Massive changes to curriculum, is it too late to change this?

[nycortaki]

This is not just about stonehenge, it is massive changes to maths, science, history, literature - phrases such as moving of goal posts and rewriting history do not come close!

The video refers to findings by Policy Exchange, about books being published and recommended for school libraries which do not reflect peer reviewed research, and the fact that 8/10 state schools have already made significant curriculum changes, which the interviewed ex-headmaster finds worrying, eg vast chunks of British history is no longer being taught. If you want comment on what was being said and by whom, you will need to watch the video and look at the report and the book they were referring to.

I need to go now, but will be back tomorrow to bump the thread in the hope that the video is watched by as many people as possible. Thanks guys, have a good evening.

Get a grip of ya wee self hen. Not only is this video bollocks, they don't even know what decolonising education means. Furthermore someone should revoke her A level if she thinks immigration to britain started 30 years ago.

"I've not answered any questions and now I'll go but hope to bump my baseless propaganda tomorrow'

Reporting

@nycortaki thank you for your answer

Of course not! How on earth do you interpret dumbing down from that? It says that creative subjects have been squeezed out due to the EB. It doesn’t mention anything about dumbing down.

Oh - do you think a kid taking Music GCSE instead of French is dumbing down?

But which history do they want to drop? At the moment they skim over the negatives and it’s all very white British and not enough international history.

What kind of book do they want peer reviewed? Peer reviewed refers to academic books and research not text books or literature.

I’m not watching a rubbish youtube video and one report by a think tank isn’t necessarily reliable.

OP may be one of those joyless types who think young people should only learn maths, science, English and History. No nampy-pamby foreign languages. And ofo course the history has to be all about how Glorious The Days Of Empire Were and how colonialism brought civilisation to Darkest Wherever.

The arts of course should only be available to children whose parents can afford to send them to private school - the rest should be gtrained in the basics so they can work at t'mill.

Meanwhile, back in the real world... OP, here's an article on the contribution of the arts to the UK economy. A quick Google did it - honestly, you could have managed that too. https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/contribution-of-the-arts-to-society-and-the-economy/#:~:text=The%20government%20estimates%20that%20creative,2.4%20million%20people%20in%202022.

Yep. Pure, unadulterated bollocks with a sinister agenda.

I’m not watching a rubbish youtube video and one report by a think tank isn’t necessarily reliable.

And of course Policy Exchange is a right wing think tank. The only reason they have been so influential is that we've had 14 years of a right wing government.

You know that Policy Exchange is a right wing think tank I assume, which according to wiki doesn't really reveal the source of its funding and is seen as "one of the least transparent think tanks" - hardly the bastion of neutral commentary. Might I even suggest it could, you know, have some kind of agenda

I don't understand. School libraries don't usually contain peer reviewed research? What does this even mean? Who is publishing what books for School Libraries? Who is doing the peer reviewing, and of what?

Do you mean that there books being used as source material or curriculum support in schools (in class rather than in the library) that are not based in "peer reviewed" historical research? Unless these books are proposing flat earth theories or conspiracies about JFK, I think it's really unlikely that you couldn't find a peer reviewed article (or many) that supports them. History isn't a single fixed narrative - it's constantly re-evaluated and researched to evidence different versions of events, accounts and experiences. There isn't a unified theory of history or a correct version.

Also "woke" is not an insult and shouldn't be a pejorative.

And "Policy Exchange is a registered charity; it mostly refuses to disclose the sources of its funding and is ranked as one of the least transparent think tanks in the UK" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_Exchange)

@nycortaki Just place marking to see how many times you are going to cut and paste your same answer tomorrow when you come back to "bump" this thread 🤣🤣

I’m not watching the whole video because the first couple of minutes is enough to tell me it’s crap, from the first couple of minutes the presenter questions the guest on whether they agree with the think tank who has suggested that a book called ‘a brilliant black history’ should be made available in school libraries, so not taught as curriculum or fact, but made available for kids to read from the library. The guest says that he thinks that any new historic theory should be discussed, researched and investigated by experts, that he doesn’t know if the book is accurate or if it’s been well researched and that he hasn’t read it. So this interview so far about changes to the curriculum, has discussed something that isn’t a change to the curriculum, with someone who doesn’t know anything about the thing they are discussing…………

why are yo7 using this as a trusted source OP?

Is the interview from GB News perchance?

This Op is linking to a clip by Julia Hartley brewer on a book called beautiful black Britain and trying to be alarmist about decolonising the curriculum. Part conspiracy theory and not so thinly disguised racism.

Oh and peer review is not an unproblematic or neutral process, that ensures that everything published is somehow verified as "correct". It tries to be that in science but in arts and humanities the validity and the quality of the research are assessed, but again review cannot be entirely objective.

But I don't think you actually care about that.

Er, no, you don't get to start a thread and then decide who may or may not post on it or what opinions may be expressed.

Thank you for checking so I don't have to.

Why yes, yes it is, Julia Hartley-Brewer.

How ever did you guess?

The 17th May policy exchange report says:

The report reveals:

• 85% of all schools surveyed teach key events in British history such as the Norman Conquest, Magna Carta, the Reformation, Industrial Revolution and the World Wars.
• 99% of surveyed schools teach the slave trade and 89% teach the British Empire – but less than one in five schools teach the Battles of Agincourt, Waterloo and Trafalgar.
• On average schools teach 1 hour and 47 minutes of history a week – but those that offer a 2 year KS3 teach 64 fewer hours than those where KS3 lasts 3 years. Children on free school meals on average receive more history teaching than their peers.
• The curriculum at GCSE and A Level is too narrow and repetitive, with students studying narrow thematic studies like health through time and repeating the Tudors and Nazi Germany at the expense of broader topics.
• 83% of surveyed schools have ‘diversified’ or ‘decolonised their curriculums. This is driven by teacher training courses, 76% of whom run sessions teaching trainees on diversifying history in the classroom.

To remedy a lack of breadth at GCSE, the report recommends a new British history survey paper from 1066-1989 to replace one of the current four papers.

historian Lord Roberts of Belgravia says ‘Teaching the long narrative arc of British history in a manner that enables young people to orientate themselves, both historically and within our modern society, is only becoming more essential as our nation becomes more diverse and culturally fragmented.’

Any history teachers see anything radical with that suggestion?

Pmsl!

If you don't want to hear views that differ from your own, maybe don't post them in a discussion forum...

Is there anything to suggest that the current Labour government’s consultation is going to take any notice of a report from a right wing think tank?

Yes, student needs to study things in depth. History isn’t about winning in a pub quiz, it’s about gaining knowlegde AND skills as a historian.

This is in response to @DrBlackbird.

I'm just woke that way...