Our Aspirational Curricula�Curriculum Toolkit
Version 24.11
The Helsinki Bus Station Theory
At the Helsinki Bus Station… ‘There are two dozen platforms,’ Minkkinen explains, ‘ from each of which several different bus lines depart. Thereafter, for one kilometre or more, all the lines leaving from any one platform take the same route out of the city, making identical stops.’
‘It is only after several stops that the buses start to diverge and even then, many of the routes have twists and turns that would leave a novice to the bus line unsure about the final destination. Up in the mountains, off to the city or down to the coast? From the first have dozen stops you would never know.’
We believe the importance of not travelling alone and would encourage you to visit stops with your school community and partners. The quality of your curriculum rationale, and subsequently your design and making process, lies in the quality of the conversations that take place and the depths that are explored.
We view Curriculum Rationales as being the bus in which each school travels on and as such this is not a static document. It is a document which is always moving, changing and evolving.
The Double Diamond Design Process
The Double Diamond Design model underpins much of the support materials contained within East Lothian’s curriculum rationale, design and making toolkit. By engaging with the resources available, the how-what-why of this will become clearer.
PS
UI
US
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Test
Prototype
Know your demographic and school profile
Define School Vision and Values
Identify key drivers for your curriculum
Define curriculum currency/aims
Create a clarity of cross-cutting themes or other skills taught
Deconstruct to Prioritise
Who? When? Where? Then…
Iterate to Refine
Make to measure
What you have, to what you need…
This is East Lothian’s Aspirational Curricula Interactive Toolkit.
Using the Double Design model, we have mapped out stops on your curriculum journey to help take your school from rationale and realisation.
Over the next two slides, you can explore how the two stages work and how you can use the tool to help you navigate the resources in the EduHub to help you lead curriculum within your school.
Throughout each slide, links have been provided to presentation guides and tools to help you.
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Define ‘A BEST KEPT’ Curriculum and what children leave with
PS
UI
US
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Test
Prototype
Know your demographic and school profile
Define School Vision and Values
Define ‘A BEST KEPT’ Curriculum and what children leave with
Identify key drivers for your curriculum
Define curriculum currency/aims
Create a clarity of cross-cutting themes or other skills taught
Deconstruct to Prioritise
Who? When? Where? Then…
Iterate to Refine
Make to measure
What you have, to what you need…
PS
UI
US
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Test
Prototype
Know your demographic and school profile
Define School Vision and Values
Define ‘A BEST KEPT’ Curriculum and what children leave with
Identify key drivers for your curriculum
Define curriculum currency/aims
Create a clarity of cross-cutting themes or other skills taught
Deconstruct to Prioritise
Who? When? Where? Then…
Iterate to Refine
Make to measure
What you have, to what you need…
Defining your Curriculum Rationale
The first phase of the curriculum design process is to define your curriculum rationale. This can start with a problem statement, as shown by PS on the diagram. If you are looking to reform your curriculum, what is the problem you are trying to solve?
There are two phases to this process. The empathize stage asks you to listen to peoples; views by engage with your school community; listening to their needs, interests and aspirations. You will also look inwards reflecting on the data and information about your learners and their context. Finally, you will look outwards to consider the local and national drivers.
Using these steps you will begin to enter the define phase, analysing and synthesising all the information gathered to create your rationale.
A key lesson in our development process has been that this process is not a one-way journey. Rather, you should consider revisiting stages where you feel you need more information or understanding.
PS
UI
US
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Test
Prototype
Know your demographic and school profile
Define School Vision and Values
Define ‘A BEST KEPT’ Curriculum and what children leave with
Identify key drivers for your curriculum
Define curriculum currency/aims
Create a clarity of cross-cutting themes or other skills taught
Deconstruct to Prioritise
Who? When? Where? Then…
Iterate to Refine
Make to measure
What you have, to what you need…
Curriculum Rationale
In the centre of the diagram, we have the Curriculum Rationale. Within the design process this is defined as the user insights (UI).
The curriculum rationale will be the outcome from the first phase of design reflecting all the feedback from the school community as well as the aspirational direction for the school.
The curriculum rationale will become your curriculum ‘North Star’
Looking for more?
Click here to access the Learning Library for short learning videos on Curriculum Rationale, Design and Making.
