Curriculum (primary)
10 articles
Curriculum management (primary)
-
Aligning curricula across your trust: case study (primary)
Learn how Victoria Academies Trust rolled out its challenge-based curriculum across schools to drive Ofsted improvement, and how you can apply this approach to your trust.
For Trust Leaders
- Creative curriculum approaches: primary See examples of how primary schools have developed a creative curriculum, and find out how schools have contextualised their creative curriculum to meet their pupils' needs.
- Curriculum statements (primary) Adapt our model curriculum statement to save you time writing your own, and see examples from other schools.
- Evaluating the primary school classroom: checklist Download and adapt this checklist to help you evaluate the physical space in your classrooms. It can help you identify areas for improvement, such as displays and organisation, to create a positive classroom learning environment.
-
How to collaborate when curriculum delivery isn't aligned across your trust
The Shared Learning Trust has set up many networks and roles to encourage staff in its 3 primary schools to collaborate and share best practice across their autonomous curriculum models. Learn how you can make use of this approach in your trust.
For Trust Leaders
-
How to roll out one school's curriculum across your trust: case study (primary)
Woodland Academy Trust's curriculum focuses on helping pupils understand their local area. The highly aligned curriculum enables teachers to share best practice and cut workload – and gets top marks from parents and children too.
For Trust Leaders
- Lesson planning templates (primary) Use our templates to set out your weekly English and maths lesson plans, and your mid-term plans for foundation subjects. Use our 10 top tips to set your lesson planning up for success.
- Primary curriculum maps: examples Curriculum maps show what your school is teaching and when, and Ofsted might look at them. See examples of whole-school and year group specific maps from a range of primary schools.
- Reading: staff skills and knowledge audit (primary) Share our self-assessment tool with teachers to evaluate their subject knowledge and teaching confidence. Use their reflections to help you fill in our audit tool, where you'll find resources to allow you to address any gaps.
- Teaching mixed-age classes (primary) Find expert advice to help teachers cater to pupils of different ages. See how other schools teach mixed-age classes and how to communicate your approach to families.
16 articles
English (primary)
- 8 ways schools promote reading for pleasure Get everyone on the same page when it comes to a love of reading, and be inspired to create a school-wide book buzz with these strategies, resources and initiatives from schools and organisations.
- Alternative approaches to teaching reading Learn what approaches you can use alongside phonics, and who might need that extra support. Get ideas from a special school that offers a range of methods to help its pupils access the curriculum.
- Alternative to guided reading: whole-class reading Some schools are moving away from 'carousel' reading sessions and implementing whole-class reading. Learn how this approach can work and how to introduce it in your school.
- Grammar: learning objectives (primary) See examples of learning objectives for grammar at Key Stage (KS)1 and KS2 from the National Curriculum, schools and a practitioner.
- Guided reading: lesson observation template Use our observation form to effectively monitor your guided reading provision.
- Guided reading: planning template and guidance Download and customise our planning template to help you organise your guided reading provision effectively. Learn how to structure groups and assess pupils, and see examples of activities to improve comprehension.
- Medium- and long-term English planning: templates and guidance Share our templates with your teachers to help them set out their long- and medium-term English plans. Get to grips with the relationship between the two, and see examples of how other schools have laid theirs out.
- Picking the right reading approach: carousel vs whole-class Know the pros and cons of the carousel and whole-class approaches to reading, so you can decide which method is right for your school.
- Pupil targets: reading and writing (primary) Find out about targets for reading and writing in the National Curriculum. See examples of target-setting from schools and tools to help you set your own targets.
- Reading: how to deliver high-quality teaching Boost pupils' language development by finding out how to engage them in reading, vocabulary learning and verbal interaction, in line with the DfE's 2021 reading framework.
- Reading: how to organise high-quality provision (primary) Equip staff to excel when teaching reading, with top tips from the DfE's 2021 framework. Be clear on your responsibilities and those of your literacy lead, and find out how best to timetable reading.
- Reading: how to select and prepare high-quality teaching resources Find advice from the DfE's 2021 reading framework, to help you make sure your staff have only the best resources at their fingertips for teaching reading.
- Spelling: approaches and schemes (primary) See how schools motivate pupils and engage parents in spelling, including how 1 school creates a buzz with a termly spelling bee. Plus, find examples of spelling schemes for the National Curriculum.
- Structuring the English curriculum: guidance and approaches (primary) Find 4 things to bear in mind when structuring your English curriculum, as well as resources to help you along the way. See how 3 schools have set out their curriculum plans for reading and writing.
- Teaching phonics Understand how to choose an approved phonics programme, and see examples of how schools use them and set out their phonics objectives and policies.
- Work scrutiny: writing (primary) Find out what you need to consider when conducting a work scrutiny for writing. Use our template and questions to help you carry one out.
2 articles
Mathematics (primary)
- Maths vocabulary list (primary) Download our list of maths vocabulary for Key Stage 1 and 2 of the National Curriculum, to help you check your pupils' understanding of new vocabulary introduced in years 1 to 6.
- Medium and long-term maths planning (primary) Find out when to use medium and long-term plans, and see examples and resources for planning your maths curriculum.
7 articles
Subjects and skills (primary)
- Computing: planning and assessment (primary) Learn how to plan and assess computing at the primary level. You will find links to schemes of work, progression grids, assessment resources, and examples from schools.
- KS1 and KS2 swimming: requirements All maintained schools must teach swimming in either Key Stage (KS) 1 or 2. Find out what you need to publish on your website and what to do when a parent wants to withdraw their child.
- Mastery teaching across the curriculum Be clear on what mastery means and see how you can help your teachers teach and assess it across the curriculum.
- Relationships education: resources (primary) Find resources to help you deliver your relationships education curriculum, including lesson plans, activities and schemes of work.
- Skills and knowledge audit: geography (primary) Share our self-assessment tool with your geography teachers to evaluate their subject knowledge and teaching confidence. Use their reflections to help you fill in our audit tool, and find resources to help you address any gaps.
- Skills and knowledge audit: history (primary) Use our self-assessment and audit tools to understand your staff's level of confidence in teaching history, and get some ideas for how to develop their skills further.
- Teaching PSHE in primary school Find examples of resources for primary PSHE, including schemes of work, progression grids, and an example from a school. Understand how to plan your PSHE offer with examples of action plans and advice about timetabling.