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Active Learn (2023a) ‘Combining 2 groups to find the whole’, Power Maths WRM Edition. Available at: https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/app/plans/powermaths2023/unit/1091516#: (Accessed: 13 February 2024).

Active Learn (2023b) ‘Find and make number bonds to 20’, Power Maths WRM Edition. Available at: https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/app/plans/powermaths2023/unit/1101068 (Accessed: 7 February 2024).

Active Learn (2023c) ‘Add and subtract 2 multiples of 10’, Power Maths WRM Edition. Available at: https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/app/plans/powermaths2023/unit/1101086 (Accessed: 7 February 2024).

Active Learn (2023d) ‘Use known number bonds’, Power Maths WRM Edition. Available at: https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/app/plans/powermaths2023/unit/1101106 (Accessed: 10 February 2024).

Active Learn (2023e) ‘Add and subtract 1s, 10s, 100s, 1,000s’, Power Maths WRM Edition. Available at: https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/app/plans/powermaths2023/unit/1101127 (Accessed: 10 February 2024).

Active Learn (2023f) ‘Mental strategies (addition)’, Power Maths WRM Edition. Available at: https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/app/plans/powermaths2023/unit/1101149 (Accessed: 11 February 2024).

Active Learn (2023g) ‘Mental calculations (2)’, Power Maths WRM Edition. Available at: https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/app/plans/powermaths2023/unit/1101172 (Accessed: 13 February 2024).

Ashbee, R. (2021) Curriculum: theory, culture and the subject specialisms. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Bruner, J. S. (1966) Toward a theory of instruction. Cambridge, Mass: Belkapp Press.

Cotton, T. (2021) Understanding and teaching primary mathematics. Oxon: Routledge.

DCSF (2008) Personalised Learning – A Practical Guide. Available at: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/id/eprint/8447/7/00844-2008DOM-EN_Redacted.pdf (Accessed: 2 November 2023).

Department for Education (2015) Special educational needs and disability code of practise 0-25 – Statutory guidance for organisations which work with and support children and young people who have special educational needs or disabilities. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398815/SEND_Code_of_Practice_January_2015.pdf(Accessed: 29 October 2023).

Department for Education (2023)  Early years foundation stage statutory framework for group and school based providers. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65aa5e42ed27ca001327b2c7/EYFS_statutory_framework_for_group_and_school_based_providers.pdf(Accessed: 15 February 2024).

Department for Education (2013) The National Curriculum in England – Key stages 1 and 2 framework document. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/425601/PRIMARY_national_curriculum.pdf

(Accessed: 21 October 2023).

Department for Education (2014) The national curriculum in England – Key Stages 3 and 4 framework document. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5da7291840f0b6598f806433/Secondary_national_curriculum_corrected_PDF.pdf

(Accessed: 28 October 2023).

Devon County Council (n.d.) Devon’s graduated response. Available at: https://www.devon.gov.uk/support-schools-settings/send/devon-graduated-response/ (Accessed: 17 February 2024).

Douell, K., Russel, C., Hales, A. (2019) Mastering Primary History. Bloomsbury Academic.

Historical Association (2022) Historical Association Primary Survey Report 2022. London: Historical Association. Available at: https://www.history.org.uk/primary/categories/709/news/4151/primary-history-survey-report-2022 (Accessed: 29 October 2023).

Hoong, Y. L et al. (2015) Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract: Surveying its origins and charting its future. Association of Mathematics Educators: Singapore. Available at: https://repository.nie.edu.sg/bitstream/10497/18889/1/TME-16-1-1.pdf (Accessed: 18 December 2023).

Kidd, D. (2020) A curriculum of hope: as rich in humanity as in knowledge. London: Crown House Publishing.

Kings Ash Academy (2023) The Shang Dynasty – Midpoint Review. (Accessed: 3 February 2024).

Kings Ash Academy (2021) Whole School Planning Overview. (Accessed: 3 December 2023).

Myatt, M. (2018) The curriculum: Gallimaufry to coherence. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational Ltd.

NCETM (2015b) Calculation Guidance for Primary Schools. Available at: https://www.ncetm.org.uk/media/k20boquz/ncetm-calculation-guidance-october-2015.pdf (Accessed: 17 December 2023).

