From the editor
David Leat, Professor of Curriculum Innovation, Newcastle University, UK Introduction Teachers are curriculum makers. Whatever is mandated in National Curriculum documents or signalled in the Ofsted inspection framework, there is still a long step from the ink on the page to the classroom. However, policy developments over the last 30 plus years have not […]
Curriculum alignment: A reflection of its place in a school curriculum
Ngozi Oguledo, Lead Practitioner, Ortu Gable Hall School, UK What is curriculum? The term ‘curriculum’ has been derived from the Latin word currere, which means to run a course (Pinar, 2012). Considering curriculum in this way suggests that it will consist of an aim, a pathway taken to achieve the aim, and steps to ascertain […]
Rethinking curriculum: Designing for the future
Victoria Cook, Education and Research Project Specialist, Chartered College of Teaching, UK Dominic Wyse, Professor of Early Childhood and Primary Education, UCL Institute of Education, UK Questions concerning curriculum design and implementation have been high on the educational research and policy agenda internationally over the past decade (Manyukhina and Wyse, 2019). Curriculum design must take […]
Curriculum innovation: Investigating the intricacies between the roles and responsibilities of policy makers, teachers and leaders
REBEKAH GEAR, LECTURER IN PRIMARY EDUCATION, NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY, UK REBECCA HURLEY, PRINCIPAL AND CURRICULUM STRATEGIC LEAD, DIVERSE ACADEMIES TRUST, UK PROFESSOR MICK WATERS, EDUCATION ADVISOR AND AUTHOR, UK; PREVIOUS DIRECTOR OF CURRICULUM, QUALIFICATIONS AND CURRICULUM AUTHORITY, UK Curriculum innovation provides the tools to enable the needs of individual school communities to be met, supporting […]
In-school tutoring and classroom practice: An integrated curriculum for whole-school impact
DOUGLAS FAIRFIELD, EDUCATION ADVISER, EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT TRUST, UK LAURA FOX, SENIOR EDUCATION ADVISER, EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT TRUST, UK Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, a decade of progress towards closing the education disadvantage gap in the UK has, for all intents and purposes, been eradicated, with the disparity in progress at Key Stage […]
Getting your ducks in a row: The necessary steps in securing one school’s journey of improvement
JON BISHOP, HEADTEACHER, ROBERT BAKEWELL PRIMARY SCHOOL, UK MARK HIBBERT, DEPUTY HEADTEACHER, ROBERT BAKEWELL PRIMARY SCHOOL, UK KATIE DIXON, PHASE LEADER, ROBERT BAKEWELL PRIMARY SCHOOL, UK Following a research-backed process of school improvement over several years at Robert Bakewell Primary School, we felt it timely to share our approach: our hurdles, challenges and successes. Throughout […]
What does ‘scholarly’ RE look like in the primary classroom? Developing disciplinary ‘ways of knowing’ in a coherent primary religion and worldviews curriculum
KATIE GOOCH, PRIMARY RELIGION AND WORLDVIEWS LEAD, UNITED LEARNING, UK Religious education (RE) as a subject has long existed in a hinterland, outside of the National Curriculum and subject to regional variation through the local Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACREs) and locally agreed syllabus (LAS). Academisation is changing (perhaps challenging) the status quo […]
Developing a whole-school culture of oracy
PAUL BUTLER, TRUST LEAD PRACTITIONER, WASHWOOD HEATH MAT, UK. FORMERLY HEAD OF ENGLISH, NEW COLLEGE LEICESTER, UK Talk plays a vital role in both the academic and pastoral development of students. To ensure that students are ready for the complex, challenging and ever-changing life of the 21st century, they must be equipped with key knowledge […]
Creating a thinking school: Developing pupil agency and collective teacher efficacy
ALAN JOHNSON, ASSISTANT HEAD, TEACHING AND LEARNING, MOUNT KELLY SCHOOL, UK To paraphrase Ken Robinson, we are all looking for ways to raise standards in education; I’ve never heard of anyone saying that they’re trying to lower them… Incremental improvement and evolution rather than revolution are ideologies to which we have been drawn at Mount […]
How might the use of Schemes of Work impact on teacher autonomy?
