Curriculum (all phases)
28 articles
Deliver remote learning
- Digital education platform hub The Department for Education expects all schools to use a digital platform to provide remote education for pupils who cannot be in school due to coronavirus restrictions. To help you meet this expectation, you can apply for DfE-funded support to get set up on a free-to-use platform: G Suite for Education or Office 365 Education. Learn what these platforms can do for you and use our impartial feature comparison to help you make a call, then apply for funded support.
- Feature comparison: Google Workspace for Education and Office 365 Education If you're thinking about switching your digital learning platform, compare Google and Microsoft's key features so you can make an informed decision about which to go for. Remind yourself what your current platform can do, and see if you could use it better when pupils are self-isolating or learning from home.
- G Suite for Education: instructions for pupils, parents and staff Share our factsheets for Google Classroom (part of G Suite for Education) with your pupils, parents and staff, so they can easily get set up and start engaging if they need to self-isolate.
- How 4 primary schools are making excellent use of G Suite for Education or Office 365 Education These schools and trusts are using digital education platforms in different ways to keep pupils and teachers connected and support children to learn at home. See whether one of these approaches would work for you, whether you're new to using these platforms or looking to do more.
- How 4 secondary schools are making excellent use of G Suite for Education or Office 365 Education These schools and trusts are using digital education platforms in different ways to keep pupils and teachers connected and support children to learn at home. See whether one of these approaches would work for you, whether you're new to using these platforms or looking to do more.
- How to deliver live lessons to pupils learning from home and in school Learn from computing lead and teacher, Ben Chaffe, about how his school is approaching live lessons to reduce teaching workload and keep pupils at home engaged. Find out how he incorporates pupils who are learning from home into lessons in school – and get practical tips on how to make this work for your school.
- How to make sure you're prepared for remote learning Make sure you're ready to go online at a moment's notice with our practical advice, checklist of everything you need to do to prepare, and template letters to communicate your plans with key stakeholders.
- How to track the quality of your remote learning: strategies and templates Get a clear picture of the quality of your remote provision across your school for pupils who need to learn from home. Learn how to carry out virtual pupil pursuits and remote lesson observations with our downloadable templates, to make sure your staff are getting the support they need.
- Live lessons and 1-to-1 video calls: template risk assessment Use our risk assessment to help you put measures in place to keep pupils and staff safe during video lessons and 1-to-1 video calls.
- Mythbuster: 7 misconceptions about digital education platforms Wary of moving to a digital education platform? Put your mind at ease with this fact-checker on the common concerns we hear about moving to G Suite for Education and Office 365 Education.
- Office 365 Education: instructions for pupils, parents and staff Share our factsheets for Microsoft Teams (part of Office 365 Education) with your pupils, parents and staff, so they can easily get set up and start engaging.
- Remote and blended learning Use these resources to help you deliver remote learning, should you need to.
- Remote learning: cost-effective ways to source IT equipment Get a list of organisations that can help you access devices for your school, either for free or at a reduced cost.
- Remote learning: how 5 primary schools use formative assessment in live lessons From gamified quizzes to treasure-coin rubrics, see if the approaches these primary schools are using could help you check pupils’ understanding during live lessons.
- Remote learning: how 5 secondary schools use formative assessment in live lessons From free whiteboard tools to simulating a walk around the room, see if the approaches these secondary schools are using could help you check pupils' understanding during live lessons.
- Remote learning: how to keep pupils with EAL on track Find out from The Bell Foundation experts about how to provide high-quality remote learning for pupils with English as an additional language (EAL). Learn how to make remote lessons accessible, keep English conversation skills going and get the most out of free online translation tools.
- Remote learning: how to make the best use of small group sessions Whether they're in lessons or having a break, pupils learning remotely can benefit from small group activities. See how video calls and breakout rooms can give your pupils opportunities to talk, play and work together while they're learning at home.