PS
UI
US
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Test
Prototype
Know your demographic and school profile
Define School Vision and Values
Define ‘A BEST KEPT’ Curriculum and what children leave with
Identify key drivers for your curriculum
Define curriculum currency/aims
Create a clarity of cross-cutting themes or other skills taught
Deconstruct to Prioritise
Who? When? Where? Then…
Iterate to Refine
Make to measure
What you have, to what you need…
Curriculum Rationale
Moving on the second phase, the curriculum rationale will become a key tool in informing your curriculum design and making process.
The rationale will provide a key source for the ideate stage as you determine your key priorities and move to consider how you may begin to use the resources available within your school, community and local area to move the curriculum forward.
�However, the curriculum rational should remain open to change and, should you need to, you should be ready to revisit elements of the first stage when more information is required or you need to ‘check-in’.
PS
UI
US
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Test
Prototype
Know your demographic and school profile
Define School Vision and Values
Define ‘A BEST KEPT’ Curriculum and what children leave with
Identify key drivers for your curriculum
Define curriculum currency/aims
Create a clarity of cross-cutting themes or other skills taught
Deconstruct to Prioritise
Who? When? Where? Then…
Iterate to Refine
Make to measure
What you have, to what you need…
Curriculum Design and Making
The second phase of the curriculum design process seeks to take your rationale to realisation. We recognise that this can seem overwhelming.
To support this the tools provided help to consider firstly how to unpack your rationale and how to consider breaking this down into key curriculum drivers. Within these drivers you can then begin to construct programmes of learning drawing on the key features of your curriculum rationale.
The design process encourages us to take a prototype, test and review approach that allows for a small step change process. This aims to support sustainable change with measurable outcomes.
Throughout the process you are encouraged to revisit previous steps as learning deepens and more evidence emerges from the process. It should be your expectation that your curriculum rationale will evolve based on this phase.
For further information, click the links to access the resources available
Know school demographic and
school profile
Who is your school community? What does it feel like to be part of the community?
What makes your community unique? What and who is available on your doorstep?
How would you define your community? What does SIMD suggest? Does this match what you know?
How would you describe your school?
What does the school equity profile and attainment data tell you?
What does your DYW data suggest?
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Define School Vision and Values
What is the vision for your school?
�How aspirational is this vision?
Does all your school community buy into this vision? How do you know?
What values do you look to instil in everyone in your school community?
How are these shown each and every day?
How will they be developed or acknowledged?
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Identify key drivers for your curriculum
What is unique about your context?
What are particular strengths?
What are challenges experienced by your community? How do you support these?
What are the aspirations for now and the future?
What does your data tell about your school context – Equity profile, Attainment, HWB, SIMD, Employment? What do you need to address most?
What has been the lived experience for your children? Has this achieved your aims?
Define curriculum currency and aims
What is most valued in your school within your children and young people?
How is this reflected across different time-frames? Is what you value most in a nursery child the same as a P7?
Would each member of your school community agree that this is what is most valued? Is it what the greatest focus is on?
What do we want all children to get from the curriculum and leave with?
Are there any underlying principles or views which sit at the heart of your school’s work?
�What is our shared moral purpose?
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Create a clarity of cross-cutting themes or other skills taught
What themes cross through your curriculum? For example: DYW, Learning for Sustainability, Creativity, UNCRC
What do meta-skills or metacognition sit within your curriculum?
How do these progress throughout the school?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
Defined in the book Simplicitus by Emma Turner, A BEST KEPT curriculum provides an acronym for schools to consider the key features of a well-considered curriculum.
A – Accessibility
B – Behaviours
E- Experiences
S – Skills
T - Thinking
K – Knowledge
E – Experiences
P – People
T - Technology
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
Accessibility –
Are children of different age, levels of proficiency, experience, confidence and need able to access our curriculum?
How is the curriculum structured and design so that children of all ages with different needs are able to access it?
How does our curriculum enable all children to experience success and be provided with support and challenge?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
Behaviours – Individual, Group and Community
How does our curriculum influence how the child behaves individually and within small and larger groups?
How does the curriculum support an understanding of what different behaviours are: personal responsibility, group responsibility, community and global responsibility?
How does the curriculum develop not just appropriate behaviour for learning, social behaviour and personal organisation but also an appreciation of how behaviours can impact on groups and communities both within and beyond school?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
Experiences -
What experience do you want the children in your school to have?
What trips, visits and visitors do you want them to be involved in?
What artefacts, materials and resources do you want them to use and experience?
What texts do you want them to have access to?
Which people in the local and global context do you want them to connect with and learn about/from?
