Bacc for the Future?

Nicky Morgan is attempting to breath new life into Michael Gove's plan to further narrow the secondary curriculum through the introduction of an English Baccalaureate. The Incorporated Society of Musicians has begun a campaign to prevent the exclusion of arts subjects from the new qualification and this has already drawn wide support.

This links with the broad Bacc for the Future campaign which defeated earlier proposals and has been revived. Members are encouraged to sign up to support this campaign here.

As well as supporting this, the NUT is looking to develop a wider discussion which includes the question of curriculum design more broadly, not just looking at lists of subjects. The Education and Equalities Department is working on developing NUT policy in this area, working with advisory committees and other lay bodies.

The committee discussed the relationship between campaigning for the inclusion of arts subjects and campaigning for a fundamentally different, less prescriptive approach to education.

The committee agreed that the next meeting would scrutinise existing NUT policy and how this can be developed, including the following issues:

• What is the attitude of the Union towards a Baccalaureate-style secondary education?
• What level of prescription/compulsion do we feel there should be within the secondary curriculum?
• How can we ensure a broad an balanced curriculum for every child up to school leaving age?
• What does the raising of school leaving age mean for the relevance of qualifications at 16?

Members from any phase with views on any of these questions can contact me directly on g.little@executive.nut.org.uk.