Shining a light on curriculum: How to enhance communication and collaboration between senior and subject leaders to support curriculum development
Written by: Catherine Priggs
8 min read
CATHERINE PRIGGS, ASSISTANT HEADTEACHER, DR CHALLONER’S GRAMMAR SCHOOL, UK
Senior curriculum leadership
Curriculum design and development is not without contention: content selection can be contestable or there may not be consensus on method or pedagogy. Subject leaders, in part, bear this responsibility; they must furnish their teams with subject and pedagogical knowledge appropriate for successful implementation of their curriculum. But subjects exist within the whole school, so it is incumbent upon senior leadership teams (SLTs) to lead on curriculum. Counsell argues that ‘senior curriculum leadership’ – the senior team exercising curricular knowledge in order to better understand the distinctiveness of subjects – is the responsibility of the entire SLT (Counsell, 2018).
To safeguard against genericism, preserve the distinctiveness and respect the sensitivities of subjects, senior leaders must understand what subjects are and what they are not. While whole-school fram
Join us or sign in now to view the rest of this page
You're viewing this site as a guest, which only allows you to view a limited amount of content.
To view this page and get access to all our resources, join the Chartered College of Teaching (it's free for trainee teachers and half price for ECTs) or log in if you're already a member.
- Ashbee R (2021) Curriculum: Theory, Culture and the Subject Specialisms. London: Routledge.
- Burnage M (2023) On the generic vs. the specific. In: In the Name of Rigour. Available at: https://inthenameofrigour.wordpress.com/2023/03/06/on-the-generic-vs-the-specific (accessed 12 October 2023).
- Counsell C (2018) In search of senior curriculum leadership: Introduction – a dangerous absence. In: The dignity of the thing. Available at: https://thedignityofthethingblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/27/in-search-of-senior-curriculum-leadership-introduction-a-dangerous-absence (accessed 8 October 2023).
- Counsell C (2020) Better conversations with subject leaders: How secondary senior leaders can see a curriculum more clearly. In: Sealy C and Bennett T (eds) The Researched Guide to the Curriculum: An Evidence-Informed Guide for Teachers. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational, pp. 95–121.
- Fordham M (2020) What did I mean by ‘the curriculum is the progression model’? In: Clio et cetera. Available at: https://clioetcetera.com/2020/02/08/what-did-i-mean-by-the-curriculum-is-the-progression-model (accessed 08 October 2023).
- Historical Association (HA) (2022) Secondary history: A masterclass for senior leaders. Available at: www.history.org.uk/secondary/categories/402/news/4102/secondary-history-a-masterclass-for-senior-leader (accessed 24 November 2023).
- Mountstevens J (2021) Quality assurance of the curriculum. In: Occam’s Hairdryer. Available at: https://occamshairdryer.wordpress.com/2021/11/28/quality-assuring-the-curriculum (accessed 08 October 2023).
- Mountstevens J and Skelton H (2019) Curriculum development through dialogue: A broad and balanced process. Impact 6. Available at: https://my.chartered.college/impact_article/curriculum-development-through-dialogue-a-broad-and-balanced-process (accessed 11 October 2023).
- Myatt M (2018) Curriculum: Gallimaufry to Coherence. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational.
- Myatt M and Tomsett J (2021) Huh: Curriculum Conversations Between Subject and Senior Leaders. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational Ltd.
- Ofsted (2019) Education inspection framework. Available at: https://feweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Education_inspection_framework.pdf (accessed 24 November 2023).
- Ofsted (2023) Curriculum research reviews. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/curriculum-research-reviews (accessed 08 October 2023).
Subscribe
Please login to comment
0 Comments
Oldest
