Developing A Leadership Role Within The Key Stage 2 Curriculum

A Handbook For Students And Newly Qualified Teachers

Mike Harrison

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• eBook ISBN: 9781135718428
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Since 1989 initial teacher training courses in England and Wales have included teacher preparation for taking a lead in a school subject area in their first appointment. There is no longer a place for a teacher newly qualified or not in primary schools whose sole responsibility is for his or her own class. A teacher must have specific specialist knowledge and expertise in particular subjects which must be shared with all staff.; This text contains the latest curriculum and assessment changes. It aims to help students and newly qualified teachers to understand the complexities of being a co-ordinator of a National Curriculum subject in Key Stage 2 and reports on best practice.

Chapter 1
Developing the Skills to become an Effective Key Stage 2 Subject Coordinator

Mike Harrison

Effective curriculum coordinators have a significant opportunity to improve children’s learning in their schools. The challenge of working with colleagues to produce an effective programme in any subject area is one which will contribute to personal development and enhance image of the profession.

That primary teachers need support does not seem to be in doubt. The extent of the need for consultants and/or specialist support at Key Stage 2, however, is a matter for debate (Harrison, 1994a) and is likely to be so for the foreseeable future. Alexander, Rose and Woodhead in their 1992 report, Curriculum Organisation and Classroom Practice in Primary Schools, sought to stimulate a debate in primary schools about this role. They set out four roles that teachers might adopt.

On learning that a curriculum development role (dealing with adults) is expected of you fear may be the predominant feeling. ‘It may result in a temporary questioning of ability and suitability for leadership, throwing up all manner of doubts and insecurities.’

Day et al. 1993: 26

• The generalist teaches most or all of the curriculum, probably specializing in an age-range rather than a subject and does not profess specialist subject knowledge for consultancy.
• The generalist/consultant combines a generalist role in part of the curriculum with cross-school coordination, advice and support in one or more subjects.
• The semi-specialist teaches his or her subject, but who also has a generalist or consultancy role.
• The specialist teaches his or her subject full time (as in the case of music in some primary schools).

(Alexander, Rose and Woodhead, 1992: para 146)

The second follow-up paper (OFSTED, 1994) to the three wise men report strengthened the definition of the generalist/consultant role described above, which is the one largely adopted by primary schools.

In all but the smallest primary schools, headteachers are able to delegate the management of particular subjects to individual members of staff. . . . teachers who are subject managers for the whole school (coordinators is too limited a description) can be expected; a) to develop a clear view of the nature of their subject and its contribution to the wider curriculum of the school; b) to provide advice and documentation to help teachers teach the subject and interrelate its constituent elements; and (c) to play a major part in organising the teaching and the resources of the subjects so that statutory requirements are covered (para 37).

The key to quality in primary education lies in the skills of the class teacher (see, for example, Wragg’s (1993) excellent report on the Leverhulme Primary Teaching Skills Project). Indeed, David McNamara (1994) argues that, ‘at the heart of educational process lies the teacher’, and all tasks other than imparting subject knowledge are merely a distraction for her. In Professor McNamara’s Classroom Pedagogy and Primary Practice, a book of 145 pages arguing the primacy of teaching and teachers, no mention of curriculum coordination is made. Steve Harrison and Ken Theaker (1989) acknowledge that the role of the classteacher is at the very heart of British primary education. At its best, ‘it concerns itself with the whole child . . . provides for secure relationships and covers all aspects of a child’s development’ (p. 5). However, the increasing complexity of the primary curriculum and society’s expectations makes it difficult for the teacher to keep up to date. Within traditional subject areas there has been an explosion of knowledge and new fields such as science, technology, design, problem solving and health education – not to mention the uses of computers – are now considered entitlements for primary children. Furthermore, we now expect all children to succeed at these studies – not just the fortunate few who passed the 11+ (Harrison, 1994b). ‘We have learned that we are no longer prepared to accept an education service in which only a minority prosper’ (Barber, 1994).

What you can do:

• articulate your feelings about your doubts;
• accept that this is a challenge;
• declare your need for a clear definition of what is expected of you;
• allow yourself to be less than perfect.

All this has overwhelmed a teaching system largely unchanged since the inception of primary schools after the Second World War. For children to be inducted into some of this knowledge, without the use of specialist teachers, who, many of us believe, would damage the very nature of primary education, we need to exploit the talents of those within schools in a process of mutual support. As Harrison and Theaker point out, ‘a great deal of enthusiasm and expertise in specific curriculum areas has been locked into individual classrooms. It is only when we share knowledge and skills that the true potential of the professional teacher is realised’ (p. 5).

How can curriculum development (and by implication improvement in teaching) come about? It does not appear to be high on the list of ways in which headteachers spend their time. Blease and Lever (1992) examined the detailed diaries kept by twenty-five primary headteachers. They comment, ‘None of the evidence supports the view that the headteacher fulfils the role of curriculum developer whilst the school is in session. There is little to suggest this takes place out of school either’ (p. 193). By contrast however, Campbell and Neill (1994) show that by 1991 nearly nine out of every ten primary class teachers had such responsibility, and the average number of subjects each was between 1.5 and 2.2 (depending on the size of school). As a coordinator you are being asked, therefore, to join in a team, sharing your talents and expertise with your new teaching colleagues. You may see this as an exchange. As a new entrant to teaching you will find yourself continually asking questions. You will hear yourself asking daily about ordering stock, handling parents’ evenings, the school’s procedures, times, dates and practices. You do have something to offer in exchange – though you may not realize it. For example, your initial training in the use of computers possibly amounts to more than the training received by the rest of the staff put together. Your work in science or in methods to teach reading will possibly be far more up to date than many other teachers with whom you are working. The fact that you have recently been in as many as four different schools, examined their teaching and learning policies, have seen teachers’ many different methods of organizing their classrooms, witnessed whole-school discipline practices and the ways in which children’s special needs were met or the ways text-books are used. You do have a contribution to make. The discussions you had with your tutors and fellow students about their experiences will equip you to discuss educational issues with your new colleagues. This is, of course, not to deny that you still have much to learn and many skills still to develop, but the task before you is not impossible.