NCETM (2015a) Teaching for Mastery: Questions, tasks and activities to support assessment. Available at: https://www.ncetm.org.uk/media/dnobtk14/mastery_assessment_yr2.pdf.

(Accessed: 19 December 2023).

NRICH (2019) Low Threshold High Ceiling – an Introduction. Available at: https://nrich.maths.org/10345(Accessed: 11 February).

Ofsted (2023a) Education Inspection Framework. Available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-inspection-framework/education-inspection-framework-for-september-2023 (Accessed: 9 October 2023).

Ofsted (2023b) Getting our bearings: geography subject report. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subject-report-series-geography/getting-our-bearings-geography-subject-report (Accessed: 16 October 2023).

Ofsted (2021) Principles behind Ofsted's research reviews and subject reports. Available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/principles-behind-ofsteds-research-reviews-and-subject-reports/principles-behind-ofsteds-research-reviews-and-subject-reports (Accessed: 3 November 2023).

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The Ofsted (2023c) subject report suggests that there is a lack of historical disciplinary knowledge being taught in primary schools. Russel (2010) is congruent that primary schools are teaching the substantive knowledge but not the historical process or skills that prepare learners for key stage 3. The Historical Association (2022) suggests that teachers are less confident at teaching skills in history compared to teaching the substantive knowledge, which may also explain why there is a lack of skills-based teaching happening in classrooms.

Therefore, I have chosen to focus on the aim, highlighted in blue above, because I think that it is important that children learn the historical disciplinary knowledge not just so that they can successfully progress into KS3, but also so that children learn about the people that came before us and can learn based on their actions (Ashbee, 2021).

want to understand strategies to teach children the historical process, to support them to progress in history.

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The NCETM (2015a, p.6) comments that pupils should develop a ‘sufficient grasp of the mathematics’ so that this learning can be built upon in future years. Without this grasp, children can struggle transitioning into the next stage of the curriculum. I have chosen to focus on fluency in calculations because calculations are the building blocks for many other concepts, which means that it is vital that they are taught with progression in mind effectively.

My placement school used the scheme Power Maths with White Rose, so I will be critiquing lesson plans from that scheme as I was able to observe these lessons being taught.

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This is my interpretation of Hoong, Y. L et al. (2015) CRA approach. In my experience, it can support children to build fluency in their mathematical learning. I will refer to this throughout this column to show how it may be relevant in supporting progression through primary school.

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Department for Education (2023, p.10).
Active Learn (2023a).

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Without becoming fluent in number and lower number bonds, children may struggle to access the concept of calculations. Since some children may be experiencing maths for the first time in a school setting, it is vital that these concepts are sequenced effectively to allow the children to comprehend them and build confidence with them (Cotton, 2021).

Since children enter early years settings at different stages, some children may find using the representational presentation accessible, whereas other children may struggle to access it. To support these children and ensure they still develop fluency in calculations, support such as concrete objects could be vital in building these connections. Without concrete objects, these children may struggle and lack fluency.

Kidd (2020) comments on the importance of a coherent curriculum. This means looking at the next stage that the children will enter and finding strategies to best prepare them for that stage. Ensuring that children develop a secure understanding of the calculations required at early years is vital in preparing children for the KS1 curriculum.

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If children do not develop a secure understanding in the early years, then they may struggle to access or develop fluency in the KS1 concepts as they may lack the building blocks required. In my experience of using this scheme, it can be tricky when a child lacks the prior knowledge, as the lessons move to new concepts every day. For example, if a child did not secure their understanding of number bonds to 5 and some to 10 in the early years, they may struggle to access the year 1 lesson attached and then move on anyway, even though this understanding has not been developed, which can create greater gaps, and is not a mastery approach (NCETM, 2015a, pp.5-6).

These lesson plans can support a low threshold high ceiling approach. This approach means that all children can access the work and all children can be challenged (NRICH, 2019). This could look like using concrete objects to support children who are struggling, for example, using mathlink cubes to support the year 1 lesson. To challenge children, you should keep them all on the same topic but support ‘some to gain greater depth’ (NCETM, 2015a, p.5). This could look like providing them with the challenge (on lesson plan) or asking the children to create further questions for each other.

