In January 2022, we resumed workshops for STAGE 3 of APiC’s COVID-19 Project with Children and Young People. Supported by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland (CYPCS), #ScotYouthandCOVID3 has recalled the Young Consultants who participated in our original two stages of the project.
On Friday, we reported an overview of the findings of our last workshop with our original Young Consultants. You can read more about the project and the workshop task here.
In this blog, we discuss what our original Young Consultants think should change in the Scottish Curriculum and its delivery. Two more blogs this week will then explore their thoughts on:
- Assessments
- Extra Curricular Activities
- Transitions, from primary to secondary, and beyond
The remainder of this blog is worded in the first person, to represent their voice on the important ideas they raised.
The Content and Purpose of the School Curriculum
From all our discussions, we feel that the Curriculum needs to reorient to become:
- Pupil-centred and tailored to our individual strengths, motivations and interests, so we are each able to achieve our maximum personal potential through our education, and be of maximum benefit to society.
- Focused more on real world projects and experiential learning, thereby better preparing us with practical adaptive life skills, and experience of applying knowledge to complex real situations and issues. This would equip and prepare us for an uncertain future world.
If these principles can be implemented in practice, we feel that it will help all children and young people in Scotland be the best they possibly can be.
Delivery of Learning
Having thought about what should be in the curriculum, we also considered how that should be delivered to children and your people. We determined that the following changes would be best for us:
- Experiential learning through real world projects. We think our life / employability skills, and society in general, would benefit more by us learning ‘on the job’ through projects which cut across the curriculum.
Such opportunities could enable us to learn and embed academic knowledge – literacy, numeracy, science, geography etc.- through their direct application, in parallel with practical know-how and employability skills such as project management and budgeting.
Teachers could engage us more meaningfully in project design and direction, while potentially usefully addressing real-world concerns, current affairs and the immediate problems of our communities and environment and the environment. We also think that within this, there is more opportunity for different styles of learning to be used. We would like to see more:
- ‘Hands-on’ Learning. Projects which employ concrete examples, practical skills and work experience relevant and useful to the real world.
- Learning Vital Life skills. We don’t want to transition into adult life without basic life skills such as being able to use a washing machine, pay bills, manage our finances and household budgets, or understand credit cards and mortgages. We also want to better understand the background to current affairs and issues, such as the war in Ukraine, and develop skills which can better help us to assess the reliability and truthfulness of news and online information.
- Learning Outdoors and in our Communities. We want to see outdoor learning embedded into the curriculum and part of all subjects. We want it universally recognised that it is fantastic for education, wellbeing, environmental awareness, physical and mental health, and for addressing antisocial behaviour.
Schools could work with pupils and local communities to find opportunities to learn and apply knowledge outdoors, across subject areas. We also want to see the reinstatement of school trips, which have enormous value, and ritual importance for us. We’ve have missed out on many in the last few years, and some of us weren’t getting many before the pandemic either.
Addressing Current Problems in Delivery
During the pandemic, we have experienced a lot of disruption in the delivery of our learning. From this, we’ve learnt a lot about what could be improved. The following are very important considerations for us, to create a fair and motivating school system:
- Prioritise Continuity of Learning. Currently, the delivery of coursework is such that it is difficult or impossible to keep up if we miss lessons for health reasons, or struggle with a subject area or the pace of delivery.
The feeling of falling behind is stressful and demotivating, and has caused some of us to give up on subjects we believe we’re capable of doing well in. This is unfair, given the causes are commonly no fault of our own or a reflection of our ambition or ability.
We propose ways this might be resolved include:
- An online coursework repository where all materials related to a particular subject are available in a single place. If classes are challenging, this means we have the opportunity to complete activities or catch-up in our own time and at our own pace.
The coursework could also have a ‘fast-track’ option so that if we miss larger chunks of school, we have the option to pick up on the essentials learned by classmates in our absence, so we’re sufficiently up-to-speed when we return.
- Individual support available from teachers should there be coursework areas we still don’t understand or that we need help with.
- Remote learning. If circumstances necessitate a return to remote or blended learning, we have found the approach which works best is.
- A subject area is presented live by the teacher in-person (over videoconferencing).
- We breakout into smaller workgroups, and the teacher monitors and visits each in turn to answer specific questions.
- Time for one-to-one individual support is available if questions remain.
Finally, we don’t want our learning to be disrupted by the poor behaviour of others. An important think we want addressed is therefore:
- Managing disruption. Increasingly often our learning is interrupted and held back by misbehaviour in class. It’s unfair that our and their education suffers for this.
We believe teachers, on the whole, need better training and support to handle these situations effectively to minimise disruption and continuity of learning. There is much to learn from teachers who already do well at this. They are usually good at:
- being respectful to others, and encouraging mutual respect between staff and pupils;
- set clear and fair rules, that everyone can agree are reasonable; and
- maintain clear boundaries and consequences over the breach of rules.
What’s Next?
In the next blog, we’ll report on specific findings around how Young Consultants would change how they are assessed. In remaining blogs, we’ll also explore their redesign of extra-curricular activities, and transitions. Tune in tomorrow to find out more!
We will also be convening workshops with one more seldom heard group over the next month, as well as reconvening our original Young Consultants to discuss our findings. If you are interested in finding out more about this project, or getting on the mailing list to receive a link to our Scotland-wide survey later in the year, please get in touch with Dr Jenny Wood at jenny.wood@aplaceinchildhood.org.
We will be posting further updates on this project as we go, so follow us on Twitter for updates. We will also be writing a report at the end of the project, to chronicle our journey to the Children and Young People’s Manifesto for Rights in Recovery.
Read about wave one and wave two of #ScotYouthandCOVID here.