the full support of your staff – the success of any good curriculum has to start with a whole school approach. I don’t think there can be an off-the-peg solution to curriculum. I see the IPC as a quality toolkit with great scaffolding that allows you to meet the needs of your own school. For us at Ryders Hayes, the IPC has re-energised our foundation subjects, added a meaning and purpose to what we learn, created a way of exploring cultures locally, nationally and globally, and given our children a great thirst for learning and that is a very good thing.

Find out more

Published January 2012