We are delighted to share the reflections of Joanne Wilkinson-Tabi – Executive Leader at Maritime Academy Trust. Joanne reflects on whether a knowledge-heavy curriculum alone is enough to prepare children for the future. The article challenges the narrow focus introduced by the 2019 OFSTED framework and highlights how the Greenwich South Hub’s ‘Big Curriculum’ integrates knowledge with character, executive skills, diversity and real-world context. It’s a powerful call to educate for agency, wellbeing and global citizenship – not just content recall.
Is Knowledge Enough for Our Children in Tomorrow’s World?
The Over-Focus on Knowledge
The 2019 OFSTED Framework sent many senior leadership teams into a frenzy of rewriting curricular, ensuring disciplinary and substantive knowledge expectations were clear, that knowledge was spiralised and progressive and that all teachers should know how much knowledge had been retained over time. This was a laudable mission as knowledge does have a clear place in education (we need knowledge to make sense of the world and to make connections). However, by putting such an emphasis on knowledge, especially in the primary sector, have we unwittingly narrowed our curriculum stifling creativity, a love of learning and inclusion? Could it be that:
- Focusing on knowledge acquisition by itself has led to instructional teaching from the front?
- Schools have tried to force all children into the same lane (sometimes pushing ‘square pegs into round holes’)?
- Inclusion has been made more challenging?
- Children have become more dependent on the teacher and less autonomous learners?
Developing the Whole Child and Every Child
Perhaps this is just one of the pendula swings our profession is well known for. Learning should build on itself and curricular should be expertly designed and knowledge rich. Year groups, teaching sequences and lessons must not be seen in isolation and, let’s be honest, that is probably what was happening before 2019.
In Greenwich South Hub, part of Maritime Academy Trust, we are committed to developing the whole child and every child through our ‘Big Curriculum’.
Learning is brought to life as each hub school’s curriculum is contextualised connecting learning to our children’s lives – their community, how they fit into the immediate and wider world and how, together, they can contribute to and improve outcomes for all.
We drive continuous improvement through a forensic focus on character skills, executive functions and mental strength; we want our children to make sense of the world we live in through critical and creative metacognitive thinking, collaboration, communication and citizenship.
We want our children to make deep connections between the cumulative substantive and disciplinary knowledge we explicitly teach, the world we live in and want to live in and the character skills required to successfully prevail. This leads to children connecting curriculum knowledge with character skills and executive functions giving them agency and purpose to become the citizens our world demands and needs.
Representation and Golden Threads
The Greenwich South Hub’s Curriculum has two golden threads running through it. These threads are diversity and pioneering women. We want to represent the communities we serve and ensure the historically underrepresented have a voice. WE WANT EVERYONE TO SEE THEMSELVES IN OUR CURRICULUM so that it is relevant for all. Not only does this provide a more accurate viewpoint for learning, it gives our children a wider global perspective educating them to be the global citizens they are and the future we want for them.
Our Big Curriculum
Focusing education ONLY on substantive and disciplinary knowledge derived from a teacher expert and child sponge model is not fit for purpose as children acquire a narrow skillset becoming passive and without the skillsets to navigate an increasingly complex modern world.
We advocate learning which demands deep engagement, including the use of technology, continuous and culminative skillset development, teamwork, critical and creative thinking which considers diversity of opinion and viewpoint to give learning real merit. Learning should be enhanced by the fast evolution of technology, including artificial intelligence. Our children deserve to be taught how to navigate this complex landscape with all the benefits and challenges it brings.
The circumstances in which we are working bring a configuration of challenges which have never before been faced – and some of these are, as yet, unknown. We know our children have faced uncertainty which has led to poor mental strength, and we must work quickly to restore and strengthen confidence, resilience, mindset and tenacity; they must be able to adapt to thrive in the future as technology immeasurably alters the working landscape.
We want to ensure our practitioners can teach with impunity from accurate knowledge bases which consider diverse opinions reflecting a global view and enable critical and creative thinking rather than merely being the fact-givers to fill empty vessels.
We know that young people in the U.K. have amongst the lowest levels of physical and emotional wellbeing and, post pandemic, levels of school attendance and engagement are low. Children do not have high self-confidence and do not view themselves as integral to society; they do not see themselves as valued citizens.
Children need us, as their schools, to provide them with the required skills in a way that has not been the case before. Therefore, we need to re-think our core purpose and what our curriculum has to offer. We must reconfigure how we learn as much as what we learn and how this learning equips our staff and children for their future as world citizens. They require the knowledge, skills and values to embrace opportunities regardless of their starting points.
Our BIG CURRICULUM combines knowledge recall, character skills and executive functions to bring learning to life through Big Outcomes. We ensure we create our future citizens with a focus on our community, what we gain from being a part of it and how we can give back to make it even better. All our schools lead Big Outcomes, a growing project and a charity partnership.
Children should see that their learning and developing skill sets are crucial for all our futures. They should make connections between their learning and the skill sets they require as global citizens. This is why our Big Curriculum centres around Big Outcomes, a Big Gardening Project and Big Charity as this supports children to make connections through real life experiences.
Our Big Curriculum has social significance and will inform our children’s decisional capacity. They will make active contributions to the future. Deep learners explain their reasons for learning and the benefits it brings to society. They believe in continuous learning and this provides them with tenacity and determination to be successful.
