“Improving education is our national mission. Nothing is so essential as universal access to, and acquisition of, the experiences, knowledge and skills that our young people need…”
This opening to the Curriculum for Wales framework had a significant impact on school thinking, correlating with the concept of powerful knowledge as a route to equity. The acquisition of empowering knowledge was also viewed as the route to fulfilling the Four Purposes.
A curriculum mission statement was constructed, part of which reads, “Our approach values a knowledge-rich curriculum, delivered by a pedagogically savvy, expert teaching staff. This aims consistently to provide engaging, effective learning opportunities through teaching that is passionate, precise and purposeful.”
- A knowledge-rich curriculum has received significant interest within education systems around the world. Key components used at the school when constructing its curriculum include:
- The fundamental position of knowledge and its ability to enhance further learning.
- Knowledge in different forms: declarative, procedural, experiential, disciplinary.
- Individual subjects matter. They bring an established body of knowledge, skills and unique tradition. Subjects provide ready-made organisation, providing strong vertical coherence.
- The knowledge to be learnt is specified in detail.
- Curriculum time is limited; knowledge has to carefully selected. This knowledge is important and taught to be remembered, requiring the application of evidence-based research.
- Knowledge is sequenced deliberately and coherently to optimise construction of secure schema (neural networks of learning).
The approach is that of a disciplinary curriculum, with students following a broad and balanced range of subjects. Significant responsibility for curriculum design rests with middle leadership, linked to increased autonomy. This autonomy (e.g. over feedback policies, curriculum decisions, assessment building, action planning) has been nurtured alongside the development of a robust culture of quality assurance.
Professional learning is targeted to enhance thinking around progression and assessment, with emphasis on Principles of Progression and Purpose of Assessment. This embraces the curriculum as the progression model: progression that is planned into the curriculum, not separate from it. A learner successful in the curriculum is making good progress.
The relationship between curriculum and pedagogy is considered in light of evidence-based summaries of effective teaching (e.g. Sutton Trust’s, ‘What Makes Great Teaching?’). Key is the development of pedagogically savvy, expert practitioners – expert both in their subject area and in their ability to apply effective pedagogy.
Providing whole-school teaching strategies and developing the subject-expert teacher occurs through two components of professional learning:
- Carefully selected techniques focus on habits of attention and classroom tone: what the school terms its ‘powerful routines’. Such routines streamline the learning experience – reducing the cognitive burden, engaging learners quickly and ensuring that all participate. This whole-school venture is supported by significant INSET time and new ‘teaching champion’ roles.
- All teachers receive instructional coaching observations conducted by subject leaders. The teacher decides the main focus as a specific element of practice, set within their disciplinary context. The coaching model includes both pre- and post- observation discussion. This precise approach within disciplinary areas aids development of subject-expert teachers.
The implemented curriculum seeks to ensure that staff can be: passionate about what they are teaching by having ownership of their discipline content; precise in their practice supported by on-going professional development; purposeful in their determinations of both content and pedagogy in order to achieve strong student progress.
From rollout, it has been acknowledged that curriculum design, pedagogical development and work on valid assessment will be concurrent. This is not a compromise; it is a perpetual process of iteration and improvement: not a ‘once and done event’ (Journey to 2022). The school’s next steps are to: develop its work on horizontal coherence through cross-curricular links; develop a strong base of professional learning in the design and use of summative assessments; continue its work in supporting the best pedagogy.
