Peterborough Curriculum

An area based curriculum for Peterborough will provide an opportunity to build on the experience and recommendations that came from the Manchester pilot and take the idea of the area based curriculum to an exciting new level: one that seeks to create sustainable and dynamic links between schools and external partners and generate new networks of learning outside schools. 

In particular the Peterborough Curriculum project will seek to address the challenges raised by the evaluation of the Manchester curriculum relating to:

  • moving towards means of developing a city wide approach, rather than a schools project
  • drawing on the knowledges and resources of parents and immediate local communities, not just the economically successful and historically significant ones
  • working to address city wide logistical challenges facing schoolsThe area based curriculum will provide Peterborough with a model that encourages participation, attachment and innovation and partners
  • encouraging reflection and clarity around the concepts of "area", "place", and "local" in this context
As part of the broader Citizen Power project in Peterborough, the area based curriculum will provide Peterborough with a model for a curriculum that encourages participation, attachment and innovation in its young people, in its schools, and in the wider community of the city. 

The project will be designed to explicitly test the following hypotheses implied in the proposed intervention (see evaluation and monitoring for details of how these questions will be evaluated): 

  1. That meaningful curriculum co development partnerships between schools and partners can be created and sustained 
  2. That co developed curriculum projects have positive learning outcomes for young people and/or the wider community 
  3. That curriculum frameworks based on place can have positive impacts on attachment, place creation, and civic engagement in young people and/or the wider community

Outcomes 


The expected outcomes of the Peterborough Curriculum project are: 

  • for young people: engaging, relevant and enjoyable learning experiences that encourage their engagement with and civic participation in the wider city of Peterborough 
  • for schools and partners: reflection on and development of links with the each other and wider city of Peterborough 
  • for practitioners: a sustainable network of practitioners and other partners in Peterborough that can work together to create new learning opportunities and projects 
  • for Peterborough: an external reputation for innovative work in education and an opportunity for citizens to engage directly with Peterborough schools
  • for the RSA: an opportunity to contribute evidence and experience to the fields of place based education; school and community relations; and curriculum innovation 

Methods 


We are undertaking a small scale, dynamic intervention which will mobilise stakeholders to address these aims. The intervention will:  
  • develop a set of high quality curriculum projects through meaningful and sustainable curriculum development partnerships between four Peterborough schools and at least one corresponding non school partner per school 
  • stimulate a series of smaller visits, projects, and engagements between schools and non school partners in Peterborough through the development of a central directory of contacts 
  • gather evidence about on the impact and development of the curriculum development partnerships, and curriculum projects by providing assessment and evaluation support to the teachers and partners involved with delivering curriculum projects, and by creating and comparing network maps of school connections before, during and after the intervention 
  • work with the Peterborough City Council to establish a set of policies that will facilitate school and community engagement 
  • develop and publish a replicable model for implementation that is transferable to other places to support the development of new place based curricula

See also Citizen Power Peterborough

Peterborough Curriculum project update

This report takes stock of the RSA's Area Based Curriculum work in Peterborough 18 months into the project. It provides background to the project, describes what the RSA has done in Peterborough, gives some indicative findings from baseline research done with students, and the progress of schools and community partners in developing their projects.

Download our Peterborough Curriculum project update (PDF, 3.52MB)