Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
The school’s bespoke curriculum journey began several years ago with the adaptation of the Four Purposes into a school vision, which would meet the demands of the school context and provide equity and inclusion for any 21st Century learner in Wales. From the outset, school leaders recognised the power of co-construction and involved all stakeholders in shaping this vision. The aim at Pendoylan is to ‘Inspire’ through our highly innovative curriculum and pedagogy; to ‘Reflect’ allowing time for pupils to carefully consider their own personal self-improving journey and to ‘Transform’ by providing opportunities to take learning beyond the school gates and encourage active citizenship by engaging with contemporary issues both locally and globally.
In order to realise this ambitious school vision, leaders recognised that staff would require high quality professional development opportunities. Strong partnerships with other schools has always been a bedrock of self-improving practice and this has been particularly effective whilst working collaboratively in the CSC School Improvement Groups (SIG) and developing pedagogy around co-operative learning and creativity. The school has also established strong links with Swansea University and was part of a research study group developing Algebra through using ‘Bar methods’. However, perhaps the most impactful research has been the work undertaken in the NACE hub around cognitive challenge. For example, as part of a ‘spiral of inquiry’, senior leaders used the Webb’s ‘Depth of Knowledge’ tool to improve ‘rich task’ planning and assessment, in the context of studying the effect of wind farms on the local environment. They discovered that children’s breadth of knowledge and independence in learning improved significantly, as a result of this increased cognitive challenge. Certainly, a culture of staff self-reflection and effective pedagogy has formed a strong foundation upon which the school based its current curriculum design.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
Two years ago, the school established strong links with the following three schools in the Vale of Glamorgan: St Nicholas C/W Primary, Peterston Super Ely C/W Primary and Llanfair Primary. They refer to themselves as the ‘Orbit’ Cluster because, although they may have different orbit trajectories at times, due to differing school contexts, they all have the same aspirations and vision for pupils around the Four Purposes.
The collaboration agreed with the conceptual ideas of the New Curriculum for Wales (the why) but they nevertheless found it a daunting task to translate this into a high quality school based curriculum (what to teach and when they were going to teach it). However, from the outset, the schools shared a deep level of understanding as to what they considered to be their non-negotiables in terms of curriculum design :
- The curriculum needed to be focused and coherent and fulfil the vision of the Four Purposes.
- Within it, knowledge and skills had to be sequenced in a logical, progressive order.
- They understood that prerequisite knowledge was needed to access new learning and therefore deepening learning was a cyclic process.
- The curriculum had to reflect the hierarchical and sequential nature of subject disciplines that is required in order to deepen learning.
- There needed to be equity of access to content across the Collaboration of schools.
With these ideals secured, they set about the journey to engage with all stakeholders to enrich and enhance curriculum design. All four schools held forums and workshops with parents, pupils and governors, and also engaged externally with CSC and Estyn.
As a result of these consultations, the central approach emerged which is referred to as the ‘Lens Concept’. Just like a lens brings greater clarity and focus, the schools’ ‘Lens Concepts’ brings greater definition to the What Matters statements across the Areas of Learning and Experience (AOLE). The six AOLE’s have been organised into ‘Lenses’. For example, Expressive Arts has five Lenses:
- Notable Artisans, Artists and Genres of Wales and Beyond
- Experiment with Materials and Resources
- Emotions Moods and Perceptions
- Share and Present Ideas
- Reflect and Respond as a Participant and as an Audience
Underneath each Lens sits the relevant What Matters statements, the Progression Steps and a ladder of skills, knowledge and suggested experiences, which develop progressively from Nursery to Year 6. The Lens Concept ensures breadth and balance across the curriculum and acknowledges the sequential nature of subject disciplines. By mapping them out across age groups, the schools have ensured that there is continuity, progression and increasing levels of challenge for pupils. However, there is also the flexibility for pupils to access any given point on the ladders according to their stage of learning.
The Lens approach allowed the schools to have a shared understanding of ‘what’ and ‘when’ elements of the curriculum needed to be taught. In parallel to the Lens Concepts, the schools were also developing a shared understanding of pedagogy and ‘How’ their curriculum was going to be delivered in terms of connecting learning across the curriculum. It was important to avoid becoming overly prescriptive and not to hamper innovation in each school. At the same time, they wanted to align their approach to provide continued opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of good practice amongst practitioners. They therefore decided upon ‘Golden Thread’ themes, which map the lenses (including the what matter statements) across the curriculum. Within each of the four schools, they will all be covering the same ‘Golden Thread ‘per term over a two-year cycle. For example, this term’s thread is ‘Consequences’. At school level, these threads are then translated into different ‘Learning Expeditions’, which begin with inquiry questions, for example ‘What did the Romans ever do for you?’ These are developed into rich tasks, which provide authentic contexts for learning and allow space for pupil voice to take the learning in different directions. The expedition culminates in a celebration of learning, usually a showcase event.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
It has been incredibly exciting and rewarding to see the bespoke, collaborative curriculum emerge and as a result begin to fulfil the inspirational vision of the school. Staff are enthused in their delivery of this new provision and as a consequence nearly all learners are highly motivated, consistently engaged and ambitious in their personal goals. This is having a very positive impact on standards and is clearly reflected in the significant gains most pupils are making on the road to recovery post pandemic
How have you shared your good practice?
The ‘Orbit’ Cluster have had the privilege of sharing the Curriculum Design approach at the CSC Curriculum for Wales Virtual Conference last Summer. The schools have also shared their journey with the wider Rural Vale Cluster within the local authority as part of a showcase event last academic year.