- Remote learning: how to provide effective feedback Small group sessions, real-time feedback, voice notes, emojis and more – get top tips from 8 schools across the country to help you deliver vibrant and engaging feedback, both during and outside of live lessons.
- Remote learning: how to provide opportunities for peer interaction Social interaction is an important part of going to school for pupils, and it has a host of mental health, motivation and learning benefits for them too. Get ideas for how to make sure your pupils are still able to interact with each other, both in and out of lessons, while many are learning from home.
- Remote learning: how to support parents of pupils with SEND It’s going to be harder for some pupils to access your remote learning without support from their parents. Here are some suggestions for helping these families, while remembering that parents are not teachers.
- Remote learning: loaning IT equipment to pupils and staff Read advice on loaning laptops and tablets to staff and pupils so they can work and learn from home. Download our template loan form to keep track of your equipment, as well as our template loan agreement for staff and pupils.
- Remote learning: monitoring pupil engagement Here's how you can work out whether remote pupils are engaging with the work you're setting so that you can provide additional support if necessary.
- Remote learning: requirements and guidance You’re not legally required to provide remote learning, but you should. Be clear on what this provision should look like, and take stock of what you need to keep on top of, so you can continue to offer high-quality education to your pupils.
- Remote learning: strategies to tackle low engagement Find out what steps you can take to help pupils and their parents/carers overcome barriers to engagement.
- Top tips for making blended learning more manageable From making sure teachers don't have to do 2 lots of lesson planning, to working out how to provide live lessons to pupils at home - blended learning can be tricky to manage. Here are some ideas to help make it a little easier.
- What’s your top tip for getting started with G Suite for Education? Share your tips on getting started with G Suite for Education to help thousands of school leaders across the country.
- What’s your top tip for getting started with Office 365 Education? Share your Office 365 Education top tips here to celebrate what you’ve learned and help thousands of school leaders across the country.
- Why every school should use a digital education platform Stay connected, re-create the vibrancy of your classrooms and give children a sense of normality again by moving to a digital education platform. They're simple to set up and use, and you can uphold your school's quality of education – whatever your learning ambitions.
25 articles
Structuring the curriculum
- Alternative provision: curriculum requirements and examples Alternative provision (AP) settings, including pupil referral units (PRUs), aren't required to follow the National Curriculum, but they do have to provide a good alternative curriculum. Find out what this includes, and see examples of curriculum offers from PRUs and AP academies.
- Anti-racism: how to review and re-frame your curriculum Learn how to make diversity central to your curriculum, not just a bolt on, and make sure BAME history and achievements are taught all year round. Download our review tool and use it to question and adapt what you’re teaching so your curriculum accurately represents Britain's diversity.
- Bloom's Taxonomy: summary and use Get to grips with Bloom's Taxonomy, and see examples from schools on how to apply the principles in lesson planning and teaching.
- Covering LGBTQ+ content in your curriculum Find out how to weave LGBTQ+ content into your curriculum to make it more inclusive and meet the DfE's expectations.
- Cultural capital: how to weave it into your curriculum Find out how to make sure your cultural capital offering reflects your school values and community. See examples of how primary, secondary and special schools are weaving cultural capital into their curriculum and get tips on organising activities.
- Curriculum accessibility for pupils with SEND: checklist To help pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reach their full potential, they first must have equal access to your curriculum. Use our checklist to stay compliant with the Equality Act and SEND regulations.
- Curriculum audit: gender and LGBTQ+ inclusivity Use our curriculum audit to help instil a cross-curricular sense of inclusivity, and question and adapt what you’re teaching so your curriculum represents the diversity seen in modern Britain in terms of gender and sexuality.
- Curriculum maps: templates and examples Understand what curriculum maps are for and how to make sure they are useful. Download and adapt our curriculum map templates to save you the hassle of creating your own, and see examples from other schools.
- Curriculum requirements: academies If you're reviewing or updating your curriculum, find out what you need to cover to stay compliant with requirements and meet DfE expectations.
