Our product, The Online Curriculum Planner, divides up coverage (Breadth of Study) of the National Curriculum. It lets you create a long-term curriculum map. There is a coverage report at the end so you can see any gaps to help make sure that all statutory content is covered.
Continuous should be selected if the coverage objective you are selecting links to one of your schools key curriculum ‘drivers’. By selecting this option it becomes an objective that is repeated as many times as possible across the Key Stage.
We have two publications that help you to plan for progress. These are ‘Planning a Skills Based Curriculum’ and ‘Key Skills’.
Planning a Skills Based Curriculum shows how you may teach all of the learning objectives (Programme of Study) for each subject from Level 1 to 5 of the National Curriculum. It is an expansion of the National Curriculum level descriptors and gives examples and detail of what pupils should accomplish at each level. Planning a Skills Based Curriculum is recommended if you require lots of detailed subject information. This book does not contain English or mathematics.
Key Skills is for teachers who have a greater depth of subject knowledge and want an easy way to assess pupils. It identifies the key subject skills in all subjects, including English and mathematics, needed for pupils to make progress. In essence, it is a summary of the programme of study, with success criteria for National Curriculum levels 1 -5. Key Skills provides an effective and easy tool for assessment. The skills remain the same at each level, but the standard increases. For example, in history, the key subject skill, ‘Investigate using sources of evidence’ can be taught at Level 1 through to Level 5. All of the Key Skills are subject skills and knowledge that will help teachers to plan and assess pupils’ progress.
No, the Key Skills publication is the most up-to-date publication for use within schools. It uses Curriculum 2000 level descriptors. Although the first edition did show how the skills might be used in the Rose Review curriculum, the second edition is solely focused on Curriculum 2000.
No, not at all. The government dislike lessons based on ‘soft skills’, such as ‘teamwork’. They have voiced their opposition to lesson objectives centred around these soft skills with no academic objective. However, our publication is based around subject skills and concepts. (The government calls this subject knowledge), and these can very much help schools prepare for the reviewed curriculum due in 2013/14.
The Creative Themes for Learning file offers ideas on how to deliver inspiring themes whilst ensuring coverage of the Breadth of Study. It also identifies which subject skills children are going to learn. It is not, however, a scheme of work. The file can be used as inspiration for schools to make their own themes. It therefore also comes with an editable disc so schools can use it to plan their own lessons and are not confined to just the themes in the file. (Schools require Power Point 2007 or later in order to edit the themes.)
A Creative Curriculum needs to have 3 elements: Purposeful coverage, Engagement and Standards.
Coverage: The Online Curriculum Planner covers the Breadth of Study, ensuring coverage of the statutory content, meaning the curriculum will have purposeful coverage.
Engagement: The Creative Themes for Learning can then be used to bring the content to life. It is solely designed to engage pupils in the content of the curriculum.
Standards: The Key Skills or Planning a Skills Based Curriculum allow teachers to plan for subject skills and standards.
Schools are still inspected on the 2009 framework, which this publication is based on. It takes you through the process of understanding Ofsted and Self-Evaluation. It is not a guide to filling in the SEF form, which is being abolished. The new OFSTED framework is due in January 2012. We are currently running courses helping schools to prepare for this.