The trouble with curriculum support
Can schools prepare for a curriculum that's not yet written?
The success of the curriculum lies in what happens in the classroom
Welsh Government says; “the need to develop a school level curriculum, will call on all practitioners to revisit and refresh their skills.” Many agree that the professional learning of teaching staff and what goes on in the classroom will make or break Curriculum for Wales.
It’s therefore no surprise that some commercial education companies are rushing to provide resources, digital planning tools, workshops and school support that promises to help teachers plan for, manage and implement the new curriculum.
But people have been asking…
“How can companies be offering to help schools implement a curriculum that’s not published yet?”
Educationalists have been worrying that as soon as the draft documents are published, private companies will be lining up to write school’s local curricula for them or providing ‘off-the-shelf’ curriculum packages that provide a script, teaching strategies and a set of resources to ‘solve’ the expectations of Curriculum for Wales.
These views have really made us stop and think… and we’ve been thinking about the way we support the new curriculum for Wales and whether we have been clear enough about how we do it. We’d like to share our thinking with you:
- We believe it is better to be right, than to be first – this means we won’t be scrambling to publish our support the minute the draft curriculum documents are published in April. We will be taking our time to analyse the new documents and the implications carefully in order to make sure we provide the most effective support possible.
- We believe for change to have a real impact it needs to be based on long term, sustainable actions – that’s why our support will be focussed on supporting teachers to become curriculum makers, able to make effective teaching and learning decisions independently for themselves, well into the future.
- We believe in doing what works – so we will be taking the time to link the demands of the curriculum and the needs of the pupils with the most robust research available.
- Above all we believe in keeping things simple – we know what the pressure of teaching is like. No matter how amazing the support is, if it doesn’t consider teacher workload, it won’t work. So, we will be designing support that makes teachers’ lives easier, that saves them time and frees them up to spend more time doing the important stuff, working directly with children.
- Finally, we believe in improving opportunities for the children of Wales – all of our support is measured against the impact it has on children’s progress, because that is, after all, the purpose of education.
If you would like to find out more about what we do or how we could help you create a better education, just drop us a line to enquiries@impact.wales and we’ll do the rest!
A Little More About Us
Who are we? - We are Finola & Jane, Literacy & Numeracy specialists, with 35+ years of teaching, training & leadership experience between us.
What's our experience? - We have both worked for Welsh Government supporting schools & senior leaders across Wales. We have held senior leadership posts, delivered support to strategic education advisers, both hold school governor posts and have published curriculum support guidance with Oxford University Publishing...but if you need to know more visit our website for testimonials from schools we've worked with.
Why should you book our support? - Put simply, because we believe in impact. We do exactly what our name suggests. Our workshop keeps things simple and ensures school actions really work. Our focus is always on delivering measurable impact for pupils
Email: enquiries@impact.wales
Website: www.impact.wales
Location: Caerphilly, UK
Phone: 029 2167 9140
Facebook: facebook.com/impactwales123
Twitter: @ImpactWales