- Curriculum requirements: maintained schools All maintained schools must follow the National Curriculum. If you're reviewing or updating your curriculum, find out what you need to cover to stay compliant with requirements and meet DfE expectations.
- English genres in the National Curriculum Maintained schools must cover the genres of literature and writing set out in the National Curriculum. Learn what genres you have to teach for reading and writing in Key Stages (KS) 1 to 4, and see examples of curriculum maps from primary, secondary and special schools.
- High-quality teaching to support pupils with SEND Support pupils with SEND through high-quality teaching, also known as quality first teaching, as required in the SEND Code of Practice.
- How to design a curriculum Be clear on how to design an effective curriculum with this guidance on 3 core principles to bear in mind, plus resources and examples to help you improve your curriculum design.
- How to embed sustainability into your curriculum: case study NewCorbridge Middle School is on a journey to embed sustainability throughout its curriculum and promotes a focus on the environment across its school. See how the leaders there did it and find resources to learn how you can make this happen too.
- How to make your curriculum and lessons accessible and inclusive Get advice on how to make your curriculum accessible and inclusive for any pupils who are disabled or neurodivergent. Understand how to make sure all pupils are represented in your teaching materials and displays.
- How to promote British values across your school Get tips on how best to incorporate British values into your school, both through the curriculum and holistically through your wider culture, vision and ethos. Download our list of questions to help you review your current approach.
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How to review curriculum alignment across your trust
There's no single right way to do it. Use our questions and download our audit tool to help you review your trust curriculum alignment, and to decide what approach you'll take in the future.
For Trust Leaders
- How to review your curriculum Use our step-by-step guide to review your curriculum, whatever stage you're at.
- Implementing a knowledge-rich curriculum Understand what a knowledge-rich curriculum is and prepare for common challenges you might face when implementing one. See approaches from 3 schools to help you get started.
- LGBT+ History Month: assembly resources February is LGBT+ History Month. Use these assembly resources to help you talk to your pupils about the experiences of people who are LGBTQ+, and to support your relationships and sex education (RSE) curriculum.
- PE teaching hours: guidance and examples It's up to you how many hours of PE your school teaches each week. Find out how many hours the DfE's healthy schools rating scheme recommends, and take a look at how much PE other schools teach.
- Relationships and sex education (RSE): curriculum audit Use our audit tool to find out which of the RSE requirements you’re meeting already and where there are gaps you need to fill.
- Requests to withdraw a pupil from RE Parents can choose to withdraw their children from religious education (RE) lessons. Find out what you're required to do if this happens, and how this may affect school trips to places of worship.
- Whole-school curriculum audit Use our audit tool to help you look at the big picture when it comes to your curriculum, so you can make sure you’re offering your pupils a broad and balanced education.
- Withdrawing pupils from subjects Find out which subjects parents can withdraw their children from and how these rules apply to maintained schools, academies and independent schools. Plus, get advice on disapplying pupils from the National Curriculum.
7 articles
Subject monitoring
- Classroom provision for pupils with SEND: checklist Use our checklist to determine whether your classrooms are suitable learning environments for pupils with SEND, including dyslexia, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD).
- Evaluate your subject/department: SEF checklist Download and adapt our checklist to evaluate the effectiveness of your subject or department. It's divided into the 2019 Ofsted framework judgements, and is designed to work alongside our curriculum evaluation tools.
- How to do your own subject deep dive Follow our step-by-step guide to help you collaborate with staff to carry out your own subject deep dive, with a view to making improvements to your curriculum.
- Planning scrutiny: template Download and customise our template to help you scrutinise teachers' general and topic-specific plans.
- Pupil-led work scrutinies: guidance and example questions Find out how to make sure your pupil-led work scrutinies are set up for success. Download our example questions to help staff embed pupil voice into the process.
- SMSC audit: template and examples Use our template to audit your spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) provision, and look at examples of completed audits from schools.
- Work scrutiny: how-to and template Follow these steps to make sure your work scrutinies have an impact and lead to improvements in your school.
