Designing a Thematic Curriculum

March 2015

George Faux

Vice Principal

Shireland Collegiate Academy

Context

• Secondary Academy in Sandwell in the West Midlands

• 1286 students and growing

• 60% Pupil Premium

• 89% Ethnic Minority, 62% English as a second language.

• Teaching school

• Judged outstanding in 2006/2010/2013

Literacy for Life is an

integrated, thematic,

competency based

curriculum created for our

Key Stage 3 students.

It is delivered thematically

making up the majority of

students curriculum.

Strong literacy in context

base.

Literacy For Life (L4L)

An Overriding Philosophy

Make students safe and secure.

Give students a positive ethos in their learning – let them feel success.

Teach students the skills they need to be good learners and know what they need to do to improve.

Provide an engaging curriculum.

Get good results.

Fully Integrated

CurriculumEnglish

Mathematics

Science

History

Geography

RE

PD

PE

DT

Art

Dance

Music

Drama

Languages

ICT

14 – 17 Teachers

L4L

Science

PE

DT

Art

Music

6 Teachers

Year 719 hours a week

Year 813 hours a week

Year 99 hours a week

“My daughter has 17 teachers and she does not know if she is coming or going.”

“My daughter is making fantastic progress in lessons.”

“The base has made my son feel really safe and happy”

The one teacher model means staff can really know their students.

This allows for a fantastic degree of differentiation and personalisation.

Three Key Elements

Sin

gle

Teac

her

, Sin

gle

Bas

e • Allows students to be quickly immersed in an ethos.

• Safe and secure with minimal movement.

• Teachers who really know the students and their families.

Co

mp

eten

cy B

ased

Cu

rric

ulu

m • Provides specific information to target students.

• Shows students the full spectrum of their learning.

• Allows assessment to focus on whole child development.

Inte

grat

ed T

hem

es • Engaging for students allowing for in depth learning experiences.

• Learning takes place in context.

• Allows joint planning and differentiation to three levels.

Competency Based Assessment• 10 Literacies

• Around 150 competencies split over three levels.

• Over 30000 competencies entered this year.

• To allow students to know where they are and what they have to do next to improve.

• NC Levels are fine and we cover the national curriculum, this gives us a specific formative approach and covers other areas.

Assessment Model

Ensuring Coverage

• Live Software Demonstration.

• Competency Tracker

Competency Tracker

Themes

Starting Discussion

• Trello

Theme Construction

A Theme

Overview

Lesson Plans

• Group Planning

• Differentiated to

three levels.

Activities

• An audience for

each activity.

• ICT is embedded

Technology At the Heart

• Khan Academy

• My Maths

• Sam Learning

• Gear Up

• Open University Partnership

• Tute

• Big History Project

• Quality One to One Devices• 3D Printing• 3D Design and Modelling• Online Office 365 Connectivity• App Design and Coding• Tablets• Learning Gateway

• Class Sites• Subject Sites• Resource Sites• Tracker• Audio and Visual Feedback• Flipped Learning• Collaborative Technology• ICT Never Taught in Isolation

Online Resources

Technology Supporting the Change in Pedagogy

Supportive Infrastructure

Drive Workshops

Workshops every few weeks

where students “catch up” on

competencies that they need to

master.

Built on students ability to be

reflective learners.

Reinforces the maxim of not just

moving on but really dealing with

students misconceptions.

24 put on at once using teachers

from across KS3 with mixed year

groups.

We collapse our timetable once a week for a day and every half term for a week.

They deliver and reinforce key outputs and allow for more audience and real life learning.

They also allow students to create outputs they are proud of. Encouraging Audiencedand Exploratary Learning

Global Publishing Day

Achievement Weeks/ Focus Days

Child Initiated Learning

• The final piece of our puzzle.

Student Reads

Competency

Student Tests with

attached Resources

Student Mails

Teacher

Teacher Responds

Student is Upgraded on

their Competency

Next Challenge

• From September we will be taking the curriculum into two other schools.

• L4L is a living breathing entity, not something set in stone. Things like the new Mathematics curriculum will see a change in every themes numeracy content.

Thank you