The jobs associated with being a subject coordinator are described in many ways. Webb’s (1994) research shows that ‘the amount and nature of the work fulfilled by coordinators varied enormously from school to school, and often between coordinators in the same school’ (para 5.9). It may safely be assumed that there will be an even wider variation in the aspects of the role which a newly qualified member of the profession can or should play.

Here are two jobs as advertised in one week in the Times Educational Supplement:

Required a newly qualified reception class teacher. Candidates should possess a sound philosophy of education based on a child-centred approach within a well-organised, aesthetically stimulating classroom structure. We seek an excellent teacher who can demonstrate an affinity with reception age children. Experience in and enthusiasm for the following curriculum areas would be an advantage: English, Art and design, Music.

Required for this expanding urban primary school, an enthusiastic, flexible, well qualified teacher to promote technology and related areas throughout the school. You should have wide curr icular interests including possibly games. Newly qualified . . . full-time permanent post at KS 2.

Such descriptions indicate expectations, give a clue to the range of responsibility and help applicants to get a feel for the environment in which they would be working. They do not usually specify the way in which results may be achieved. We argue that this has to be done by teachers working together and agreeing on the basis for changes they want to make. Curriculum coordinators are the means for promoting and implementing these agreed changes and monitoring their development. Webb found that some schools had set up whole-school discussions to clarify the work, purposes and priorities of coordinators, and if they received non-contact time to decide how best it might be used.

One way for newly qualified teachers (NQTs) to make sense of all this is to look for the givens in their situation and then later consider the range of choices with which one is left. To paraphrase a popular saying: we all need the forbearance to put up with those things we cannot change, the skills to alter for the good those things we can, and most importantly, the wisdom to know the difference between the two.

The Givens

In his influential work Management Teams: Why they Succeed or Fail, Meridith Belbin (1981) shows that a successful team needs people with specific skills, knowledge, aptitudes, interests and personalities which interlock in order to make a workable organization. You have to accept that part of what you are given is the presence or absence of such ideally interlocking personalities. You must also appreciate that the head, who, to newly qualified staff may appear all knowing and all powerful, also has to suffer the same mix of personalities. He or she has probably inherited staff she would not have chosen herself. Those appointed ten years ago were selected to fit the situation of that time. Now new skills and attitudes are needed, but not everyone can change so easily. Therefore, the first of the givens is the nature of your teacher colleagues. You have to work with them and appreciate that however enthusiastic you are about your proposals, coordination, like politics, is the art of the possible.

Teams of all sorts need leaders. Recent research has shown that the quality of the leadership of the head is probably the most important single factor in the effectiveness of the school (Mortimore et al., 1988). Remember your headteacher (the second given) has chosen you and may have a great deal of hope pinned on your contribution to the school. He or she deserves your support and help and in turn you will deserve his or hers.

The third great area of givens is the particular culture of management which you will find in the school. What is expected of you as a coordinator will be better understood by thinking about whole-school issues than trying to fathom the import of words written on a job description, which really only serves any purpose in times of dispute. When the going gets tough the tough reach for their job descriptions! In The Developing School Peter Holly and Geoff Southworth (1989) discuss several whole-school concerns which will affect the work of subject coordinators. They show that teachers need to be receptive to a collaborative approach and to respect and acknowledge curriculum expertise from within their own ranks. Such an ethos goes hand-in-hand with an enabling and supportive structure where job descriptions are not highly prescriptive – leaving little room for individual enterprise and initiative. Ideally NQTs should see that their own job specifications show that the school has different expectations of a newly appointed coordinator than from one who has been in post for some time. To make any system work managerial responsibility and support for the coordination of the coordinators must be made explicit. Heads have to monitor their work as managers and offer guidance at critical times.

Time available for curriculum coordinators to do the paperwork will affect the degree of consultation possible and hence its quality. Time...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Editor’s Introduction
• Chapter 1: Developing the Skills to become an Effective Key Stage 2 Subject Coordinator
• Chapter 2: Developing a Key Stage 2 Policy for your Subject
• Chapter 3: Reading the Changes
• Chapter 4: Writing
• Chapter 5: Working Towards Becoming the Mathematics Coordinator
• Chapter 6: Coordinating Science at Key Stage 2
• Chapter 7: Getting IT Together in Key Stage 2
• Chapter 8: Religious Education in Key Stage 2
• Chapter 9: Providing a Sense of Direction in Key Stage 2
• Chapter 10: Design and Technology at Key Stage 2
• Chapter 11: The History Coordinator in Key Stage 2
• Chapter 12: Coordinating the Art Curriculum at Key Stage 2
• Chapter 13: Physical Education and Dance: Leading the Way
• Chapter 14: Sounding the Right Note
• Notes on Contributors