Curriculum: the benchmark for quality in education

by | Sep 30, 2024 | Curriculum, Leadership

Curriculum: the benchmark for quality in education

Curriculum is still high on Ofsted’s agenda as they publish amendments to their School Inspection Handbook .

In this article Glynis offers some free curriculum resources and talks about the Curriculum Leaders’ programme available to curriculum leaders and their teams of subject and phase leaders. It is a partnership project between Learning Cultures and Teaching Times. This programme has been designed by Glynis Frater author of Primary Curriculum Design and Delivery and the soon to be published Secondary Curriculum Design and Delivery. Read and scroll down to download some free resources that will provide a focus on your curriculum priorities.

The curriculum provides a window into what schools are achieving in relation to pupil outcomes and the impact that curriculum planning, highly effective pedagogy, measuring pupil progress and incisive assessment has on how well the school is achieving its vision for excellence and continuous improvement. The emphasis is firmly on how we teach and how we create the right dialogue to ensure that teachers build on prior learning, sequence the learning to ensure acquisition of powerful knowledge and increased competence in the use of skills for learning.

There is also a clear imperative to ensure that senior leaders create the right conditions that ensure their curriculum teams have the subject expertise to deliver the depth and breadth of knowledge that lies within the programmes of study so that they weave a tapestry of learning across the key stages. For all those with the responsibility for designing and delivering the curriculum there is an imperative to see how all the elements fit together in order to create for teachers and learners a pattern that builds layers of interconnected elements that lead to deep learning.

These include:-

  • Planning sequential content that takes account of what pupils already know and can do
  • Setting goals that are articulated by the creation of clearly defined end points for when a topic or series of lessons is completed
  • Having a good grasp of the different kinds of knowledge that pupils need to acquire across a range of subjects and in cross-curricular contexts
  • Identifying the literacy skills that are essential to the acquisition and application of all knowledge, including reading, writing and essentially speaking and listening
  • Understanding the importance of numeracy and mathematics to the depth of understanding of many concepts across a range of subjects and topics
  • Recognising the need to ensure pupils can comprehend and use a growing range of essential vocabulary for each subject and know where there is a synergy across other curriculum subjects
  • Knowing the importance of metacognition as a suite of skills that will enhance the learning potential of all pupils
  • Deepening understanding of cognitive science, cognitive overload and the mechanisms of the working and long-term memory
  • Creating the classroom that differentiates the learning for pupils who lie across a spectrum of abilities and needs so that all pupils achieve their full potential and continue to progress well over time

Creating the CPD so that this complex list of priorities can be achieved

Any school, primary or secondary will have a range of abilities and skills within its subject leads and the teams they support. The first step is to recognise what those skills and abilities are, the second is to know where the gaps are and how the school’s senior team and CPD coordinator can use the expertise that exists to cascade good and best practice. The third step is to find the right professional development that will fill the gaps in pedagogical and subject knowledge and strengthen the potential for the delivery of the highest quality of teaching and learning.

Our Developing Curriculum Leaders programme has the content and structure to deliver all three.

  1. We have a needs analysis tool that will provide a comprehensive overview of the strengths and gaps in strategy and each team’s knowledge and expertise.
  2. Recognising strengths within the team informs where the gaps are and we have a model that will support curriculum leaders to focus on the gaps within their teams and create a learning agenda that will manage the disparities and move towards exploration and deep learning
  3. The programme for curriculum leaders has five modules of interactive and deeply researched resources, activities and materials that cover all of the priorities contained in the bulleted list above. The programme comes with 8 or 16 hours of coaching time from one of our expert curriculum coaches so that you can work with a coach to shape and tailor the programme to match the whole school vision for curriculum excellence and the highest quality learning and teaching

Free resources to use as part of a review of this excellent programme.

Download a copy of our Subject Leader’s Needs Analysis tool free of charge to plan your next steps. Simply fill in our Contact us form with Subject Leader’s Needs Analysis Tool in the message box and we will send it across to you. The tool is broken down into 5 sections with 59 questions for you to focus on.

Download a card resource Curriculum Priorities free of change that you can make to look at the key elements of the curriculum that you need to weave together. The 27 cards provide useful prompts to use to focus on priorities, areas for improvement and opportunities to share good and best practice. It is part of the first module of this programme. We would like you to see an example of the practical and content rich resources we use within each of the modules. Once again, fill in our Contact us form with Curriculum Priorities in the message box and we will send it across to you.

Why choose Developing Curriculum Leaders

Planning the curriculum requires the weaving together of several different elements all of which are vital parts of a pattern confirming a curriculum vision that translates into high quality of education defined by excellence in pupil’s learning and in the pedagogy that stimulates, motivates and inspires. In order to do this there must be consensus, cohesion and a professional dialogue that ensures all those with a pupil facing role are working together to deliver the clearly defined whole school aspirational goals.

Choose Developing Curriculum Leaders because:

  • It is informed by current and sector led research and written by the author of Primary Curriculum Design and Delivery published last year and Secondary Curriculum Design and Delivery which will be available soon
  • Each module has a wealth of materials, resources and activities for curriculum and subject leaders to use to create the right platform for cohesive planning, the weaving of knowledge and skills that are essential within subjects and recognising where they apply in cross curricular contexts
  • Creates powerful opportunities for a shared dialogue to ensure that the curriculum is planned and delivered to marry with the whole school vision for a high quality education that delivers parity for all pupils including those with SEND
  • The programme is accessible and creates a powerful platform for professional learning. It is flexible so CPD and curriculum leaders can use each lesson within each module with all their subject leaders and teachers
  • It is cost effective because one purchase means each subject lead or head of department can access the programme and use it with their own teams
  • All of the materials and downloadable and practical and the wealth of research is available for further study

Buy this outstanding CPD resource in a number of ways

The team at Learning Cultures are all professionally trained coaches, they all have held senior positions in education as headteachers, programme directors or influential subject specialists. We can provide the relevant professional partner who will support the CPD or curriculum leader in how they navigate powerful professional learning for all those involved in the design and delivery of the curriculum. There are three options to choose when buying this programme. Remember that with all three options this programme one purchase is available for all subject or department leads to access, not just one.

Option 1: Buy the five module programme with the provision of 16 coaching sessions from one of our professional team for £3,450.00 + VAT. Successful achievement of this programme with the coaching will lead to attainment of our Gold Curriculum Excellence Award.

Option 2: Buy the five module programme with the provision of 8 hours coaching sessions from one of our professional team for £2,550.00 + VAT. Successful achievement of this programme with 8 hours of coaching support will lead to the attainment of our Silver Curriculum Excellence Award.

Option 3: Buy the five module programme as a stand alone package without the coaching provision for £1,750.00 + VAT. (You can buy individual coaching sessions for £125.00 + VAT to plan the delivery programme).

Take advantage of our offer of a free coaching session where you can share the results of the Subject Leaders’ Needs Analysis results and discuss your priorities and vision for curriculum excellence and we can focus on goals for how to move forward from here. Give, me Glynis a call on 07974 754241 or email me at glynis@learningcultures.org. Download the free resources and begin your journey towards excellence in curriculum cohesion. Remember to use our Contact us form and enter into the message box, Subject Leaders Needs Analysis or Curriculum Priorities.

 

 

 

 

New Books

 

The book ‘Primary Curriculum Design and Delivery by Glynis Frater‘ has now been published.

Find Out More

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