Why a ‘Knowledge Rich Curriculum’?

As Dr. Seuss famously wrote – “the more you read, the more you know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go!”

Not only is that a cracking little rhyme to help children understand the importance of reading in their present and future lives, it hits at the heart of the role that knowledge plays in their development too.

The Knowledge Vs Skills debate, we and others have found, is a huge distraction because both are important, to the point that it is hard to contemplate one without the other – imagine ‘knowing things’ and not being able to ‘use’ that knowledge in many and various ways; imagine trying to ‘do things’ without the knowledge required to be successful. Impossible.

The more you know…the more places you’ll go. To extend that idea: you will know more about yourself and others; your conversations will be richer; you will be better at communicating yourself and your ideas; your understanding of people, places and things will allow you to be critical about the micro and macro worlds that you live in and, let’s not forget this – it’s good to know things.

In short, the skills of communication, conversation, understanding and critical thinking all stem from a healthy and enthusiastic relationship with knowledge. A ‘thirst for knowledge’ has never been considered a bad thing in life generally, but paradoxically, its role in primary education seems to be debated a little too often.

How does a ‘knowledge-rich’ curriculum contribute to all of this? Schools in Haringey and Enfield have been implementing a knowledge-rich humanities curriculum over the last 5 years and the impact has been transformational. Developed by Christine Counsell and Steve Mastin, the Opening Words Humanities curriculum is a rich sweep through history, geography and religion, sequenced carefully to build up children’s knowledge over time and to put that knowledge to work by developing historical and geographical skills in tandem. A perfect and practical debunking of the ‘Knowledge OR Skills’ dichotomy.

This has become an important part of the curriculum in Haringey and Enfield schools because, to paraphrase Christine, humanities is all about understanding what it is to be human. Where we have come from, the mistakes and successes of humanity, the struggle to understand where we are now and to think critically about what the future holds for us.

Who would not want their children to engage with that as early as possible? The counter arguments, from our perspective, are only arguments at all if the knowledge is taught without any expectation of harnessing and using it.

Criticisms that have been levelled at the ‘the knowledge rich’ approach have included: rote learning leads nowhere; the curriculum is narrowed if exploration and creativity are not prized; it leads to inequality and cultural bias as educators decide what children ‘know’; it doesn’t help children learn ‘21st century skills’; teachers’ creativity is stifled; children will become disengaged if their creativity and curiosity is capped.
We believe that none of these criticisms hold water if you accept that the dichotomy does not exist – using knowledge to drive, develop and support skills, thinking and creativity is key.

You only have to look to the ‘Curriculum for Excellence (CfE)’ in Scotland, introduced in 2010, which aimed to provide a more flexible, holistic, and skills-focused approach to education. Critics have cited a lack of clarity around the consistent implementation of a nebulous and subjective skills-based curriculum and that, as a result has increased workload and confusion among teachers and ultimately lowered standards, the very thing it aimed to improve.

Further examples of prioritising skills over knowledge can be seen France’s ‘Skills Curriculum’ from 1987 to 2007. Declines in outcomes can be seen in all pupil groups and, most worryingly, in lower-income and disadvantaged families. Indeed, the ‘least able’ children in both Scotland and France were most negatively affected, critics argue.

Dylan Wiliam, in ‘Creating the Schools Our Children Need’, said that if we want our pupils to think, it is a mistake just giving them lots of practice in thinking. He argued that they need more to think with and that the purpose of the curriculum is to build up knowledge in long term memory so that, when it is time to ‘think’, they are able to ‘think’ in more powerful ways. He concludes, ‘that is why curriculum matters’.

St. John Vianney, and many other schools across Haringey, were early adopters of the Opening Worlds humanities curriculum. It could not be more different from our previous ‘curriculum’, which was topic-based, full of ‘fun’ activities…but didn’t add up to much at all. We were neither developing knowledge effectively nor developing thinking and skills. It contributed little to the wider attainment of the children.

We were as horrified as anyone else when, in 2017, the notorious ‘Dodo’ SATs reading paper was peppered with vocabulary and concepts that a quality knowledge-rich history, geography and science curriculum would have built up over time.

With Opening Worlds, we have the polar opposite – a curriculum that treats, for example, history, historians and civilisations with the time and, importantly, the respect they deserve. Of course, to do this, it needs to be steeped in knowledge, which it is – carefully sequenced progression allowing children to build up vocabulary, schemata and knowledge in long term memory. Crucially, and here’s the punchline, they are asked to think, to demonstrate skill and to be critical in parallel, but only when they have the knowledge required to do so. The best of both worlds?

It was quite a jump to make this move – is it ‘too much knowledge’ for the children? Is it ‘engaging’ enough? Isn’t it a bit ‘secondary’? We thought all these things, but we will never undersell our children again. It quickly became clear that they loved engaging in the detail of this knowledge, they loved knowing things and they loved using that knowledge. History and Geography are now favourite subjects, whereas previously, children wouldn’t have even recognised them as subjects!

Now, we all know that Ofsted recognition is not the ultimate aim of our efforts but, for what it’s worth, we believe the current framework to be a solid piece of work. We can argue long and hard, quite rightly, about how it’s implemented, but the focus on Quality of Education via curriculum we see as a huge positive. Our implementation of the Opening Words curriculum was recognised recently as ‘strikingly ambitious’ and one inspector fed back that it is highly unusual to see children showing such disciplinary skill in a primary classroom.

Being praised for developing skill? Using a knowledge-rich curriculum? Imagine that…

Our children have, as Dylan Wiliam stated, more to think with.

Stephen McNicholas is the Headteacher at St. John Vianney Primary School in Tottenham. He has held Executive Head roles in Haringey and Hertfordshire, and served as Chair of the Strategic Networked Learning Community as well as a former co-opted director of HEP. Stephen is also a Consultant Improvement Partner at Haringey Education Partnership.