In 2010, the English Department for Education (DfE) published The importance of teaching: The schools white paper 2010. It grants schools increased autonomy in curriculum development and implementation and heralded a new era of curriculum reform in England. This paper critically examines how this process took place in a Catholic secondary school, which implemented the Opening Minds curriculum proposed by the British non-governmental organization The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) as the model for instruction of Year 7 students (11-12 year olds). The aims were to offer students a curriculum that equips for the twenty-first century through developing competences in citizenship, learning, managing information, relating to people and managing situations, which is difficult to achieve within the constraints of the subject-focused English National Curriculum.

The paper is informed by a range of perspectives, including the RSA point of view, literature on cross-curricular learning and Catholic education, and the experiences and perceptions of the school’s Opening Minds Co-ordinator and focuses on the following key issues: adequate staffing and resourcing; staff expertise to ensure teaching competence across a wide range of subject areas; achieving a balance between creative approaches to learning that promote engagement and a focus on in-depth subject knowledge and academic achievement. We pose the question whether the implementation of the Opening Minds curriculum as practised in this particular school can assist students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who may have limited access to life-transforming educational experiences outside of school, to acquire cultural capital and ‘high status knowledge’. This paper will have relevancy to a European/international audience, as pressures on schools to have as one of their key priorities the development of a future workforce, which will ensure economic competitiveness for their nation-state, is a dominant feature in global discourses on curriculum reform.

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