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The transition from KS1 to KS2 can be tricky because the mathematical concepts become more challenging and often require the prior knowledge from KS1 to be accessible. In my experience, mental maths was a tricky lesson to teach year 6 children because by that stage, the children are at different levels and the gaps are more prominent. To support these children, I provided them with concrete objects (manipulatives) and representational items (times table grid), which seemed to help support them in accessing the lesson and learning.

Furthermore, Cotton (2021) comments that teachers must be careful in removing concrete objects when children are beginning to access the abstract stage. But this contradicts the requirements in KS2, as children are expected to do the calculations mentally for their SATs as they won’t have access to concrete objects to support them, nor the time to work out each arithmetic question using a written method.

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Department for Education (2014, pp.42-43).

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If children leave primary school fluent in the calculation expectations then they will have knowledge of written and mental calculation methods. This understanding may be crucial to meet the expectation highlighted above, as children will have the knowledge of various calculation strategies (written and mental) to purposefully select for particular math problems.

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To understand the quality of education, Ofsted (2021) uses a deep dive strategy that looks at the intent, implementation and impact of a subjects curriculum.

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Meaning of Intent, Implementation and Impact

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Meaning of Intent, Implementation and Impact

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The intent and impact both focus heavily on the purpose of the curriculum being to prepare children for future education and jobs. This aligns with Ashbee’s view that the role of schools is to create informed citizens, prepare children for future specialisms and jobs, and teach knowledge for knowledge’s sake (Ashbee, 2021, p.2).

The implementation focuses more on how to achieve a coherent and ambitious curriculum without creating unnecessary workload on the children or teachers.

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To review geography, I will use Ofsted's deep dive methodology of intent, implementation and impact (Ofsted, 2023). I will use this approach to focus on the effectiveness of assessment and access to the curriculum for learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

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The intent for geography is that children, including those with SEND, are entitled to receive a geography curriculum that enhances their understanding, preparing them to be informed and equipped with geographical knowledge (Scoffham, 2010).

To implement this, it is useful to consider using the graduated approach (attached is a picture of this cycle). This approach essentially assesses what barriers there are to accessing the curriculum, and then focuses on support that may help to overcome any barriers. In my experience, a huge barrier in geography for SEND children is that there can be a lot of reading and writing including heavy terminology that cognitively can be tricky to access.

Once these barriers to learning are highlighted, the teacher can look at what support can be put in place. One strategy that may support children in geography to access the curriculum is implementing a universal design for learning (UDL). A UDL involves presenting key concepts and ideas in multiple ways (Westwood, 2018, p.50). Westwood suggests instead of using books alone, encourage the children to look at films, audio recordings, drawings, debates, interviewing experts to help children establish these connections in the long-term memory.

The impact of completing the graduated approach cycle is that there can be precise adaptations, which Ofsted (2023b) suggests works more effectively than differentiating work, as this can create wider gaps. Furthermore, Scoffham (2010, p.324) suggests that it can be easy to miss the progress made by lower attaining/SEND children because their progress may be less compared to their peers, but progress is still progress even if it is in smaller chunks.

However, Ofsted (2023b) comments that although many schools do adapt well for learners with SEND in geography, some simply differentiate the work which creates the impact of wider gaps in the learning.

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Another intent for geography is to ensure that learners are studying a full and ambitious curriculum; this can be checked by effectively assessing what the children know. Since geography is not examined externally, each school can choose what assessment looks like (Scoffham, 2010).

Attached is an example of a lesson that I observed in year 6 that implemented formative assessment; the lesson was about how and why climate change can increase flooding. At the end of the lesson, the teacher created this mind map with the children to consolidate the learning. It was clear that the children understood the impacts of flooding, but they struggled to recall why or how climate change increased floods. This informed the teacher that he needed to revisit this concept because the children had not fully understood it, this is a benefit of using formative assessment, as the teacher receives immediate feedback (Scoffham, 2010). Ofsted (2023) acknowledges that formative assessment can be more impactful than summative assessment for geography, but they also suggest being wary using formative assessment to know what all children understand, as this relies on children volunteering an answer. For example, the teacher asked children to volunteer their knowledge on floods, but what one child can recall does not reflect what the rest of the child can recall, and vice versa.

