In the opening months of 2024, I had the honour of chairing a Ministerial Advisory Group (MAG) for Education Minister Erica Stanford.  Our remit included both the curriculum, which specifies what students should be taught, and the common practice model, which specifies methods of teaching.

We were tasked with making recommendations for English and mathematics in the primary and intermediate school years. This focus was to ensure that deep problems in the teaching of early-years literacy and mathematics are addressed swiftly. As Minister Stanford is well aware, each year that passes without reform sees another cohort of young people sold short. Later we were asked also to consider the first two secondary years.

Minister Stanford made it clear that she wants a knowledge-rich curriculum, informed by the science of learning.

Perhaps the most general educational principle from the science of learning is that knowledge that is essential to later learning must be reliably consolidated in long-term memory before attempting to build on it. Failure to do that risks overwhelming students’ short-term ‘working’ memory, leading to feelings of confusion, frustration and, eventually, demotivation.

This principle guided many of the MAG’s recommendations.

One recommendation was for a carefully sequenced curriculum, specifying rich, but carefully selected knowledge. Teachers cannot teach everything. The curriculum must therefore be selective. It must ensure that truly foundational knowledge is emphasised. Careful sequencing ensures that knowledge is learned in an appropriate order and in sufficient depth to support further learning.

We also recommended merging the curriculum and common practice model in one document. That will ensure close correspondence between the knowledge to be taught and effective ways of teaching it. The teaching of early literacy, especially, will benefit from this approach.

The MAG’s report was made public early last week, and the Minister has approved most of its recommendations. Writing of the English and mathematics curricula is now well underway.

Wider curriculum reform is also in train. Last week, the Ministry of Education called for nominations to write the science curriculum. Other subjects will follow. The principles the MAG recommended will guide the writers in each subject.

There is much water to go under the bridge before our school system is restored to its world-beating heights of the mid-twentieth century. Many devils will lurk in the detail of implementation. Nonetheless, for the first time in two decades, we are rowing in the right direction.