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Ord, W., n.d. How do you define ‘progress’ in schools?. Teachwire, [online] Available at: <https://www.teachwire.net/news/how-do-you-define-progress-in-schools> [Accessed 20 February 2022].

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"Is it progress if a cannibal is using a knife and fork?"

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

'Progress' is often seen as education's - perhaps society's - holy grail. It's endlessly demanded of everyone. Understandably so! The idea of learning or developing without progress would be absurd.

However, as Lec's delightful quote implies, the concept of progress needs to be carefully and collectively understood by teachers and pupils alike in order for it to be meaningful.

Progress is a concept, and concepts can be investigated in terms of types and levels.

We're often obsessed with students' levels, or degrees, of progress - but we can be guilty of ignoring the types of progress made.

What kinds of progress might there be in the process of learning? Are we looking at advances in knowledge, understanding, processes, motivation, breadth or depth of topic, skills or social/emotional/cognitive abilities? And how do we adapt our evaluations and assessments to cater for each type and in every subject?

The concept of progress is also value laden. For example, in our education system, progress in some subjects is often valued above others (eg maths versus dance).

Do we perceive and agree with this value system? What kinds of progress are undervalued or ignored in our schools? How can we avoid the pitfalls of merely valuing what is measurable, as opposed to measuring what is really valued?"

4 ways to make it work for you

1. Discuss values
What types of progress do your learners and colleagues value? Explore the concept of progress with them by getting them to list what they see as the various types of progress that are possible in life/learning.

Ask them to rank their lists from least to most important, and discuss the similarities and differences between their responses.

2. Let students judge
Place five posters around the classroom reading: 'more facts'; 'more questions'; 'more perspectives'; 'more ideas'; and 'more confused'.

Halfway through the lesson, or at the end, students stand next to the poster that best describes the type of progress they feel they have made, and write examples and explanations on it.

3. Celebrate confusion
Make it clear to learners that feelings of uncertainty or 'stuckness' are a natural part of learning something new and an integral part of moving forwards in their understanding.

Establish an ethos in your classroom where 'daring to get stuck' or 'stepping into the realm of confusion' is acknowledged as the beginning of learning, not the end of it!

4. Record achievements
We can all easily lose perspective in the face of a difficult experience, disregarding those important little successes that have punctuated our day. Help learners to stay mindful of what they have achieved by getting them into the habit of reviewing and cataloguing them, either throughout the lesson, or at the end.
This article has been adapted from Best of the Best: PROGRESS (Crown House), curated by Isabella Wallace and Leah Kirkman, and featuring some of the most influential voices in education.

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How do you define 'progress' in schools?

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"Is it progress if a cannibal is using a knife and fork?" Stanislaw Jerzy Lec 'Progress' is often seen as education's - perhaps society's - holy grail. It's endlessly demanded of everyone. Understandably so! The idea of learning or developing without progress would be absurd.

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Ord, W., n.d. How do you define ‘progress’ in schools?. Teachwire, [online] Available at: <https://www.teachwire.net/news/how-do-you-define-progress-in-schools> [Accessed 20 February 2022].

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Wallace, I. and Kirkman, L., 2017. Best of the Best: Progress. Crown House Publishing.

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Wallace, I. and Kirkman, L., 2017. Best of the Best: Progress. Crown House Publishing.

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Hampton Primary School, 2019. Foundation Stage - Curriculum Overview Yearly Plan. [online] Hampton Collaborative Trust. Available at: <https://primarysite-prod-

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Hampton Primary School, 2019. Foundation Stage - Curriculum Overview Yearly Plan. [online] Hampton Collaborative Trust. Available at: <https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/hampton-primary-school/UploadedDocument/e2ac01f68a9f4858b71e371279f6b7cd/curriculum-overview-foundation-stage-2019-2020.pdf> [Accessed 20 February 2022].

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2019. Year 1 - Curriculum Overview Yearly Plan. [ebook] Hampton Collaborative Trust, p.3. Available at: <https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/hampto

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2019. Year 1 - Curriculum Overview Yearly Plan. [online] Hampton Collaborative Trust, p.3. Available at: <https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/hampton-primary-school/UploadedDocument/874aaa9de28c46f39ef4b5b0cf653e03/curriculum-overview-year-1-2019-2020.pdf> [Accessed 20 February 2022].

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Hampton.kent.sch.uk. 2019. Curriculum Intent | Hampton Primary School. [online] Available at: <https://www.hampton.kent.sch.uk/curriculum-intent/> [Accessed 21 

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This is the science section, from each year groups curriculum road map, at Hampton Primary. You can easily see how

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The Department for Education, 2022. Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. p.13.