The impact of using effective assessment in geography is that the teacher can identify what children understand and what needs to be revisited in future lessons (Ofsted, 2023b), so that the children can progress with their geographical knowledge and go on to use this for future learning or employment.

However, Ofsted (2023b) also commented that formative assessment was only effective in schools that devoted more time to geography. Therefore, if geography is not given much time, like my placement for example where geography was only taught for one hour every other half term, then the positive impact mentioned prior may not be applicable.

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Attached is an example of a history assessment used during my placement in year 6. This aligns with the Ofsted (2023c) history report that suggests that schools are using assessment to check progression by assessing the learning of facts, but they aren't checking that children are understanding the disciplinary knowledge.

Referring back to my placement, this assessment was completed in morning activities and had no impact on the lesson plans for future lessons, it seemed to be a check box of what the children knew with no purpose.

Ofsted (2023c) suggests that to assess effectively, the assessment should be identifying gaps and misconceptions and then adapt future lessons to target these areas. If used effectively, this may ensure that children are at the expectation for their age requirement, and prepared for the next stage.

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Department for Education (2023, pp. 11-15).

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Douell et al (2019, p.178) suggests that in the early years, children are ‘naturally curious’ and that this is a vital time to ‘capitalise’ on historical learning. The aim and early learning goal attached demonstrate how teachers are expected to capitalise this curiosity to encourage children to observe and draw on prior experiences to make sense of the world. This learning seeks to describe, which closely links to Ashbee’s descriptive quest (Ashbee, 2021).

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Attached are some activities that can develop children’s ability to observe and draw on experiences to understand the world around them. Douell et al (2019, p.178) suggests that this table is a starting point as each activity may need to be adapted to fit the curriculum planned for the year.

Focussing on using the resource of ‘teddies, toys, baby toys', the teacher could ask the children questions about who may have played with them and how they are similar or different to the toys now. The children could discuss how technology can be a toy for young children now whereas historically, toys were only soft teddies. This activity can encourage children to describe, make observations, infer, and identify similarities and differences.

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At this stage, children should be secure in creating basic descriptions and observations of sources, if they met the early years expectation. To progress to the KS1 standard, children must begin to learn the process of enquiry - how to explore sources, form judgements, interpret evidence, and pose questions (Russel, 2016). This process links to the interpretative quest that Ashbee (2021) discusses, as children are expected to find meaning based on their own understanding of sources.

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The activity attached requires children to form judgements on sources as to what they believe is relevant (Russel, 2016). This teaches children to begin to be more independent with their research and to form inferences from a source, which means that they are doing the history rather than just being told the history (Russel, 2016, p.39). The content of this task is flexible and could fit with any concept planned. This task hits the aims of KS1 history as children learn the process that historians take to gather information, and that history can be represented in different ways (written records, newspapers, stories, the news, etc). Children are not expected to be secure in this, as they develop these skills in KS2.

It is important that the teacher has good subject knowledge on the concept being taught because if they don’t, the teacher may struggle to ask or answer any questions from the children (Russel, 2016), and for this activity, asking and answering questions is crucial in not creating misconceptions for the children.

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Department for Education (2023, pp.189-190).

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Children should have a basic understanding of how to use sources to gather information about a historical event from KS1. To progress to a KS2 level, children need to become secure in this process and understand why some sources are more valid than others. This involves being critical and understanding that history can be viewed differently by different people based on their context (Russel, 2016). This links to the interpretative quest (Ashbee, 2021) as the child must identify which sources are valid to them, and evidence why they think that.

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Attached is a conversation between a teacher (Britt) and some children in her class after she showed some videos of the Vikings, aiming for them to understand what the Vikings looked like. She played videos with different purposes (movies and educational documentaries) and asked the children to consider why they were presented differently. The conversation shows this realisation for the children that the movie dramatized the Vikings for entertainment, and the next discussion could be about why they might have done that. This process can help children to develop a metacognitive understanding of how to be critical when discussing validity.

However, when using this approach, it is important that the teacher has good subject knowledge to correct any misconceptions that arise, because if they aren’t corrected then this can create gaps in a child’s understanding.

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Without securing an understanding of the historical process discussed, children will struggle to progress into KS3 history as this process becomes more complex and challenging, as the children will be expected to write more detailed accounts.

