In most secondary schools, the age cohort (year group) has been a universal organising device. Most adults looking back on their schooldays will talk about ‘people in my year’.

In England, some schools are now letting some or all of their students complete the three years of the national curriculum for pupils aged 11-13 in two years instead of the usual three, so that increasingly pupils in different years are being taught together.

The more radical version of this is a ‘stage not age’ approach, in which pupils are grouped in different subjects by their level of attainment, not their age. This is a powerful, personalised alternative to both setting and streaming, to which politicians are so addicted.

Institutional reconfigurations

• From single to multiple institutions
• Merging of phases
• Flexible and permeable age cohorts
• School day, term and year
• Flexible time schedules
• Design of buildings and learning spaces
• Competence-based, trans-disciplinary curriculum
• Academic and pastoral division
• Smaller units within schools
• School and workplace

Role reconfigurations

Leadership reconfigurations