Nishkam High School Birmingham remains committed to constructive dialogue with colleagues and union representatives.

Our priority is to ensure the safe and effective running of the school, minimise disruption to pupils and families wherever possible, and continue providing the high-quality education our pupils deserve.

We are aware that a number of comments have been made publicly about curriculum alignment. To ensure that parents, pupils and the wider community have a clear understanding of the school’s position, we want to explain what curriculum alignment is, and what it is not.

Curriculum alignment is about bringing together the best expertise across our schools so that every pupil benefits from a strong, carefully sequenced and inclusive curriculum. It supports subject specialists to work together, share high-quality resources, improve assessment and moderation, and reduce unnecessary duplication, and therefore workload.

This approach builds on our own experience. Since 2019, our primary schools have worked through a more aligned and collaborative curriculum model, which has supported stronger consistency, professional dialogue and very strong pupil outcomes. We want our secondary pupils to benefit from the same ambition and shared expertise, while recognising that implementation must be paced carefully and shaped by subject-specific professional discussion.

Curriculum alignment is not about one school simply copying another, nor is it about removing teacher expertise, autonomy or professional judgement. Across Nishkam, we have seen very strong outcomes in a number of subject areas, and we believe that closer collaboration and a more aligned curriculum will, over time, support further improvement in pupil outcomes.

As discussions have progressed, it has become clear that departments are at different stages of readiness. We are therefore responding to this by taking a phased approach to implementation, considered on a subject-by-subject basis. Some departments are well advanced, while others require additional time to complete planning, refine resources and build capacity. Where needed, implementation will be phased through to September 2027.

Our strategic direction remains unchanged; however, we believe that successful implementation should be informed by professional judgement, subject readiness and the best interests of pupils.

We regret that further strike action is taking place, but we respect the legal right of colleagues to take industrial action. Our immediate priority is the safe and effective running of the school during this period, but we remain willing to continue constructive discussions as soon as practicable.

At this time, the school remains open to specific year groups, pupils with SEND and vulnerable pupils; we are working hard to minimise disruption to pupils’ education and planned end-of-year activities wherever possible.

We will continue to update parents and carers directly with operational information about school opening arrangements.