MD1499 The London Curriculum

In 2011, the Mayor of London undertook an Education Inquiry – a task and finish Inquiry to bring together evidence and ideas and develop practical solutions to further improve educational outcomes in primary and secondary schools in London. The Inquiry’s Final Report, published in October 2012, made 12 recommendations which were all accepted by the Mayor. The Mayor subsequently established his Education Programme – the Mayor’s Education Programme 2013/14 delivery plan sets out three strategic areas of activity and objectives, including one to promote excellent teaching in London schools.

One of the recommendations in the Education Inquiry Final Report that would meet this objective was the establishment of a London Curriculum that would encourage greater knowledge and understanding of school subjects as well as London’s heritage, people and places. The Mayor accepted this recommendation and approved £267,000 between 2012/13 and 2015/16 (MD1132).

The London Curriculum is an education programme designed to help teachers bring the new national curriculum to life inspired by the capital’s cultural, heritage and scientific institutions. Curriculum resources support learning inside and outside the classroom and showcase the educational offer of a wide range of London institutions. The aim is to raise pupil attainment and strengthen young Londoners’ subject knowledge, city knowledge and sense of connection to their city. The programme began with a focus on secondary schools (key stage 3) and will expand to primary schools (key stage 2) in 2016.

Between 2013 and 2014, the London Curriculum was piloted and resources created for five humanities subjects (15 units): music, art, geography, English and history. Since the launch in September 2014, these resources are being used by secondary schools alongside promotional activity to increase take-up and further outreach to the cultural sector to support delivery.

Take up of the London Curriculum by schools has exceeded expectations; over 150 secondary schools have signed up on the online hub since September 2014 (out of 476 London secondary schools and 593 when including alternative provision and special educational needs and 935 when including independent and international schools). There is strong support from the cultural and heritage sector for the humanities subjects. The Museum of London has been a key partner in developing credibility in the cultural and heritage sector and has invested time and resources contributing to the high quality materials produced.

Delivering new units across the core curriculum subjects will support the London Enterprise Panel (LEP) focus on science subject and new technologies. The Personal, Social and Health Education (PHSE) unit/s will provide the opportunity to support other key Mayoral agendas, such as health and active lifestyles, and provide a subject and curriculum focus to complement the Healthy Schools programme.

There is considerable interest in the London Curriculum from primary schools and in order to respond to this some of the new units will be developed for both key stage 2 (primary schools) and key stage 3 (secondary) and deliver a coherent set of materials which can be used cross-phase.

The next set of London Curriculum units covering the sciences will be launched during summer 2015 and will be available for use by secondary schools from September 2015. The primary school phase will be launched in January 2016.

The overarching aim of the programme is to raise pupil attainment by supporting the Mayor’s strategic aim of excellent teaching in all London schools.

Through the use of the London Curriculum, young Londoners will be more knowledgeable about their city, more engaged with learning and pupil attainment will be improved.

Outcomes
The main beneficiaries of the London Curriculum are London school pupils. However, the programme will impact across four key groups of beneficiaries: pupils, teachers, schools and London institutions.

I. Pupils will develop improved subject knowledge, city knowledge and sense of connection with their city. Teacher assessment of pupil impact will be collected from a small sample of schools in autumn 2015.

II. Teachers in London schools will be more confident and knowledgeable in their subject knowledge about the city and relate the city to the national curriculum. Teacher use and satisfaction will be collected in this academic year in relation to the humanities subjects.

III. Schools will develop stronger links with London’s institutions and make more use of their cultural assets and learning materials.

IV. London’s institutions will find it easier to align their educational offer with the content of classroom teaching because of the new consistency across schools teaching the London Curriculum. Schools will find it easier to find relevant material and plan visits and identify cross curricular opportunities across the breadth of the London Curriculum material which is a key factor in undertaking school visits.

