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How to conduct a curriculum review in your school Tom Sherrington @teacherhead

Tom Sherrington

@teacherhead

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Ten Steps: Develop a deeper knowledge of your current curriculum

Look at examples of other curriculum

models

Develop a set of principles with

input from stakeholders,

Develop some alternative models for the structure,

Create a review process within each

subject area

Map the curriculum in a raw state

Look for authentic links between

subjects

Map a range of set-piece learning experiences

Review the curriculum from an

assessment perspective,

Review the curriculum vertically

and horizontally

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Turton High School English

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Rebecca Foster: St Edmund’s Salisbury

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What is the curriculum for?

Knowledge. Character. Culture. Citizenship

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• Grammar = Knowledge

• Dialectic = Exploration

• Rhetoric = Communication

Know, Explore, Communicate

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Peter Hyman: Head, Hand, Heart

• An academic education (head) that gives people in-depth knowledge of key concepts and ways of thinking in science, maths and design, as well as history and culture. This knowledge should be empowering knowledge…that draws on ‘the best that has been thought and said’ but importantly it should be shaped and applied to the needs of the present and future.

• A character education (heart) that provides the experiences and situations from which young people can develop

• A can-do education (hand) that nurtures creativity and problem- solving,

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What is a knowledge-rich curriculum?

• A driving, underpinning philosophy

• Knowledge content is specified in detail

• Knowledge is taught to be remembered

• Knowledge is sequenced and mapped coherently and deliberately.

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Curriculum Structure • Breadth, balance.

• Time allocation weighting rationale?

• Options. How many?

– More options = greater breadth

– Fewer options = more time for each.

– Fewer options = KS3 even more important.

• Ebacc? Progress 8? For the students or for the school?

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Students have one curriculum.

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Coherence Sequence

Narrative?

Which pillars?

Intensity, standards

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Types of Curriculum

Planned Curriculum

The curriculum as stated in the documentation; the knowledge, skills and experiences that students should encounter.

Enacted Curriculum

The actual curriculum that students encounter through the process of attending school – the planned curriculum mediated via a student’s teachers’ delivery.

Assessed Curriculum

The elements of the curriculum that are included in formal and informal assessments.

Learned Curriculum

The curriculum elements that ultimately find themselves forming a student’s reservoir of knowledge, understanding and experience – in the long term.

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Experience + Knowledge

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Fundamentals:

• Particles kinetic model

• Energy Stores and pathways

• Cells Tissues Organs

• Chemical and physical change.

• Scale.

• Rate of change.

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CuCO3 CuO + CO2

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F = BIL

Magnetic flux density

Types of Knowledge

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'Doing the Romans’ vs ‘Learning about the Romans’

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@mrthorntonteach

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Teac

hin

g In

ten

sity

Year 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Year 6

Year 11

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My son’s first Y7 science homework It began with an explanation of the ideas of Greek philosopher Democritus who

observed that water behaved in similar ways to sand – it could be stirred,

poured and mixed.

His hypothesis was that water might, therefore, be made up of small particles,

akin to grains of sand but smaller than the eye can see. He called these particles

‘atoma’.

The questions that followed were:

• What is the difference between science and philosophy?

• What observations did Democritus make?

• What was his hypothesis?

• What properties of liquids could be explained by Democritus’ hypothesis?

• Does his hypothesis explain the behaviour of solids and gases?

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Hinterland The whole domain

Core What we teach in depth

Core and hinterland (Counsell)

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Making Connections:

Conflict

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Making authentic connections History

Tudors

Victorian Britain

John Snow Cholera

Russian Revolution, Cold War

WWI and WWII

English

Shakespeare

Animal Farm

Frankenstein

War Poets

A Christmas Carol

Science

Microbes and Bacteria

Genetics

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Maths and Science

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Science or Geography?

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Plan the reading

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Open Ended Projects “Dazzle me”

eg KEGS/HGS British Museum Project

All students are asked (told) to go with parents at weekends or holidays. They then create a response in any form that they choose.

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Student instructional inputs

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The Whole Curriculum What we value

Assessed Curriculum What we

can measure

The assessed curriculum

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Idealised Assessment Regime? Regular low stakes testing with feedback: spacing and interleaving topics.

Cumulative summative testing

Twice yearly data capture for cohort tracking

Baseline Test or last year’s exam

Standardised Tests

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Ten Steps: Develop a deeper knowledge of your current curriculum

Look at examples of other curriculum

models

Develop a set of principles with

input from stakeholders,

Develop some alternative models for the structure,

Create a review process within each

subject area

Map the curriculum in a raw state

Look for authentic links between

subjects

Map a range of set-piece learning experiences

Review the curriculum from an

assessment perspective,

Review the curriculum vertically

and horizontally

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Thank You!

Tom Sherrington @teacherhead

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