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Ofsted (2023c) Rich encounters with the past: history subject report. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subject-report-series-history/rich-encounters-with-the-past-history-subject-report (Accessed 24 October 2023).

Ofsted (2024) School Inspection Handbook. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-inspection-handbook-eif/school-inspection-handbook-for-september-2023#evaluating-the-quality-of-education-part-2 (Accessed 26 January 2024).

Russel, C. (2016) Essential Primary History. Croydon: Open University Press.

Stolare, M. (2017) ‘Did the Vikings really have helmets with horns? Sources and narrative content in Sweedish upper primary school history teaching’, Long Marston: Routledge, 45(1), pp. 36-50.

Truscott, A. (2024) Impact of flooding on climate change [photograph].

Turner, E. (2022) Simplicitus: The Interconnected Primary Curriculum & Effective Subject Leadership. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational Ltd.

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Attached is an example of what Kidd (2020, p.45) describes as a ‘plait.’ He suggests that this process encourages teachers to purposefully select content that has explicit links to other subjects and consider what the outcome of the unit will be. Wiliam (2018) comments that planning with an outcome in mind can motivate teachers to keep the learning purposeful and on track. The plait is an overview of how the subjects link.

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The plait can then be developed into thematic planning, like the example attached here. This approach encourages teachers to be specific in their planning and to consider the five pillars – content, creativity, coherence, compassion, and community (Kidd, 2020).

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Attached is an example of what this can look like for long-term planning. The theme is planned in advance for each term, providing time to purposefully select content that you want the children to learn. This is taken from my placement school.

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I created this thematic plan based on my understanding of Kidd’s (2020, pp. 131-179) examples. I chose the theme ‘Health and Wellness’ based on my placement school’s themes. I wove most of the remaining subjects into this planning, whilst considering Kidd’s five pillars (Kidd, 2020). Not all the remaining subjects were included (PE, Music, Design and Technology, Languages, Science) because I could not find a valid link, and as Kidd (2020) comments, learning can lack coherence when the subjects are crammed together to simply cover all subjects.

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Since the learning isn’t categorised by subject headings, the children may not be aware of what they are learning. This can be an advantage because Kidd (2020) suggests that children are more inclined to learn, as they may not realise what subject they are learning. In my experience, I have taught PE lessons under the term ‘dance’ and children have not enjoyed them. But when I changed the name to movement, the children who were reluctant to participate, joined in. This is a similar phenomenon, and the children being unaware of what they were doing was a positive. However, it can be argued that this doesn’t prepare the children for their future, which Ashbee (2021) suggests is the role of schools. If a child in my class had enjoyed the movement session and wanted to pursue that in further education or employment, they may struggle to access this as they could be unaware that what they were doing was dance. To link this to thematic planning, if a child enjoyed the RE elements, for example, but was unsure that this was RE because their subjects were intertwined, they may struggle to comprehend that it was RE that they enjoyed, and perhaps not go on to study RE further.

Another advantage of thematic planning is that it can provide children with experiences, rather than just passively learning the content (Kidd, 2020). When I created my interpretation of Kidd’s planning, I considered the five pillars, hence why in the community section I chose to plan for the children to listen to a speaker. Experiences such as a speaker coming in can be inspiring and memorable. I still remember a Muslim speaker coming in to my primary school to tell us about the persecution and discrimination that her community faced, just because of the religion she believes in. This had an impact on the way I think about religion and was more memorable than if my teacher had simply explained to us about persecution and discrimination. However, on my placement I spoke to the Head who told me that one of the reasons that he moved away from this approach was because of the pressure it put on his staff to plan, as this can be time consuming and feel daunting to find experiences such as these, even though they are beneficial to children.

The biggest critique that my placement Head observed on thematic planning was that the learning was superficial, and that it was difficult to improve this as the subject leads couldn’t observe their subject specifically or look in their subjects’ books, as the lessons were intertwined and difficult to separate.  He referenced the Ofsted (2024) handbook (this is a revised version) that commented on how it is the subject lead’s role to understand their subject and its curriculum within the school. Since the subject lead’s lacked understanding of their subject, this may have affected the overall Ofsted score, as well as impact on coherence and progression within the school.