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Early Learning Goal - Understanding the World

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Early Learning Goal - Understanding the World

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Deep dive into whole-school progression map - science

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Deep dive into whole-school progression map - science

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Twinkl.co.uk. n.d. Deep Dive into Science: Whole-School Progression Map. [online] Available at: <https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/deep-dive-into-science-whole-school-progression-map-t-sc-2549859> [Accessed 21 February 2022].

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n.d. An EYFS Practitioners Guide to Early Learning Goals and Profile Assessment. [ebook] Pillowell School, p.1. Available at: <http://www.pillowellschool.co.uk/Class%20Reception/An%20EYFS%20Practitioners%20Guide%20to%20Early%20Learning%20Goals%20and%20Profile%20Assessment.pdf> [Accessed 22 February 2022].

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Randles, J., 2020. 6 benefits of curriculum mapping. [Blog] ISTE, Available at: <https://www.iste.org/explore/Lead-the-way/6-benefits-of-curriculum-mapping> [Accessed 23 February 2022].

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Kim, H., 2018. Learning Progressions: Pathways for 21st century teaching and learning. [Blog] Brookingd, Available at: <https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2018/03/27/learning-progressions-pathways-for-21st-century-teaching-and-learning/> [Accessed 23 February 2022].

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Learning progressions: Pathways for 21st century teaching and learning | Brookings

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Learning progressions are a tool for teachers to understand how transferable skills develop and progress over time.

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Will Ord wrote an article about his take on defining progress in schools. He discusses the idea that we’re often obsessed with students’ levels, or degrees, of progress- but can we guilty of ignoring the types of progress made (Ord, n.d.). The article talks about the types of progress that can be made in learning and how both teachers and students alike must collectively understand the concept of progress for it to be meaningful (Ord, n.d.). Similarly, Wallace and Kirkman discuss the idea that progression isn’t a straightforward path to the end goal. Progression is a concoction of many skills and experiences that are repeated and strengthened over time. Wallace and Kirkman, (2017) state that the idea of linear progress is one that has served to encourage the concept of progress in education as a face towards a fixed finishing line.

In the third box of column 1, there is a curriculum map from the foundation stage of Hampton Primary School. Specifically, it is the section that focuses on the early learning goal, understanding the world. The Early Learning Goals (ELGs) are the goals or targets for children to achieve at the end of their reception year (An EYFS Practitioners Guide to Early Learning Goals and Profile Assessment, n.d.). Each term, the school introduces a new topic, along with a selection of books, that fit the theme,  to use as resources during lessons. Whilst I think the curriculum map covers each aspect of the early learning goal effectively, I do think some changes could be made to ensure that progress in the learning is being made. On the curriculum map, I have annotated some of the changes I have made and why. For example, I would choose some newer and modern books for each topic, as well as keep some of the classics. I find that some of the newer released books have a great representation of children from all ethnicities and backgrounds. More books with up to date information and facts have been released, along with books focusing on todays issues, which children can easily relate to, issues such as climate change (Greta Thunberg).

In the fourth box of column 1, it is the next curriculum map from Hampton Primary School Science, for year 1. Using coloured highlighters, I have labelled which EYFS topic corresponds with the following learning in year 1 Science. By matching the colours of foundation to year 1, you can see which topic they would have been learning about and what area of 5d topic it would be progressing to next I.e foundation – looking at the local environment is equivalent to year 1 – materials and their properties. As done previously, I have annotated the curriculum map to show what changes I would make to help further the children’s learning in science. I have also included some notes about some extra activities you could complete during these terms to help make cross-curricular links, such as, when on a nature walk, use cameras or iPads to take photos of the things you find, thus linking the learning to ICT.

In the firth box of column 1, I have included the science section from the year 2 medium-term planning, from my most recent placement school. The medium-term planning shows a sequence of lesson objectives and plans, which are completed over 5 weeks. Beside each box, I have included my planning for that lesson along with some photos from the children’s material walk and a slide from the PowerPoint I created for the lesson. If you were to look back at the foundation and year 1 curriculum map, you would be able to see a connection between my planning and the children’s progression plan.

