Year 7s at Whitley Abbey Business and Enterprise College in Coventry spend the whole morning with one teacher, and their science teacher may well also teach them history. This is all part of the curriculum innovation that the school has recently undertaken. Using the RSA's 'Opening Minds' approach, the school focuses on giving learners core skills and competences to engage with their learning and with the world. Teachers talk of the challenges of teaching outside their specialism, and the joy of talking to learners about their learning. We see a cross-curricular lesson in which taking risks is a key skill, and a lesson on migration where pupils are asked to defend their thinking while tussling with difficult decisions. The school believes that responsibility for learning leads to responsibility for behaviour; falling detention rates and improved attendance are just some of the success of the innovations.

Video Series: KS3 New Visions
Release Date 2007