Camden Islington West End The Review Jobs Archive Competitions Shop Area Guide About Us Search Site

Home

'Opening Minds" at Quintin Kynaston - Year 7 AddThis

pupils to be taught by just 2 or 3 teachers for all
subjects
Published: 10 September 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM
REVIEWS : Books

PRIMARY school teachers are being sent into a St John!s Wood secondary school Books: Review - Crazy Days by Sadie Frost.
under a radical new scheme to drive up standards. John Blake
Books: Review - Whatever You Love. By
Louise Doughty.
Pupils starting at Quintin Kynaston this week will be taught a narrowed down
Books: Review - The Small Book. By Zina
curriculum with specialist lessons like geography and history dropped in favour of Rohan
broader subject areas to mirror teaching techniques in primary schools. Books: Review - A Journey. By Tony Blair.
Books: Review - Ralph Miliband And the
Under the scheme " #$%&#'&()%&'*+,(&*$&()%&-.&&" Year 7 pupils will be taught by Politics of the New Left. By Michael Newman.
just two or three teachers, rather than having a separate teacher for each
lesson.
REVIEWS : Theatre
Headteacher Jo Shuter said the /Opening Minds0&curriculum will help pupils, many
Theatre: Review - :%1()&;+13&1(&<#=6&
of whom start school struggling to read and write, adapt to the faster pace of
Coward Theatre
learning and narrow the gap between primaries and secondaries.
Theatre: Review - Alvin Ailey American Dance
Company: Programme Two at Sadler's Wells
It comes following warnings by MPs about appalling literacy standards among 11- Theatre: Review - The Pope's Wedding at
year-olds, with a reported two in every five children not reaching required levels Cock Tavern Theatre
in English. Theatre: Review - Beautiful Burnout at York
Hall
But it has come under fire from teaching unions, who fear it could lead to a Theatre: Latest News - >September 23
/dumbing down0&of lessons and undermine attempts to boost standards in
perceived harder subjects like maths and science. Latest Blog

Ms Shuter said: /This is really innovative. Nobody is really doing it and I got the
THE TALK: Inter Milan - welcome to White Hart
idea from my consultancy work. We have been working with local primary schools Lane
to develop it. What we will have is pupils taught by one teacher in a way to make LANDIN'S LINE: Don't expect a 1997 moment
()%&(+1$,*(*#$&'+#2&3+*21+4&,5)##6&(#&,%5#$71+4&,5)##6&%1,*%+8& for Cameron

/What we had before was an over-teaching of pupils when they get here and
that doesn!t work. We need to do something to reduce the gap in standards and
I think it!s up to secondaries to take action and reduce specialist teaching at an
early stage.0

For the first time, Quintin Kynaston has three primary school teachers on its staff
" part of the eight who will teach the Opening Minds course. Opening Minds was
developed by academics at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts,
Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in response to criticism of an outdated
national curriculum that is crammed with /competing information0. It describes
itself as a /competence-based curriculum0.

Jeff Bates, head of Westminster National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: /It is true
there is a big gap between primary and secondary schools because teachers are
trained completely different. Anything that closes this gap is welcome but I have REVIEWS : Cinema
never heard of primary school teachers in secondary schools. It doesn!t sound
right.
Cinema: New release - Ben Affleck stars and
directs - The Town
/In the longer term, it could be a worry where this kind of thing goes. If we get rid
Cinema: New release - Snowstorm horror -
of specialisms, it means departments will be weaker. In the long run, subjects like Frozen
maths and science will suffer because primary teachers are likely to teach project- Cinema: New release - Indian land-reform
based lessons, which have a bias to the humanities.0 tale - Peepli Livelihood
Cinema: Latest news >September 23 -
Meanwhile, hundreds of pupils returned to brand new classrooms this week. At St Could this be the hit of 2011?
Marylebone School, a new building has been constructed in Blandford Street " Cinema: New release - The Horde. Directed
by Yannick Dahamn and Benjamin Rocher.
part of its 915.7 million redevelopment under the Building Schools for the Future Cert 18
(BSF) programme. At Westminster City School in Victoria, new facilities include a
sports hall, changing rooms and music hall. Other schools are due to be
completed by September 2011, including St George!s School in Maida Vale, Pimlico
User login
Academy, which will get a new library and St Augustine!s School in Kilburn.

http://www.westendextra.com/news/2010/sep/opening-minds-quintin-kynaston-year-7-pupils-be-taught-just-2-or-3-teachers-all-subjec Page 1 / 2
 Username: *
Westminster was spared the cuts to BSF funding because the work was already
under way.
Password: * Syndicate
Councillor Nickie Aiken, the council!s education chief, said: /These new facilities will
be enormously beneficial to pupils in Westminster in providing state-of-the-art IT
equipment, enviable sports facilities and bright and welcoming classrooms.0
Log in
Tags: West End Extra Website News
Create new account
Request new password

Comments
Post new comment
Subject:

Comment: *
5

Input format

j Filtered HTML
k
l
m
n
Web page addresses and e- mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>

Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

i Full HTML
j
k
l
m
n
Web page addresses and e- mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

Save Preview

Copyright !"New Journal Enterprises Ltd, 2010. All Rights Reserved. Site by Modernfidelity Studios

http://www.westendextra.com/news/2010/sep/opening-minds-quintin-kynaston-year-7-pupils-be-taught-just-2-or-3-teachers-all-subjec Page 2 / 2