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Session 1 – What is the purpose of a curriculum?

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Session overview

This session will focus on:

What is the purpose of a curriculum?
How to capitalise on existing resources

Approximate session length: 50 minutes

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What is the purpose of a curriculum?

Listen to Ed Vainker, Executive Head at Reach Academy Feltham, talk about what he thinks the purpose of curriculum is for pupils, teachers and schools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er05UFZgSFA&feature=emb_title

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Choosing the topic of your scheme of work

Before we go any further, the first thing you need to do is to decide what your scheme of work will be about.
It makes sense for you to select a topic you will be teaching this or next academic year, so that you can teach it. This will also give you the added benefit of being able to review and revise your scheme based on how it goes.

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Capitalise on existing resources

When designing your scheme of work, don’t feel that you need to start everything from scratch. You will not be the first teacher (nor the last!) to go through this thinking and planning process, so make the most of building on what others have done before you.

Draw on the expertise of your colleagues and wider professional networks and seek out many of the high-quality resources that exist online. Not only will this reduce your workload, it will also enable you to connect with and learn from your colleagues and the wider teaching profession. Colleagues in your phase – and in your wider professional networks – are likely to have a collection of powerful analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations and practice activities that they can share with you.

However, what to keep in mind is that your decisions about what resources to use should be driven by the needs of the curriculum (i.e. the concepts, knowledge and skills that pupils need to learn). What can be tempting, but should be avoided, is using a resource that you think looks great and distorting your scheme to fit it in. Using resources aligned with the school curriculum (e.g. textbooks or shared resources designed by experienced colleagues) will help you to develop a scheme of work that is coherent and well sequenced.

As you’re no doubt already aware, there is also an abundance of teaching and learning resources available online. This can feel overwhelming, especially as not all these resources are of a high quality. Following the recommendations of experienced colleagues is a good place to start.

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Activity

Watch the video of Emily as she shares how she sought out the expertise of colleagues and existing resources when designing a scheme of work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_BkcdqHEUE&feature=emb_title