Targets for school registrations

Targets for beneficiaries expressed as the number of schools in London (excluding independent) registered on the London Curriculum are detailed below (figures based on 1,076 primary schools and 593 secondary schools).

*Targets for 2017/18 will be reviewed in 2016

Schools are currently required to register to access the full suite of resources (a sample unit for each of the five subjects is publicly available). As of March 2015, 162 secondary schools (157 excluding independent schools) have registered for phase one of the London Curriculum, covering English, art and design, music, geography and history. We are in the process of researching the relationship between registration and actual use. A phone survey of all registered schools is currently underway: of the sample of 30 schools contacted so far, 20 are planning to teach the resources (in at least one subject), 7 have already done so and only 3 stated they did not intend to use the resources (because the topics didn’t match their current teaching plans or because of time constraints).

Once the phone survey is complete and our initial evaluation data is available (August 2015) we will estimate a proxy to estimate the proportion of schools that, after registration, will go on to use the resources.

We will continue to test our proxy-based estimates and improve our understanding of schools’ use at key stage 2 and 3 through future sampling and surveys, timings to be determined.

3.1 The London Curriculum materials are aimed at all London secondary schools for use with Key Stage 3 pupils. The materials are aimed at teachers and also provide teaching materials and lesson plans which draw on London's extraordinary heritage, people and places and will foster recognition of different communities’ contributions to London encouraging good relations, tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups. This will support the GLA’s delivery of the general equality duty. They aim to support teaching and teachers subject knowledge about London.

3.2 Schools will need to register to access the materials so it will be possible to monitor take up by geographical area of London, school type and school rating (by OFTED and pupil attainment). As the project develops further targeted activity can be taken to ensure that school uptake is spread geographically and across all types of schools and if necessary we could consider schools which have lower levels of pupil attainment may need more support to begin to access and make use of the materials. Analysis of school take-up will be published as part of the project evaluation.

3.3 The London Curriculum materials are available on line and consist of teaching materials, background information for teachers and links to other material such as music, literature, websites which support the subject knowledge of the teacher and can be used with pupils. They are not being printed or translated to other languages or braille.

4. Other considerations

Key risks and issues

The project will be run by the GLA Education and Youth Team and external expertise will be bought in as required e.g. curriculum advice, professional design for the materials etc. The first phase humanities resources have been well received by schools and the cultural sector.

The initial pilot phase took longer to complete than originally expected. This does, however, mean that the Education and Youth Team have now established strong expertise on how to organise, run and deliver high quality London Curriculum modules and supporting activity to promote the materials to schools.

This is a low risk project as the GLA is able to manage the risks associated with the project. If external sponsorship is not achieved to expected levels, then the planned development of a London Curriculum for primary schools will need to be revised according to the available budget.

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

The Mayor’s Education Inquiry Final Report, published in October 2012, made 12 recommendations to further improve school performance in London.

In his published response, the Mayor set out that a strong education system is vital to delivering jobs and growth for London, which is the main priority of his second term. He stated the need to make London state schools amongst the best in the world if our young people are to grasp new economic opportunities in London and compete with the talent our city attracts from around the globe.

The Mayor accepted all 12 recommendations of his Inquiry Panel and agreed funding to implement them. He established an Education Programme which included the objective to promote excellent teaching in London schools. There are three programmes to deliver this objective: the London Schools Excellence Fund, London Schools Gold Club and the London Curriculum.

The London Curriculum aims to encourage greater knowledge and understanding of school subjects, as well as London’s heritage, people and places. The Mayor approved £267,000 between 2012/13 and 2015/16 (MD1132).

The overarching aim of the programme is to raise pupil attainment by supporting the Mayor’s strategic aim of excellent teaching in all London schools. Through the use of the London Curriculum, young Londoners will be more knowledgeable about their city, more engaged with learning and pupil attainment will be improved.

