Curriculum


mindfulness- 10 minutes


Intro - 20 minutes


? did you all do Paul's survey- if not please now asap
? do you all want copy of there is no planet B

-we are doing some beautiful, brilliant, creative, inspiring work here. I believe we grow knowledge well and grow a certain type of learner/ human being here. Feedback from parents/ pupils is testament to the positive learning and positive ethos here.
-by not being too prescriptive / by releasing teachers to teach it their way/ by working to the tune of people like Debra Kidd, we have unleashed plenty of creativity. To grow this into something even more substantial, we need an ever more coherent framework to use as our spring board for creativity- gave ourselves 2 yrs and getting to point where need to pull this tog now. Please take my word for it- this needs now completing with some urgency
The coherence relies as has ever been on the progressive devpt of skills and knowledge in subjects eg drawing techniques in art/ eg fair testing in science- hence our push to prioritise and space critical concepts across a unit
but as D Kidd pointed out we need horizontal and vertical links in the units/ in the knowledge base so pupils build their knowledge effectively- the threads are our means of doing this

-explain thinking(incl connect knowledge but connections not knowledge based eg pupils learning about empire in increasingly complex way-; connections not value based as some doing but based on kind of learner/ young person we are trying to shape) 
-explain how will bind curric- explain hidden vs overt curric- 

threads- (see threads list- hidden vs overt)
-critical we agree....these the threads... and the description we have for learners leaving in yr 6
-critical we buy in and work together on big shapes- curric design for delivering these and focus on them at medium term and short term planning level (see curricuum map of threads so far). They must define many topics we choose to teach throughout the school/ this will mean changing some of the topics we teach/ adapting KO's we have in place

Task- 20 minutes
Work in teams to describe a year child who has fully digested and epitomises these threads - not providing what have so far
teams- 2 threads each- not incl values 

Feedback- 10 minutes- by 3 teams re their thread descriptor

Conclusion-  15 minutes
Some subjects more conducive to threads: my take on where we are at which might be inaccurate
-Art- KT and SB redoing art curric to ensure  threads eg apprec difference - diff cultures
-DT- need to do same as for art
-History and Geography - KO's in place- work with Paul T on green curric// some historygeog topics def still not pressing enough buttons and not fully utilising potential in terms of threads- eg slavery- appreciating difference
-Science- KO's completed- now need adapting cos of huge potential for eco curric
-RE- curric in place but need to highlight/ stress aspects where threads relevant
-English again very established but on this threads table because plenty of opps to deliver threads
-P4C- treating as sep subject or approach - Kate provides plenty of mats and people use well and creatively  but huge scope for delivering on threads perhaps we need to plan more for

Some more stand alone:-
-French - while it is broadly re apprec difference it is going to operate in its own space for the mo
-ICT- good KO's laying down skills unique to ICT and new laptops- cross curric poss but stand alone
-PE same as above
-Music- detailed scheme of KO's by Denise- with cross curric poss but for mo more stand alone
-Maths alone- and established

We are not yet out of the woods in terms of recording
so book look in couple of weeks to decide together what we want to see in terms of recording
please think about this as leaders before this staff meeting and talk to myself or KT re what you think you need - then continue dialogue at the staff meeting

next week will be staff meeting re subject leadership - trying to make the thing ever more user friendly for you- not to lose the energy of leading/working together in teams that we were building pre-covid but also now to pick up some things we used to do to give you the confidence to know your individual subject also.

also Tues afternoons for subject leader time to meet with me and discuss way forward / plan in 

last thought:
I'm writing a book about you/ us - I say you cos you do the thing--  cos its inspiring doing what we do.. what every school does for that matter--- if nothing else to counter the kind of finger pointing smugness that you get from books like the one written by Michaela School. Would be v interested in giving staff time to write their own chapters as part of this- if you were interested.
May come to nothing - but will still have been worthwhile