Embracing the Invisible

What matters most in curriculum design

Over the last few years I have heard many criticisms of the curriculum turn. Some see it as a paper exercise, used to appease the Ofsted ‘gods’. Others refer to it as a fad and some have celebrated what they perceived as a turn away from it at DfE and Ofsted level.

However, while there is much that is prescriptive at primary or in subjects like science, or when you look at exam specifications, there is still a lot of space within which we can make our own decisions about what we teach, what we revisit and emphasise, what we link, what we broaden and what we deepen. We have space to consider the sequencing of content and, especially in subjects which are not hierarchical, and those decisions matter. We shouldn’t underestimate it or scrimp on that time.

In those early days of the curriculum focus we were bombarded with visual representations of the curriculum. Tube or road maps which laid out the big picture of the subject. This wasn’t a bad thing, although I personally didn’t find them especially useful. They provided some clarity for pupils and parents and even staff to know something of the journey the curriculum would take them on.

But curriculum is much more than those glossy big pictures or end points. Designing a curriculum is very much about thinking. And thinking hard. It is about considering the story the curriculum will tell your pupils and staff about the subject. It is about breaking down the detail in that story, considering where the repetition lays, how pupils will experience the subject and how you can align the teaching to this story and how assessment will tell you how well this story has been received.

Much of that work doesn’t necessarily translate into a document. It is not a paper exercise and it can’t simply be replaced by AI. Sometimes it takes time to connect with a subject, topic (or a scheme if that is what you are using). The more unfamiliar we are with it, the longer it takes and time should be valued.

To design a curriculum we need to understanding its twists and turns, its loops and repetition, it’s woven threads. it is about knowing how you can bring it off a page with more than just a resource (I always remember Mark Enser talking about ‘It’s not the power point- I am the lesson). Curriculum design is something which empowers those who lead a subject to help their team to breath life into it and those who do it to do it well. It can link a teacher directly to their purpose and inspire passion as they consider what those key elements of the subject are and how they will translate them. It can be motivational and help to improve job satisfaction.

Often this thinking sits with a subject lead or a small team in the first instance, who need to go through that process, before it is widened out. This means again that work can appear invisible to those around them Once those leaders and small groups have the clarity about what they see the curriculum as, then they are in a stronger position to bring in other ways of thinking about that story and what will or will not work with pupils. After that hard thinking they can articulate it and explore it, now it has some concrete basis and perimeters. Not for Ofsted or a leadership team, but for the ones that matter- their teams and their pupils.

So let’s not rush to get to an end point or suggest that thinking hard doesn’t matter. It does and it matters for all.