A whole education approach to curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment
Delivering a high-quality whole education for all is an ongoing and complex challenge.
Our ongoing secondary leadership community supports senior leaders to deepen and extend their knowledge of the principles of a whole education curriculum, and stategies to put into practice.
Our Leading a Whole Education at secondary community combines the structure of a programme with a broad range of opportunities your team can pick and mix based on your school’s context.
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.
Above all it provides an ongoing peer group and ‘space to think’ for the WE leads in your school. We view it as a 3+ year community – a place to share ideas and collaborate on common challenges.
It is informed by the latest learnings from our schools on best practice in leading a whole education across a range of contexts and settings. In particular, it builds on what we are learning from our stand out schools initiative and ongoing research into effective curriculum leadership in a linear world.
Focus areas
Leaders are always encouraged and supported to trial a focus project in their own school around their own priorities.
New for 2019/20 however, we will also provide structure and inputs for 3 key emergent themes that we believe are particularly relevant.
- Words for all
How can we provide and embed rich vocabulary for all, particularly the most disadvantaged, to drive a whole education and narrow the gap? - Quality vocational education
How can vocational pathways be both rigorous and relevant to provide a range of learning experiences to students of all abilities? - A KS3 curriculum for outstanding outcomes at KS4
How can we take a 5 year, joined up view of the curriculum to provide an education that is both rounded and rich, broadening students’ horizons while preparing them for academic success?
TIMELINE
PROGRAMME ELEMENTS
Diagnostic
Diagnostic and support for your school’s whole education provision
Peer review
Visit stand out schools across our national network
Learning days
3 inspirational learning days with additional training available
School visits
Facilitated peer review process to assess impact
National experts
Inputs from inspirational, national experts
Focus area
Focus project or chance to present at national conference
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”
Learn more about the projects and impact studies from our previous secondary curriculum cohorts:
- Improving literacy at Shevington High School
- Top tips for WE curriculum leads from Bolton participants