Rethinking Curriculum – Place based and community curriculum in primary schools

‘An effective curriculum is for the children in front of you!’ Join us to discuss how curriculum design should mirror your pupils and community whilst opening the door to experiences beyond your locality, building pupils’ sense of belonging.

We will bring together a group of expert practitioners and researchers to discuss how to use your place, community and opportunities to build a cohesive and exciting curriculum. There will be  an opportunity for discussion and questions for all audience members to learn about the why, how and what next in the implementation of a place based and community focussed curriculum.

It will be particularly valuable to primary teachers, those involved in curriculum design more broadly, and all educators who want to learn about place based curriculum in practice.

This is being shared with you as part of ‘Rethinking Curriculum’, a project aiming to support and equip teachers and school leaders with the knowledge and skills to identify, plan and implement curriculum development work in a sustainable, context specific and impactful approach. 

Rethinking Curriculum Project – chartered.college

About the session

This webinar is part of a series around curriculum enrichment in primary schools as part of the extensive project for the Chartered College, Rethinking Curriculum. This aims to support and equip teachers and school leaders with the knowledge and skills to identify, plan and implement curriculum development work in a sustainable, creative and place based approach. This will mean that all pupils will have access to an expansive, inspiring curriculum that connects them with local communities and enables them to lead healthy, fulfilled lives.

Our webinar series around curriculum enrichment aims to bring experts around curriculum implementation with a variety of foci from youth social action, play, oracy, pupil agency, sustainability and many more. This series will be brought to you over the academic year 2023-24 and will aim to share from experts and allow attendees to discuss and ask questions. You will also have resources from the project pilot made available to you in relation to the webinar topics.

Event attendees will have access not just to the event itself but to supporting materials and resources in order to start discussions in their settings.

The session will be hosted by Jenna Crittenden ( Curriculum Design Lead and part of the Professional Learning and Accreditation team)  from the Chartered College of Teaching, and a panel of presenters; Julia Hancock, Jayne Rochford Smith and Kirsty Cooper who will be sharing why they feel place based representation in the curriculum is so important and also how this can be achieved. There will also be the opportunity for attendees to pose their own questions to our guest panel around their experiences in implementing a place based or community focussed curriculum in primary schools.

Jenna Crittenden is Curriculum Design Lead at the Chartered College of Teaching, leading a national project ‘Rethinking Curriculum’ that aims to support and equip teachers and school leaders with the knowledge and skills to identify, plan and implement curriculum development work in a sustainable, context specific and impactful approach. This will mean that all pupils will have access to an expansive, inspiring curriculum that connects them with local communities and enables them to lead healthy, fulfilled lives. Prior to joining the college Jenna has been a Primary Headteacher, Curriculum Design lead, governor and also acts as a trustee for MTPT.

Jayne Rochford-Smith is a freelance Educational Consultant supporting schools with Primary and Early Years curriculum development and pedagogy. She has recently relocated to Cornwall following over 23 years’ work in primary education. Her most recent post being Headteacher of St Andrew’s Church School – a vibrant school and nursery in Bath that used creativity and place to lead the curriculum choices and development.

Jayne’s specialisms are in Early Years Education, Curriculum Development and Inclusion. Jayne has an arts education background with a Fine Art degree and Postgraduate in Printmaking and continues to have a deep routed love of the visual arts.

Jayne is an advocate for research and group reflection to promote best practice within schools and has worked closely with Arts organisations such as House of Imagination for the last 22 years. Jayne is committed to valuing and celebrating children’s voices to create a culture of honesty and openness in dialogue as a school community. 

Julia Hancock is a specialist in values-led and resilient leadership, a coach, supervisor and consultant, as well as a Visiting Fellow delivering on NPQ specialist leadership routes. SheI also works in ITE as a Lead Mentor, Subject tutor and an academic marker. She has recently worked in curriculum development with Cambridge Assessment International Education. As a former Primary educator,  she has led across a range of roles, including three headships, English specialist leadership, County Assessment leadership and as a network leader for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Associate schools programme. She has led on a range of NPQ programmes and specialised in curriculum development.

She has a key interest in Emotional literacy and intrinsic motivation through active and dialogic approaches in the classroom and has contributed to Ian Gilbert’s THE WORKING CLASS: POVERTY, EDUCATION AND ALTERNATIVE VOICES, considering metacognition in terms of enabling all children, and respect for context and culture as key elements of enabling equality.

Julia is passionate about enabling all learners to achieve and is very interested in the consideration of the concept that embodying identity and purpose in the lived curriculum across the school community is a key priority in enabling learners to thrive. 

Kirsty Cooper– Headteacher Grayrigg Primary School
Bio coming soon!

Emma Littlewood– Belonging Lead
Bio coming soon!

 

Helpful links:

Rethinking Curriculum Project – chartered.college

Meet Julia – Boundless Learning

Boundless Learning – Enabling positive climates for learning