A whole education approach to curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment
This programme supports school leaders to deepen and extend their approach to a whole education.
The Leading a Whole Education at Primary programme is designed to bring together school leaders who are committed to working together to deliver a whole education entitlement for all pupils.
Participants on the programme will deepen and extend their understanding of what and how they can deliver a whole education within their own school through local and national collaboration.
Linked to the new Ofsted framework, school teams choose an impact area to focus on and share their progress with peers at the end of the year.
Our vision is that the wide range of schools involved in the programme establishes a body of evidence that is values-led, evidence-informed and impact-focused, that is useful both within the network and in helping make the case for a whole education at a national level.
Examples of impact studies
Leaders are supported to trial a focus project in school around their own priorities. Previous curriculum leadership impact studies include:
- Planning effective professional development opportunities for staff that include structure, collaborative in-school activities to refine and embed approaches to teaching and learning
- Assessing and tracking children’s skills across non-core subjects
- Creating exciting learning opportunities in and beyond lessons: projects, visits, productions, joint enterprises, community work, use of a range of media, etc
- Developing the use of the local area in curriculum planning
TIMELINE
PROGRAMME ELEMENTS
Self Review
Focusing on Leadership & Culture, Teaching & Learning and Curriculum Development
Consultant
A Whole Education consultant will work with you to identify a priority area for development.
National & Local Events
A national launch with senior leaders from primary schools all over England, followed by regional, face-to-face programme days. The summer celebration of learning will be a national event.
School Visits
Programme days include visits to a wide range of schools to deepen and extend your understanding of how schools in the network are delivering a whole education
Coaching Calls & Webinars
You will be supported virtually on your priority area through coaching calls and webinars on key themes
Impact Project
Ongoing work on an impact project focused on a priority area identified at the start of the programme. This will be shared at the end.
Spotlight:
How one school used WE primary curriculum leadership programme to create an effective curriculum development plan
Who: Mark Hillam and Chloe Fletcher from St Catharine’s C of E Primary School
Key learning: “Effective abandonment was a key takeaway- we removed things we didn’t need to do and replaced them with useful things that would lead us forward”
Inspired by the programme’s focus on abandonment and their own commitment to staff wellbeing, the school looked for ways they could reduce workload to create space and time for staff to deliver a fully rounded curriculum.
They met with staff to get suggestions for ways to reduce workload while maintaining standards.
They revised the Marking Policy as a Feedback Policy to emphasise their priority was working smarter – not harder.
This new policy was co-created with staff so it was implemented quickly and effectively.
With the space that had been created, they then took an existing idea that was working in Reception classes and focused on implementing it effectively across the whole school.
There has been very positive feedback following the changes. The school say “it is a credit to the staff that so much as been achieved in such a short space of time”
