A knowledge-rich approach to Curriculum for Wales
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Information about the school
Monmouth Comprehensive School (MCS) is an English-medium 11-18 school maintained by Monmouthshire local authority. It serves the town of Monmouth and the rural areas of Cross Ash, Llandogo, Raglan, Trellech and Usk, with around 27% of students travelling from the border counties of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. There are 1,693 pupils on roll, of which 316 are in the sixth form. Around 15% of pupils are eligible for free school meals. Nearly all pupils speak English as their first language and come from a white, British background. Very few pupils are fluent in Welsh.
The percentage of pupils with additional learning needs, requiring at least reasonable adjustments is around 19% of the overall school population, including the specialist resource base (SRB). The proportion of pupils who have a statutory plan of additional learning needs (Statement / EHCP / IDP) is 3.9% (including the SRB).
The senior leadership team (SLT) consists of the headteacher, deputy headteacher and five assistant headteachers.
The school’s vision is summarised in the motto ‘Work Hard, Be Kind’, with its values (success, security, respect, responsibility and independence) and a school culture based on mutual respect between all.
Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
From 2021, the school intensified its engagement with the Curriculum for Wales framework. The SLT was extended, via secondment, to include a role with specific responsibility for the development of curriculum thinking, working closely with the assistant headteacher responsible for pedagogy.
The school defined a curriculum approach and underpinning philosophy through a mixture of: engagement with the framework, research into curriculum design principles, experiences of curriculum development in other schools and reflections upon previous whole-school curriculum modifications. Curriculum development at the school was founded on a ‘knowledge-rich’ approach, drawing on Michael Young’s conception of ‘powerful knowledge’. This was supported by developing a whole-school pedagogical approach that could deliver the principles behind this type of disciplinary curriculum.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
“Improving education is our national mission. Nothing is so essential as universal access to, and acquisition of, the experiences, knowledge and skills that our young people need…”
This opening to the Curriculum for Wales framework had a significant impact on school thinking, correlating with the concept of powerful knowledge as a route to equity. The acquisition of empowering knowledge was also viewed as the route to fulfilling the Four Purposes.
A curriculum mission statement was constructed, part of which reads, “Our approach values a knowledge-rich curriculum, delivered by a pedagogically savvy, expert teaching staff. This aims consistently to provide engaging, effective learning opportunities through teaching that is passionate, precise and purposeful.”
- A knowledge-rich curriculum has received significant interest within education systems around the world. Key components used at the school when constructing its curriculum include:
- The fundamental position of knowledge and its ability to enhance further learning.
- Knowledge in different forms: declarative, procedural, experiential, disciplinary.
- Individual subjects matter. They bring an established body of knowledge, skills and unique tradition. Subjects provide ready-made organisation, providing strong vertical coherence.
- The knowledge to be learnt is specified in detail.
- Curriculum time is limited; knowledge has to carefully selected. This knowledge is important and taught to be remembered, requiring the application of evidence-based research.
- Knowledge is sequenced deliberately and coherently to optimise construction of secure schema (neural networks of learning).
The approach is that of a disciplinary curriculum, with students following a broad and balanced range of subjects. Significant responsibility for curriculum design rests with middle leadership, linked to increased autonomy. This autonomy (e.g. over feedback policies, curriculum decisions, assessment building, action planning) has been nurtured alongside the development of a robust culture of quality assurance.
Professional learning is targeted to enhance thinking around progression and assessment, with emphasis on Principles of Progression and Purpose of Assessment. This embraces the curriculum as the progression model: progression that is planned into the curriculum, not separate from it. A learner successful in the curriculum is making good progress.
The relationship between curriculum and pedagogy is considered in light of evidence-based summaries of effective teaching (e.g. Sutton Trust’s, ‘What Makes Great Teaching?’). Key is the development of pedagogically savvy, expert practitioners – expert both in their subject area and in their ability to apply effective pedagogy.
Providing whole-school teaching strategies and developing the subject-expert teacher occurs through two components of professional learning:
- Carefully selected techniques focus on habits of attention and classroom tone: what the school terms its ‘powerful routines’. Such routines streamline the learning experience – reducing the cognitive burden, engaging learners quickly and ensuring that all participate. This whole-school venture is supported by significant INSET time and new ‘teaching champion’ roles.
- All teachers receive instructional coaching observations conducted by subject leaders. The teacher decides the main focus as a specific element of practice, set within their disciplinary context. The coaching model includes both pre- and post- observation discussion. This precise approach within disciplinary areas aids development of subject-expert teachers.
The implemented curriculum seeks to ensure that staff can be: passionate about what they are teaching by having ownership of their discipline content; precise in their practice supported by on-going professional development; purposeful in their determinations of both content and pedagogy in order to achieve strong student progress.
From rollout, it has been acknowledged that curriculum design, pedagogical development and work on valid assessment will be concurrent. This is not a compromise; it is a perpetual process of iteration and improvement: not a ‘once and done event’ (Journey to 2022). The school’s next steps are to: develop its work on horizontal coherence through cross-curricular links; develop a strong base of professional learning in the design and use of summative assessments; continue its work in supporting the best pedagogy.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
Provision: a range of approaches has been trialled by subject teams. For example, in English a ‘packet’ approach to resources has been developed collaboratively, with each lesson having its own packet. Teachers use this resource to plan how they check for understanding in the context of the needs of their class and to correct misconceptions.
In mathematics, a topic booklet approach has been developed alongside frequent use of visualisers at a standing desk, so that teachers can work on live modelling in partnership with the pupils.
The pedagogical development at the school in recent years has informed curriculum sequencing and planning. Retrieval practice as a conscious exercise rather than a by-product of other tasks is starting to become embedded in curriculum provision.
Other subject areas use different delivery models and methods of recording pupils’ work such as digitally, in exercise books or a hybrid of these; autonomy and accountability for the approach taken rests with subject leaders. There are regular opportunities for colleagues to share good practice.
Learners’ Standards: the introduction of ‘powerful routines’ has had a signficant impact on student progress, for example by ensuring they are engaged in learning from the very start of the lesson. Pedagogical techniques to improve participation ratio and to check for understanding have accelerated student progress. Vocabulary development has been notable, with complex subject-specific language understood and used regularly by pupils. Subject knowledge is becoming embedded, and pupils are better able to make connections between different parts of subject schema due to the careful sequencing of topics.
How have you shared your good practice?
The school is still in the early stages of curriculum implementation: continual iteration and refinement of thinking continues at pace. Sharing of its approach has happened through discussion with partner primary schools, within the regional consortium’s Curriculum Design Group and via National Network Conversations.