In the next phase of the London Curriculum additional information will be included to make reference to career opportunities, this will be particularly relevant to the science units and will support the London Enterprise Panel’s priority for economic growth for London related to sciences and digital skills. Currently London pupils do well at maths and science GCSE but fewer pupils proportionately continue to A-Level and university compared to elsewhere in England.

Impact assessment and consultation

The pilot phase of the programme in summer 2014 completed a self-evaluation based on feedback from teachers and pupils on the individual units and school visits. This influenced the design of the published humanities units and the type of support schools wanted from the cultural and heritage sector.

An external evaluation has been commissioned on the London Curriculum humanities subjects currently being rolled out to schools. The focus is to gain insight into school’s use of, and views on, the London Curriculum resources themselves and London institution visits and resources. The evaluation will gain qualitative feedback from teachers and pupils and provide quantitative data on schools’ use of materials. This will inform the next phase of subject development.

An independent research project is proposed for the next phase of the London Curriculum. There is some evidence in recent research by the Education Endowment Foundation that a memorable experience, such as a significant visit to a place/person of interest linked to related literacy activity, can have an impact on educational attainment (participating pupils made approximately nine months’ additional progress compared to similar pupils who did not participate in the intervention). The approach had a strong positive effect on the writing outcomes of low attaining primary school pupils. This will be explored further to investigate the research approach and opportunity for external funding.

5.1 As part of the 2015-16 budget process, a budget provision of £100,000 has been earmarked for the London Curriculum for each of the next two financial-years (2015-16 & 2016-17), with the 2016-17 budget allocation still subject to the budget process for 2016-17 to fund programme expenditure. In addition to the £100,000 annual allocation, a further £27,000 is required in 2015-16 to fund an external evaluation of the programme, which will be funded from the Communities and Intelligence, minor programmes budget.

5.2 This report is also seeking approval to raise external income to enhance the programme in the next two financial-years. Any income secured, and the associated expenditure will be subject to further approval via the Authority’s decision-making process for which delegation to the Executive Director of Communities & Intelligence is also being sought. All appropriate budget adjustments will be made.

5.3 The Education & Youth Team within the Communities & Intelligence Directorate will be responsible for managing this programme and ensuring all activities and associated expenditure complies with the Authority’s Financial Regulations, Contracts & Funding Code and Expenses & Benefits Framework.

6.1 Section 30 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the ‘Act’) allows the Mayor, acting on behalf of the Authority, and after appropriate consultation, to do anything which the Mayor considers will further the promotion of economic and social development and wealth creation in Greater London. Education is relevant to economic and social development and wealth creation and the GLA’s provision of the London Curriculum and the associated initiatives described in this MD fall within the scope of the Mayor’s powers.

6.2 Section 31(3)(b) of the Act prohibits the GLA from incurring expenditure in providing any educational services which could be provided by a borough council or other public body. However, the Mayor is not prevented from incurring expenditure in co-operating with, facilitating or co-ordinating the activities of a borough council or other public body. The London Curriculum does not constitute the provision of an education service by the GLA but instead has as its aim strengthening the delivery of such services by schools through enhancing the curriculum that schools offer to students. The role of the GLA in respect of schools is a co-operative, facilitative and co-ordinating one and is, therefore, permitted under the Act.

6.3 Any works or services required must be procured by Transport for London Procurement who will determine the detail of the procurement strategy to be adopted in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.

Officers must ensure that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder(s) and the GLA before the commencement of the works or services.

6.4 The GLA may seek sponsorship when exercising its section 30 general power under its power to charge third parties for discretionary services under section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003 provided that the charges levied do not exceed the costs of provisions.

Officers must ensure that appropriate documentation is put in place and executed by the third party and the GLA before any reliance is placed on the receipt of the sponsorship income and/benefits in kind.

6.5 The Mayor may, under section 38 of the Act, delegate the exercise of the GLA’s functions to the Director of Communities and Intelligence as proposed.

The approach and timeline for delivery is as follows: