Curriculum-Making: Start With The End In Mind

Curriculum-making begins with thinking about the desired impact, or outcome, before you start thinking about the how and the what.

By this I mean that the starting point of any curriculum should not be what needs to be covered or how it is going to be taught, but what you want pupils to achieve when they are taught the content.

Knowing: If your desired impact is simply that pupils finish a year group, phase or school knowing certain pieces of information then you can crack on with deciding exactly what pieces of information that should be - the what needs to be covered. But if you want them to achieve something more than that there is more thinking to be done.

Application: Perhaps you want pupils to be able to do something with the facts and skills (aka the substantive and procedural knowledge) that they will inevitably learn.

Disciplinary thinking: Maybe you want pupils to think in certain ways, say, like a historian, or a geographer.

Characteristics: Or it might involve some of those 'soft skills' (y'know, the ones that actually get us through life successfully): kindness, empathy, love, care...

Emotions: It could be that we want pupils to feel a certain way about learning and being learners: enjoyment, passion, excitement, happiness...

Attitudes: Developing particular attitudes might enter into our desired outcomes, too: resilience, curiosity, hard working...

There are a whole host of things that come together to form the outcomes you desire for the pupils you are planning for. Most likely, you will want a well-rounded set of goals.

Perhaps something like this:

What we want for our children in art:

to have the opportunity to experience success in every art learning episode; to be inspired and empowered; to become proficient in art skills and techniques; to remember key identified information relating to artists, artworks and art movements; to develop creativity and expression through art; to be critical, able to evaluate and explain their own work and the work of others; to understand the world around them.

Knowing

Application

Disciplinary thinking

Characteristics

Emotions

Attitudes

The above statement includes statements from 4 of the 6 categories. It might be improved with some additional points around developing characteristics and attitudes (although it could be argued that some of the statements cover this already). However, this statement was written to capture exactly what was needed in the particular school - I'm not suggesting there are rules about how to do this, only guidelines to help you get what you and your pupils really need.

You might have something similar for the subject you lead - lots of us call this an intent statement.

A statement like this, no matter how it is written, is a useful way of setting out your stall from the beginning. It can then become a touchstone for all future curriculum work and a lens through which to view the implementation of your curriculum.

If you're thinking through these issues currently, you might find the following blog posts helpful too (just click on the image):

If you'd like some bespoke help with redeveloping your curriculum, here's your 3-step curriculum development plan:

1. Drop me an email

2. Have a phone call with me to talk about your school

3. We'll work together to empower you and your staff to enhance teaching and to enrich your pupils' lives