A Curriculum Guide for Middle Leaders

Richard Steward is an educational consultant with extensive experience as a teacher and headteacher. He has taught in a variety of schools in a thirty-year career and has worked as a part-time lecturer with The Open University. He has worked with the National College for Teaching and Learning and been involved in a wide range of national educational research projects. His previous books include The Gradual Art of School Improvement and The Toxic Classroom.

Introduction

PART 1 INTENT

1 What is meant by ‘intent’?

2 Do I have a vision for my subject?

3 How do I work within the context of the whole school and address whole school priorities?

4 What do I want pupils to be able to do by the end

of the year?

5 How do I identify areas for improvement?

6 How do I write a curriculum statement?

7 How do I create a curriculum plan?

8 How do I make my curriculum plans visible?

9 How do I choose what to teach?

10 What is meant by sequencing?

11 What is interleaving?

12 How do I plan for progression?

13 How important is transition to my planning?

14 How do I meet the needs of SEND and disadvantaged pupils?

15 What about differentiation?

16 From intent to implementation.

PART 2 IMPLEMENTATION

17 What is meant by implementation?

18 How important is subject knowledge?

19 Are knowledge organisers the answer?

20 How should pupils be assessed?

21 How do I fill gaps in pupils’ learning?

22 How do I close the gap?

23 What is really meant by ‘challenge’?

24 What does good teaching look like in a lesson?

25 How do I monitor the quality of teaching?

26 What do I do if my department is underperforming?

27 Why is consistency so important?

28 Should I insist on detailed lesson plans, and what about objectives?

29 How important are seating plans?

30 How important is questioning?

31 What should I look for in pupils’ books?

32 What does good feedback look like?

33 How important is pupil voice?

34 I am not the head of English, so how important is literacy to me?

35 I am a subject leader; should I be responsible for behaviour?

36 How do I plan effective CPD?

37 Are visits to other schools an appropriate use of my time?

38 What do I do when I am not happy with changes to the curriculum?

39 Do I need timetabling skills to understand curriculum implementation?

40 Am I a leader or a manager?

41 How do I plan for public examinations?

42 How important is cross-curricular work?

43 What about pastoral leadership?

44 How do I lead in uncertain times?

PART 3 IMPACT

45 What is meant by impact?

46 How do I measure pupil performance?

47 How do I analyse data and pupil outcomes?

48 How do I ensure accurate predictions and assessments?

49 How do I measure impact in the classroom?

50 How do I evaluate impact on pupil groups – especially SEND and disadvantaged pupils?

51 How do I provide evidence of impact for inspectors?

52 How do I handle the annual review with SLT and/or governors?

53 Finally, how do I know if I am doing a good job?

APPENDICES

A. Example curriculum statement: primary reading

B. Example curriculum statement: secondary English

C. Example curriculum plan: Y6 Maths

D. Example curriculum plan: Y7 Maths

E. Guidance: marking and feedback

F. Guidance: knowledge organisers

G. Guidance: department self-evaluation

H. Guidance: line management

I. Guidance: how to prepare for a deep dive

J. Guidance: deep dive questions

K. Guidance: work scrutiny