An online search for advice on curriculum adjustment in the light of disruption to schooling returns many excellent resources. Experts rightly focus on fostering wellbeing and nurturing pupils as they return to their school communities after lockdowns or periods of self-isolation.
Support is available for what is termed a ‘recovery curriculum’ and we are reminded that no student will learn successfully if they are anxious or remain disconnected.
Less advice is available for school leaders and subject leaders on adjustments that may need to be made at whole school or subject level to the delivery of the academic curriculum.
The gaps in understanding that can normally exist between students...will have been exacerbated by the school closures
This article is written to help secondary school leaders and subject leaders navigate the demands of modifying what they are teaching, when and to who, after months of disruption to face-to-face learning time.
When the revised Ofsted inspection framework was published in May 2019 curriculum planning was made the clear focus of school effectiveness: school and subject leaders were left in no doubt that the route to helping a young person learn most effectively was by leaders scrutinising and articulating their curriculum intent, strategically planning its implementation and carefully monitoring its impact.
Back then (a professional lifetime ago!) school leaders and teachers were anxious that meeting Ofsted expectations in readiness for an inspection under the new framework would take time. Ofsted concurred.
In February 2020, Sean Harford acknowledged in an Ofsted blog that ‘a great curriculum does not just appear perfectly formed overnight. It takes a great deal of thought, preparation and work to plan it.’ An extension to the transition period was announced, taking us through to July 2021.
Colleagues who were working hard since May 2019 to craft a purposefully sequenced curriculum now have an added context: they can’t presume that all pupils have had similar learning experiences or exposure to the same learning opportunities over the past two years.
Indeed, a Year 8 student in any secondary school this academic year will not have seen a ‘normal’ school year since they were in Year 5. Those starting their sixth form studies in September hadn’t even started their GCSE courses when they last had an uninterrupted year of learning.
Even if staff have been able to deliver high quality remote learning, the simple fact is that the gaps in understanding that can normally exist between students, even those in the same class, will have been exacerbated.
So what do school and subject leaders now need to consider? Use or adapt the questions below to form an agenda for an SLT, subject leaders or department meeting in your school.
I anticipate that in spite of Ofqual’s decisions regarding proposed changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2022, some Year 11 students and their parents will be requesting they give up certain subjects in favour of ‘concentrating on others’.
If you can foresee such subject swings, or indeed are planning to orchestrate them (I anticipate it will hit modern foreign languages and perhaps other GCSE courses that form part of the core offer in your school such as religious studies), you will need to make timetabled provision for those students no longer sitting in their current timetabled class. Consider how you might redeploy under-scheduled teachers whilst providing staffing which caters for those keen to work on say, extra maths and English.
How about these questions to focus your planning?
