We know that curriculum development is an ongoing piece of work. The fact that it never seems to be finished can feel daunting.
It can feel daunting for senior leaders with responsibility for the curriculum and daunting for subject leads and co-ordinators.
I am on a mission to try and turn curriculum development from a burden to something that colleagues really enjoy getting their teeth into!
There are a number of steps to this:
One: to accept that work on the curriculum is never-ending. Instead of fighting it and becoming frustrated, to lean into the fact that it will never be finished. This isn’t easy as we generally like to tie things up, so that we can tick them off. Coming to terms with the fact that it is messy can be liberating.
Two: to draw on some of the research that makes curriculum development easier. For example, the insight that our brains privilege stories is an amazing driver for making the curriculum stronger, more challenging and at the same time more accessible. I am so convinced by the power of stories that I’ve set up The Teachers’ Collection, where we are building a resource that shows how it is possible to link high quality texts to the primary curriculum. There’s a great team working on this, do check it out!
Three: to show how it’s possible to gain an overview of subjects across the key stages in an easy and accessible way. In order to do this, I’ve made available the subject chapters from the Primary and Secondary Huh series, free to access. Anyone getting to grips with a subject or wanting a refresher, will find this an easy and enjoyable way of gleaning great insights.
Four: to create a course which brings all the elements of curriculum design together. I think it’s important to have conversations about the curriculum, to have interesting and stimulating prompts to provoke our professional curiosity. To that end, based on a year’s worth of live sessions, John Tomsett and I have created the self-paced Huh Curriculum Leaders course for people to take in their own time. It’s now open and if you or your colleagues are new to curriculum leadership, or have team members who need support with ideas to deepen their subject knowledge, then do check it out!
Until next time
Mary
PS
The Leadership Lobby is also now open. I’m running this with Andrew Morrish and it’s suitable for new and experienced leaders:
‘Wow there is SO much leadership gold here. Loved the session on leading trustfully and hearing Mary and Andrew discuss the ‘messy middle’ of getting this right.’