Curriculum Building… Where do I start?
For many leaders in primary school, being faced with a curriculum that needs work can often be an exciting but also daunting prospect. Sometimes it’s straight forward, the curriculum or particular subject area you have walked into has most aspects in place, or maybe even seems perfect (even though we all no that a curriculum is never finished and is constantly being upgraded and developed to enhance it even further).
But what if you’re not in that position.
What if you take on a new role where massive change is required.
Or worse… you are all of a sudden told that your curriculum just isn’t anywhere good enough.
At this point, it’s time to take a deep breath, and remember that no matter what, you are capable of developing a great curriculum. Everyone is. Whether you’re a middle leader or subject leader focussing on one subject, or a curriculum leader who has oversight over the inner workings of the whole curriculum. We are all leaders in some form at the end of the day, and there is no question that if you need to manage a process of change, as a teacher, you are so much more than capable of this.
As I said before, it can be daunting. But there are a few key things that I believe, if you keep them at the forefront of your mind when completing your piece of curriculum work, you won’t go far wrong. And if you do make a howler, you’ve done it for the right reasons and you can easily go back to the drawing board and get it right next time around.
Children at the heart
First and foremost, whatever you do when developing a primary school curriculum, it’s got to be all about the children. Why do we teach? To support the children in our care. Why do we work so hard to develop a great curriculum? To support the children we are teaching. To me it is simple. If you keep the fact that your curriculum is for your children at the forefront of every change, process or policy you design, you will continuously make strides in the right direction.
With that in mind, that brings me to my next point. I think there are two key questions that you have to try and answer in order to develop great curriculum.
What do we want the children to know?
What do we want the children to be able to do?
I’ll break these down in a moment, but essentially, we are developing a curriculum in primary schools that is all about knowledge, and all about what can be done with that knowledge. We are in the business of developing life-long learners. Again, if we answer these two questions, I don’t think we can go far wrong.
What do we want the children to know?
Obviously, this is quite a vague question as a starting point. But first, let me point out that it has two key things in it’s make up; children and knowledge. Now they are the two things that I have already said need to be at the heart of your curriculum, so take this question and apply it to a specific area. What do we want the children to know in… Science? Art and design? Geography? Give the question it’s context. You can’t develop everything all at once (although there are principles you can apply in most subject areas).
Let’s say you choose history. ‘What do we want the children to know in history?’ is still too general. We need to decide what the composites (big ideas) are – these are taken directly from the National Curriculum with a few sprinkles of your own choices to supplement them if you feel brave enough. Then come the components – what are the key pieces of knowledge that you want the children to learn in each of their history topics. As you’re putting things together, have a focus on local history too in order to make the learning relatable. To who? The children of course, keeping them at the centre of everything. If you can make the knowledge pertinent and relatable to the children you are teaching, they’ll be able to apply it better in other contexts. Another thing to bear in mind is diversity and representation, but again, this can be led by the children that you teach. If you are making your curriculum relatable, you are probably already considering these things due to the diverse nature of the children you are teaching.
What do we want the children to be able to do?
Again, this is quite a vague question, but now we are considering outcomes for the children. With the knowledge progression for history that we are developing and putting in place, what do we want the children to be able to do with it. This is again, all about the children and all about developing life-long learners.
In reality, we as educators are all aiming for the same thing. The way we go about it may be slightly different, but we all want to support children to know more and remember more. We want children to be able to utilise the knowledge and skills, both substantive and disciplinary in order that they can approach anything that is put in front of them without fear. Without fear of getting it wrong or making mistakes; without worrying what other people think when they make statements; being able to justify and explain themselves; to be able to analyse other points of view and admit or accept when they are wrong and develop their thinking further.
When children are able to articulate themselves better as a result of the knowledge that has been bestowed upon them, they can hold their own in different situations. They have that cultural capital to strive for the things they dream of rather than backing down to someone because they seem smarter or more knowledgeable. We want children to feel confident enough in themselves that even if they don’t know something, they know that they can find it out and apply their knowledge and understanding across different contexts and situations.
Ultimately, curriculum development comes down to answering those two questions for the children we teach, and if what you put in place answers those two questions well:
What do we want the children to know?
What do we want the children to be able to do?
Then you’re already moving in the right direction. And if you want to talk more about developing your curriculum, you can book a catch-up with me through the link below. I’m always looking to find out about others’ ideas about developing different areas of the primary curriculum.
