The document discusses curriculum aims and outlines new national curriculum aims. It states that the first step is to be clear on what is trying to be achieved and what students need to know, understand, and be able to do. While the National Curriculum includes aims, research finds they are rarely used. New aims have been developed with input from education professionals to make them more accessible and usable. The new overarching aims are for students to become successful learners, confident individuals, and responsible citizens, which relate closely to the five Every Child Matters outcomes.

1. ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll
probably end up somewhere else.’
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
The first step in your curriculum journey is to be really
clear about what you are trying to achieve. What are
you educating your young people for? What do they
need to know, to understand, to be able to do and to
be like?
The National Curriculum Handbook includes
a statement of curriculum aims, although
research suggests that very few people use
these to design their curriculum.
Over the past year, school leaders, teachers
and other education professionals have
been working with QCA to come up with a
more accessible and usable version of the
aims. They have agreed that the curriculum should
enable all young people to become:
• successful learners, who enjoy learning, make
progress and achieve
• confident individuals, who are able to live safe,
healthy and fulfilling lives, and
• responsible citizens, who make a positive
contribution to society.
These new aims relate closely to the five outcomes
identified in Every Child Matters.
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WHAT are you trying to achieve?
Curriculum aims
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© Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

2. TALKING POINT: Do you agree with
the current aims?
Read through the current national
curriculum aims with colleagues (resource A).
• Have you ever read these before?
• How helpful do you think they are?
• To what extent have they influenced your
curriculum design?
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TALKING POINT: Do you agree with
the new aims?
Take a look at the new curriculum aims
(resource B). Do you and your colleagues
agree that the overall aims of the curriculum are to
enable all young people to become:
• successful learners
• confident individuals, and
• responsible citizens?
In partnership with schools, QCA has begun to
identify the knowledge, skills, attitudes and
attributes that might sit beneath each of these
headings. Do they seem relevant to the learners in
your school?
In what ways could the new aims influence the way
you design your curriculum?
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PRACTICAL ACTION: Producing your
own set of aims
Using copies of resource C, can you
come up with a detailed set of aims that
reflects both the national aims and your own local
context? What would you expect to see in your
young people when they become successful
learners, confident individuals and responsible
citizens?
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