In the sixth box of column 1, you will be able to see the full science curriculum map for each year group, starting with foundation and ending in year 6. In comparison to the deep dive of a whole school progression map (see bottom of column 1), you can notice how Hampton primary school have carefully analysed the needs for progression and created a curriculum map for each year group to demonstrate what children will be learning, when and how. Curriculum maps are a vital tool in schools, creating coherence and providing a visual plan for teachers of all year groups. Curriculum maps help align activities with curriculum intent, ensuring precious lesson time isn’t wasted. Curriculum mapping lets educators collect and record curriculum-related data that identifies the core skills and content taught, the processes employed and the assessments used for each subject area and grade level (Randles, 2020)

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The department for Education, 2022. Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. p.11.

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The department for Education, 2022. Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. p.11.

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GOV.UK. 2013. Learning to read through phonics. [online] Available at: <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/learning-to-read-through-phonics-information-for-parents> [Accessed 23 February 2022].

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Coleman, J., 2015. Phonics in KS3. UKEdChat, [online] Available at: <https://talkingteachingtrying.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/using-phonics-with-ks3/> [Accessed 23 February 2022].

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This is a really interesting article about how you can use the work of Ruth Miskin (Read,Write,Inc) to help further KS3’s understanding of literacy. This article suggests taking the structure of a typical Read, Write, Inc lesson and adapting it slightly to better suit the needs of a KS3 student. As someone who has has a fair amount of experience with Ruth Miskins work, I think this is a great way of strengthening the students core knowledge in Literacy, which will have a strong impact on their reading and writing.

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Primary schools seem like another world in comparison to the manic, bustling corridors of an 11 to 18 Academy. I have been fortunate enough over the past few years to visit and work with a number of Primary schools and there are many lessons we can learn as Secondary teachers, especially concerning helping our students with lower levels of literacy. I have a few ideas on how we can use good practice from KS2 with our low ability KS3 students, particularly those working at level 3 and low level 4.

Many primary schools use a programme created by Ruth Miskin called 'Read, Write, Inc' which develops the students understanding of the different sounds in reading and then applies them in texts that test both their reading ability and their understanding of what they have read.

To many parents out there, the working of the Ruth Miskin system and the teaching of phonics is deeply embedded into your brains, however for those who don't know here is a brief rundown:

Essentially there are 42 sounds in the English language and there are 140 ways that these sounds can be spelt. The students look at the sounds in a grid where the different spellings of the same sound are grouped together. They are identified in the system with symbols: . represents a short sound and __ is used for longer sounds. There are assessments that can be applied that identify which sounds students are confident with, and which they are not.

The learning process that the programme applies is that students are given a text which will develop or consolidate their understanding of certain sounds and then there is a sequence to learn, revise and assess this.

The learning sequence is:

1. Reading the sounds that are in the text

2. Reading the green, red and challenge words (Green - can sound out, Red - can't sound out, challenge - complex multi-sound words)

3. Listen to the text being read

4. Discuss the text

5. Read the text

6. Re-read and discuss the questions

7. Re-read with fluency and expression

8. Answer the questions

9. Practice speed words (complex words from the text to consolidate understanding)

In KS3 there are possibilities of adapting this process to ensure that our weak readers are able to make progress.
Possible application of this could be that during intervention sessions students are assessed on their understanding of the different sounds and the different ways that they can be spelt. They can also have the phonics grid in their books.

We could then use the symbols to identify where the different sounds start and end within the words of a text.

Possible learning sequence could be:

1. Students are given a list of green, red and challenge words to read with the sounds identified using symbols ( . __ )

2. Students listen to the text

3. Discuss the text

4. Active Reading - students are given the questions and go through underlining or highlighting section they feel may help them answer the questions. Different sounds identified in the text using symbols

5. Students re-read with fluency and expression

6. Students complete the task

This will initially mean more preparation for lessons with low ability sets, but as we develop our bank of resources this will ease to a degree. As it will be far simpler to identify the sounds using symbols by hand, we could then scan the texts and upload them onto our shared network drives.
This is a re-blog post originally posted by John Coleman, and published with kind permission. The original post can be found here.
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Primary schools seem like another world in comparison to the manic, bustling corridors of an 11 to 18 Academy. I have been fortunate enough over the past few years to visit and work with a number of Primary schools and there are many lessons we can learn as Secondary teachers, especially concerning helping our students with lower levels of literacy.

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The Guardian, 2022. Fixating on phonics will not help young readers. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jan/21/fixating-on-phoni

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Fixating on phonics will not help young readers

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Fixating on phonics will not help young readers

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Thanks for the article from Sally Weale about the teaching of "synthetic phonics" ( Focus on phonics to teach reading is 'failing children', says landmark study, 19 January). At last, some common sense! In my experience as an educational psychologist visiting many primary schools over the course of 20 years, the sudden rigid adherence to synthetic phonics introduced by Michael Gove in 2012 caused more harm than good to children struggling with literacy.

