Is there a whole school element to curriculum intent?
When we’re considering curriculum intent in our setting there’s an opportunity to consider what pupils ‘might be missing’. And then to see if there are aspects of the curriculum that might address these.
For example, a school might have identified that many pupils are coming to school with low levels of literacy, including speaking and listening.
School 21 takes the view that oracy, the ability to speak well, is one of the biggest indicators of a child’s success later in life.
Schools considering this ‘gap’ might want ensure that high levels of oracy are built into curriculum thinking by drawing on resources such as Voice21.
And if schools have identified that some pupils are not being read to at home (this is never a blame game) they might want to consider the impact of the ‘Just Reading’ research from the University of Sussex where ‘poorer’ readers made significant progress in their reading scores.
It has to be said that it’s a small research project and no research is perfect. However, in my view the findings are too impressive to be ignored, whereever we work in the sector.
On the back of these findings, Emily Vickers, carried out a similar trial in her at her secondary school in Scarborough. She found impressive improvements in reading ages using the ‘Just reading’ approach.
One Year 7 group (high prior attaining) made 6 months progress in their reading, compared to the control group. A lower prior attaining group made 20 months progress on NGRT tests
You can see how Emily and her colleagues implemented the ‘Just Reading’ research in their school in discussion with Steve Willshaw. (free to access)
And from a primary perspective it’s worth taking a look at the exceptional results from Gayle Fletcher and Lauren Haine’s work at Gloucester Road Primary in Cheltenham.
They took the findings from the ‘Just Reading’ research and applied it to their setting and you can see the headlines below. You can see how Gayle and Lauren implemented the work in their school. It’s free to watch, you just need to register
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In the next update, we’ll take a look at what we mean by an ‘ambitious’ curriculum.
Until next time
Mary
And when you’re ready, you might find these helpful for curriculum development in your school
Primary Subject Networks, live and recorded. This week we had Art and Computing
Huh Curriculum Leaders Course – September-October cohort: NOW FULL
Next cohort January - February 2023