How will you make the best use of the school site and local environment to enhance the curriculum experiences?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
Skills -
What do you want the children/young people to be able to do by the time they leave you?
What will they be proficient in?
What does this proficiency look like?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
Thinking -
What attitudes do you want the children to develop?
How does your curriculum enable them to develop and explore these attitudes? E.g. inclusivity, fairness, persistence, bravery, openness, honesty, helpfulness
What do you want our curriculum to encourage children to think about themselves and others: locally, globally plus currently and from history?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
Knowledge -
What do you want children to know, to remember and be able to use and apply in multiple contexts?
In what do you expect fluency and automaticity? Why is fluency and automaticity important within this specific subject knowledge?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
Enduring -
How does our curriculum ensure that content is remembered beyond the initial teaching?
How does our curriculum ensure that children are keen to pursue their learning beyond the point at which you have finished teaching them?
How is learning sustained beyond the primary or secondary phase?
How does our curriculum encourage to remain engaged with learning in each subject?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
People -
Who are the people you want your children to learn about and with? Why? How will your curriculum be staffed?
Who is responsible for curriculum delivery?
Who will the children/young people interact with during their experience of our curriculum? (peers within school, peers from other year groups/schools/settings, specialist coaches, class teachers, specialist teachers) Who will they have been taught by?
Who will our children learn about? Who are the key figures in our curriculum?
Who is within the texts our children will learn as part of our curriculum?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
People -
Who are the people you want your children to learn about and with? Why? How will your curriculum be staffed?
Who is responsible for curriculum delivery?
Who will the children/young people interact with during their experience of our curriculum? (peers within school, peers from other year groups/schools/settings, specialist coaches, class teachers, specialist teachers) Who will they have been taught by?
Who will our children learn about? Who are the key figures in our curriculum?
Who is within the texts our children will learn as part of our curriculum?
How representative is our curriculum of our local community and the wider world?
What do we want our children to know, think and feel as a result of
learning with and about people within our curriculum?
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Define a ‘A BEST KEPT’
curriculum and what children leave with
Technology -
How will children be able to use technology to enhance their learning as part of the curriculum?
How will technology have been used by staff to enhance learning as part of the curriculum?
What equipment and software will children/young people be proficient in using?
How will children know how to use this technology efficiently and safely?
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Additional Resoures
To support the Empathize and Define phase,
click here to access resources via the EduHub
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To access video presentations on all aspects of curriculum rationale, design and development, click here to access video learning via the Learning Library
Curriculum Rationale
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Curriculum Design Process
Curriculum Rationale
Quality Improvement
The Living Curriculum
School Community
What is the Curriculum Rationale?
Curriculum Rationale is mentioned in How Good is Our School 4 (HGIOS4) and schools across Scotland are developing curriculum rationales as documents. However, it is important that we consider what the purpose of the curriculum rationale is. The curriculum rationale is a document which preforms three main functions and is the outcome of a well-considered and developed curriculum design process. An effective curriculum rationale will:
Curriculum Design Process
Curriculum Rationale
Quality Improvement
The Living Curriculum
School Community
School Community
Quality Improvement
The Living Curriculum
Full Curriculum Rationale
Summary Curriculum Rationale
The rationale can be approached as two layers. Some schools make effective use of an infographic summary which summarises the rationale, capturing the key features and making these accessible to a wider audience represented by the school community.
Underneath this is a fuller and more detailed policy document which may be more appropriate for internal use and to support quality improvement. This document should be publicly available alongside the summary but will contain more technical language.
The curriculum rationale should have clear boundaries and should be limited to a ‘high level’ approach to curriculum design. Curriculum planning documents, such as annual curriculum plans and calendars should sit under this document, alongside learning, teaching and assessment policies and positive relationship policies.
School Community
Quality Improvement
The Living Curriculum
Full Curriculum Rationale
Summary Curriculum Rationale
What do we really mean by �a Curriculum Rationale?
Curriculum Rationale
Quality Improvement Tool
Community Communication Tool
Reflection of Our Living Curriculum
Product of Our Curriculum Design Process
To summarise, the curriculum rationale should be the outcome of an effective and well considered curriculum design process and should reflect the school’s rationale for curriculum.
The rationale has three main functions:
What do we really mean by �a Curriculum Rationale?
Curriculum Rationale
Quality Improvement Tool
Community Communication Tool
Reflection of Our Living Curriculum
Product of Our Curriculum Design Process
Looking for more?
Click here to access the Learning Library for short learning videos on Curriculum Rationale, Design and Making.