The best chefs may specialise in one cuisine, but will enrich this with best contemporary practice from others. Similarly, the best schools might deliver the English National Curriculum, but are allowed the flexibility to enrich this with a range of wider sources.
An outstanding curriculum must be meaningful (to individual children), relevant (to today) and engaging (thereby exciting children). At Kings’, our concept-based, creative curriculum does just this.
A concept-based curriculum challenges learners to think more widely and deeply than a traditional, topic based, two-dimensional one. The latter is one which focuses only on knowledge and skills. Whereas a concept-based curriculum goes much further and deeper, developing conceptual understanding. For example, a unit on Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ might be approached through the concept of ‘Responsibility’. The thought-provoking conceptual question ‘Am I, and only I, the one responsible for my own actions?’ allows all children access to the topic, and to find a personal relevance. Being conceptual, it facilitates thinking across times, geographies and cultures, not limiting learning to a single literary or historical event.
Macbeth was smart, but perhaps not in the right way! We often hear that EQ i.e. emotional intelligence, is more important that IQ in determining success in life. Certainly, our children’s parents have had to be more than simply ‘exam smart’ to attain employment in Dubai. In order to be ‘relevant’ our Kings’ curriculum must look at all aspects of a young person’s development as a learner. Science specialists still need to develop their creativity; linguists still need to be fit; artists still need to be responsibly active citizens. Outstanding curriculums around the world have a range of ‘Learner Profiles’, or ‘Learner Competences’, which thread themselves even beyond the curriculum through all aspects of the school’s provision. At Kings’ we use the RSA (Royal Society for the Arts) Opening Minds Curriculum. These include ‘learning muscles’ like leadership, teamwork, reflection, and, of course, creativity. Successful and happy school graduates have both a bag of great academic results and a bag of learning capacities which enable them to use these grades to good effect. These are ingredients for success.
The first dish in a meal must excite the tastebuds! It sets the standard. At the opening of a lesson at any of the Kings’ Schools, a creative learning hook will capture the learner’s attention and drive the learning of the lesson. For example: children walk into their room to find part of it cut off with hazard tape, and an array of discarded and broken objects lying around. They are given plastic gloves and a detective’s notebook. It’s a crime scene, and might be a Year 2 lesson on story narratives or a Year 9 Chemistry lesson on forensic science. Either way, young people are excited and driven to want to learn.
We believe that a creative concept-based curriculum engages the intellect and emotions of a student to a higher degree than a more traditional topic based curriculum. This helps students to transfer their understandings across learning areas. They are better equipped to make connections to their own experiences and the wider world, both now and when looking to the future. Their intellect is developed to handle a world of increasing complexity and accelerating change, producing an intellectual depth in thinking and understanding. Students’ motivation for learning is increased, as they are encouraged to analyse facts and consider implications in a personally engaging way.
You have to look much wider than traditional parents’ evenings and exercise books to understand the impact of creative and concept-based curriculums. At Kings’, evidence of the learning is also seen on stages and sports fields, on walls and canvases, in personal reflections and in social interactions. But it’s not just the teachers excited by its impact; this is equally well communicated by the children themselves, in student-led conferences. The child presents his learning to his parents: children leading purposeful communication to a real audience.
In these ways, our Kings’ Schools curriculums select from a range of choices to create our perfect menu to satisfy the appetite of our students.
Alison Turner, Executive Primary Headteacher, Kings’ Schools and
Bill Turner, Headteacher, Kings’ School Al Barsha