Annu Pabla and Jack Bryne Stothard, Institute of Education, University of Derby, UK Introduction This article considers and critiques the pedagogical and curricular implications of relying heavily upon schemes of work/schemes of learning (SoW/L) for the profession of teaching, as well as for the learners in our mathematics classrooms. We consider our own experiences and […]
Collaboration for inclusion: When research and practice spark new possibilities
Aimee Durning MBE, Director of Inclusion and Community University of Cambridge Primary School Stephen Kilgour, SEND Advisor and Outreach Teacher at Tapestry Shona Morgan, Outreach Advisor Cherry Gardens School, London Andrea Silvain, Co-Headteacher at School 360 James Biddulph FCCT FRSA, Executive Headteacher University of Cambridge Primary School Introduction Sometimes when we talk about special educational […]
Nurturing epistemic agency through interdisciplinary enquiry
DR CAROLINE THOMAS AND DR LEE HAZELDINE, SENIOR LECTURERS IN EDUCATION, RESEARCHERS IN EPISTEMIC INSIGHT IN INITIAL TEACHER EDUCATION, CANTERBURY CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY, UK The OECD considers the development of epistemic knowledge an imperative for the 21st century (OECD, 2018, 2021). Epistemic knowledge describes what student-teachers and their pupils learn about the methods, processes and […]
Leadership for creative thinking in schools: How current research and innovation is putting creativity back into schools in England
BILL LUCAS, PROFESSOR OF LEARNING, UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER, UK The curricula of both Scotland (Creative Scotland, nd) and Wales (Welsh Government, 2015) actively encourage creative thinking. In England, however, creative thinking is largely absent in the current National Curriculum. Recently, through the Creativity Collaboratives initiated by Arts Council England (Durham University, 2019), and arising from […]
Developing creative thinking
RUTH UNSWORTH AND PETER RAYMOND, SENIOR LECTURERS, YORK ST JOHN UNIVERSITY, UK The ability to think creatively is recognised as a key life skill in our complex, globalised society (Vincent-Lancrin et al., 2019). Yet there is conflict surrounding definitions and uses of creativity in relation to education. Some authors argue that creativity is a skill […]
Teaching for creativity using the five creative habits of mind at primary and secondary
RUTH BROWN, FACULTY LEAD CREATIVE ARTS, DUCHESS’S COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL, UK RYAN LONGSTAFF, DEPUTY HEADTEACHER, CAMBOIS PRIMARY SCHOOL, UK NIA RICHARDS, PROGRAMME MANAGER, CREATIVITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION (PARTNER TO THE NORTH EAST CREATIVITY COLLABORATIVE), UK The North East Creativity Collaborative is one of eight cohorts in Art Council England’s three-year programme, testing practices in teaching […]
The power of stories: Integrating high quality reading to raise achievement
RACHEL WATSON, HEAD OF HISTORY, BISHOP CHALLONER CATHOLIC COLLEGE, UK The power of stories must not be underestimated. Stories are used from an early age to develop children’s vocabulary and understanding of the world around them; so why do we not use stories more often in secondary school lessons? The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF, 2018) […]
A pedagogy of professional noticing and co-inquiry: Embedding drama for oracy across the primary curriculum
LISA STEPHENSON AND RACHEL LOFTHOUSE, CARNEGIE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, LEEDS BECKETT UNIVERSITY, UK Introduction Oral language skills underpin children’s educational success and enhance positive cognitive, social, emotional and life outcomes. However, significant numbers of children struggle to develop competence in speaking and listening, especially children from areas of high economic deprivation (Dobinson and Dockrell, 2021). […]
Designing a Key Stage 3 drama curriculum that is ambitious for all
HOLLY SULLIVAN, HEAD OF CREATIVE AND EXPRESSIVE ARTS, ALICE SMITH SCHOOL, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA Mary Myatt encourages teachers to think of Key Stage 3 as the ‘intellectual powerhouse of the secondary school’, in which ‘students are entitled to a broad and diverse curriculum until the end of it’ (quoted in Amass, 2022). Designing a creative […]
Engaging conceptual development within science through the use of concept cartoons: Harmonising direct instruction and constructivist pedagogy
Scott Buckler and Harriett Moore, Holy Trinity School, Kidderminster, UK Introduction Within science, misconceptions can occur for a range of reasons (e.g. an opinion based on incorrect thinking); however, misconceptions can be resistant to change. The consistency of misconceptions has been specifically noticeable during transition from primary to secondary science (Driver et al., 2014). Consequently, […]
Critical and collaborative problem-solving: An action research project on the development of cognition-centred inquiry for Year 11 senior history
ALISON BEDFORD, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND AND THE GLENNIE SCHOOL, AUSTRALIA Introduction Secondary students are often reluctant to work collaboratively and take shared responsibility for each other’s learning. This project sought to explore approaches that promote collaboration and foster critical thinking through the adoption of a cognition-centred inquiry (CCI) pedagogy, which foregrounds the explicit teaching […]
