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Curriculum design

Many schools and colleges conducted a curriculum review to check how their provision met:

• requirements since 2004
• expectations for the 14-19 phase
• the needs of all their students.

Reviews may be linked with LSC Strategic Area Review or Ofsted area-wide inspection, underlining the need to look beyond a single institution.

It is important that review questions the extent to which:

• students can progress into the phase at different points
• differential provision is available within the phase
• provision takes account of different rates of progress and is not wholly age-related
• students have a range of progression opportunities
• the key stage 4 curriculum articulates with post-16 opportunities within one institution and other providers
• the post-16 curriculum prepares students for progression to further or higher education and employment.

Following review, curriculum managers will be well placed to establish a rationale and principles for a new curriculum and priorities and a timescale for its implementation.

The building blocks of the key stage 4 curriculum

Breadth and balance in the key stage 4 curriculum

Changes

The building blocks of the key stage 4 curriculum

These are:

• national curriculum subjects and the qualifications chosen to assess attainment in them
• other statutory requirements and any qualifications that they may lead to
• optional subjects that students may choose, freely or with some constraint or guidance on their choice.

The main building blocks are available in different sizes. GCSEs are available in double, single and short-course form. Other qualifications of different sizes and levels will increasingly be used. Careful consideration must be given to time allocations for these; see the timetabling section of this website.

Increasing diversity also underlines the need to consider, when designing the whole curriculum, how the principles underpinning it will be reflected in individual student programmes.

Breadth and balance in the key stage 4 curriculum

Consideration of breadth and balance is important in designing the key stage 4 curriculum and they remain underpinning principles. However, as the 14-19 curriculum becomes more diverse, breadth and balance need to be considered within individual student programmes and not solely at the level of whole-curriculum design.

Breadth and balance need to be considered when governors and headteachers are exercising their function of providing a balanced and broadly based curriculum that:

• promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and
• prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Education Act 2002

Breadth

Breadth relates to range. This can be defined simply in terms of the different subjects or areas of learning within a programme, but increasingly its definition includes students experiencing a range of:

• teaching and learning styles
• levels of learning and assessment
• assessment types
• learning contexts
• wider activities.

A pathways approach could be described as providing breadth in response to individual need.

Balance

Balance relates to the relationship between the component parts of the programme. It can be defined simply as the relative proportions of time allocated to those components (subjects or areas of learning). It can also be seen as the complementary or contrasting nature of components.

Individual student programmes

While breadth and balance are considerations in curriculum design, how they are experienced by individuals depends on the programme chosen. How broad and balanced a programme is in practice, and in the perception of the student, will depend on the needs and capabilities of the student; so what might be breadth and balance for one might not be for another. This should be borne in mind when advising students on their choice of 14-19 programme or any part of it. Post-16 programmes in particular need to be considered also in terms of depth of study. For discussion of this see the section of this website on breadth and depth.

Changes

From 2004, consideration of breadth and balance included:

• core national curriculum subjects: English, mathematics, science, ICT, citizenship, physical education
• other requirements: religious education, sex education, careers education, work-related learning.

These areas of learning by themselves ensure some breadth and balance in the curriculum.

While the proportion of total time allocated to these subjects will vary, in most schools it is likely to be 50-60 per cent. The difference between individual students' programmes could be considerable, however, depending, for example, on whether they take a course leading to one or two GCSEs in English, to single, double or triple science, to a qualification in ICT, RE or citizenship.

Schools will also include in their provision a range of subjects that can be compulsory or optional for their students. For example:

• entitlement subjects: arts, design and technology, humanities and modern foreign language
• vocational subjects.

Other aspects of the curriculum that can contribute to breadth and/or balance within an individual programme are:

• award-bearing courses such as ASDAN awards
• different teaching and learning styles
• learning at different levels
• experience of learning in different contexts
• general, vocational and work-based learning
• wider activities.

Related information on this website

Several other parts of this website contain guidance on related issues. Discussion of pathways, timetabling and the use of qualifications, particularly GCSEs in vocational subjects, is particularly pertinent. Case studies of key stage 4 curricula each refer to the school’s rationale for organising its curriculum in the way it has.

How this page will develop

As we collect evidence of how the 14-19 curriculum is developing, we will build on experience and add to this guidance in the context of the whole, planned 14-19 curriculum.

Also see

> Using GCSEs in vocational subjects within a key stage 4 curriculum

> Using qualifications and awards

Case studies

> Choosing qualifications

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Page updated: 12 June 2008
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