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In a different class - but pupils call for old school
Classroom rebellion over new subjects introduced at academy
PUPILS at a troubled academy in Paddington are launching a petition following changes to its curriculum.
Traditional subjects including geography, history and art, are no longer being taught to 11-14-year-olds at Westminster Academy.
They are packaged into lessons called “Topics” based on all-encompassing “Themes” and designed to prepare pupils for the workplace.
Teachers are using Topic lessons to reteach core subjects like English, maths and science, headteacher Alison Banks confirmed, in the the race to pass early exams.
One former pupil, who wished to remain anonymous, said her younger brother was disillusioned and was moving to another secondary school.
She said: “The maths work my brother is doing is so far ahead of anything I was doing in Year 8. I’m totally impressed by his x’s and y’s. But he is losing interest in science.
“Sometimes they are literally just repeating what they have done in maths and science class.” The pupil added: “This cannot be good for their education.”
Westminster Academy, specialising in business and sponsored by a multi-millionaire, opened alongside Paddington Academy in September 2006 following the closure of North Westminster community school.
Under the city academy system, school sponsors do not have to follow the National Curriculum.
Ms Banks, who piloted the Topics system at her last school, defended the changes.
She said: “The curriculum is based on what employers say they want when they leave school for work.
“It is perfectly true that there is a lot of reinforcement of literacy and numeracy skills in the Topics.”
She added: “It is a better way of learning. But with change you are always going to get some people who like it and some who don’t.”
The change sparked an exodus of teachers last year and the school recorded one of the worst sets of results for GCSEs in London last summer.
Just 18 per cent scored five A*-C grades – 40 per cent below the London average for five GCSEs.
The school’s sponsor, Exilarch Foundation, was set up by Dr Naim Dangoor, a 90-year-old Iraqi-Jewish exile, in 1978. Dr Dangoor came to Britain in the 1930s to study engineering at Queen Mary College and returned to Iraq to join the army before setting up his business empire. He spent the 1950s running the Coca-Cola franchise in Iraq. |
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