Building a Research-Informed Curriculum and Assessment Model: A Case Study

During 2017-2018, I initiated a whole-school (we're all-through) process of rebuilding a curriculum so that it was centralised and coherent.

I delivered a session talking about the process so far at the ResearchEd National Conference on the 8th September. The intended audience was other senior or middle leaders who might be on, or embarking on, this journey. I hoped to to provide signposts to useful readings, resources and ideas for generating buy-in for what is always going to be a massive (but fun and important) job.

These are the resources.

1. The powerpoint from the ResearchEd Session with the overall project plan.

NB. Many of the speech bubbles are deliberately empty as it was just way too much information otherwise. They indicate the process of HOW I shared with staff and who I referenced etc, but the actual content of the quotes is included in the much more detailed Teacher Away Day powerpoints that are below.

2. I shared the importance of my reading and "virtual staffroom" during the "Research" phase. A bibliography can be found in an older blog post here.

3.I explained that part of the "Engage" process with staff was to "drip feed" mini readings over a period of a couple of months before the major launch. Those extracts can be found here:

1. Memorable Teaching - Peps McCrea

2. Why Educate - Dylan Wiliam

3. Assessment Validity and Reliability

4. Memories are Made of This - Dylan Wiliam

5. Confessions of a Curriculum Leader - Andrew Percival

6. Extract from Memory & Recall Chapter of What does This Look Like in the Classroom - Carl Hendrick & Robin MacPherson.

4. I launched and delivered it through a series of three staggered "Teacher Away Days." For each of these the morning was focused on "input"/training and the afternoon (and subsequent teacher meetings etc) on application. For each of these you can see the powerpoint used for the session itself plus a PDF copy of the "bundle" that teachers had/read during the session.

Teacher Away Day 1: The Rationale and Mapping out the Big Picture

• • Powerpoint + Resource bundle being uploaded soon.

Teacher Away Day 2: Zooming in and specifying Content

• • Powerpoint + Resource bundle being uploaded soon.

Teacher Away Day 3: Assessment Design

• • Powerpoint + Resource bundle being uploaded soon.