Children were being drilled in phonics before they knew what a word looked like, then judged as "failing" if they could not recall or relate to this decontextualised methodology. Some children would mechanistically "blend" the sounds to form a word yet completely fail to make the connection between this and the natural sound of the word. Furthermore, I met a number of conscientious teachers who saw themselves judged as failing if some children were underperforming in phonics tests.

Phonics were always part of the armoury of a skilled teacher of reading, but there would be so many other approaches at their fingertips in recognition of the fact that children vary in their cognition and in their background experience with books. These skills have been severely suppressed and actively discouraged during the past 10 years, often by headteachers anxious about their Ofsted rating, and only the brave soldiered on following their innate sense of how children acquired literacy skills and a love of reading.
Eleanor Allan
Abberley, Worcestershire

If only those who make momentous decisions in education actually consulted those who teach, life would be so much happier. When this ludicrous emphasis on phonics was propounded by Michael Gove, I was astonished.

Studying the way children learn to read and an emphasis on contextual understanding is crucial. Phonics plays its part, as in learning any language, but the mistaken belief that this is the only way to teach reading can be damaging. An approach to reading where encouragement to understand what's going on in a text and getting the children to think about the words is vital, especially if we wish them to enjoy the experience.

A combination of all approaches is what's needed. Paired reading, where an adult reads alongside the child in a relaxed manner, without judgmental comment, is so valuable. Overriding all of this should be a desire to ensure an enjoyment of reading for its own sake. Reading should never become a chore, but solely learning phonics makes it one.
Catherine Roome
Staplehurst, Kent

Anyone who has ever shared a book with a young child knows that learning to read is like catching an infection. The more fun that can be brought to it, the more likely the reading bug will be caught. A sterile process, such as the synthetic phonics method, was never going to show impressive results. All hail Michael Rosen, who understands this perfectly, and who gave teachers such inspirational material.
Joan Lewis
Saint-Étienne-de-Gourgas, France

Children taught to read before the imposition of systematic synthetic phonics as the sole method for early learners were offered a variety of experiences, always involving some phonics but also word recognition, cueing and other approaches to extracting meaning from meaningful texts. In the light of the evidence, that eclectic approach to early reading clearly needs to be reinstated and the ethos of child-informed education reinforced for young learners.
Prof Colin Richards
Former HM inspector of primary education

My four-year-old granddaughter, who started school last September, made Christmas cards this year for all her family. On the top of each, she wrote: "We wish you were merry Christmas." I think we all understood the message.
Angela Porritt
Shipbourne, Kent

Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

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Fixating on phonics will not help young readers | Letters

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Letters: Readers respond to a landmark study that claims the current emphasis on synthetic phonics is 'failing children'

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Miskin, R., n.d. An Introduction to Read, Write, Inc. [online] Ruth Miskin Training. Available at: <https://rmt-website.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/Programmes/Phonics/Read+it+version.+An+introduction+to+Read+Write+Inc.+Phonics.pdf> [Accessed 23 February 2022].

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The Guardian, 2022. Focus on phonics to teach reading is ‘failing children’, says landmark study. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/education/

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Focus on phonics to teach reading is 'failing children', says landmark study

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Focus on phonics to teach reading is 'failing children', says landmark study

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A landmark study has described the way primary school pupils are taught to read in England as "uninformed and failing children", calling on the government to drop its narrow focus on phonics.

Researchers at UCL's Institute of Education say the current emphasis on synthetic phonics, which teaches children to read by helping them to identify and pronounce sounds which they blend together to make words, is "not underpinned by the latest evidence".

They claim analysis of multiple systematic reviews, experimental trials and data from international assessment tests such as Pisa suggests that teaching reading in England may have been less successful since the adoption of the synthetic phonics approach rather than more.

The UCL researchers are among 250 signatories to a letter which has been sent to education secretary Nadhim Zahawi, calling on the government to allow for a wider range of approaches to teaching reading, which would allow teachers to use their own judgment about which is best for their pupils.

The use of synthetic or blended phonics to teach reading in schools in England has been the subject of ferocious debate since it was backed by former education minister Michael Gove, who introduced a phonics screening check for all children in year one (aged five or six) to check pupil progress.

In synthetic phonics, children begin by pronouncing individual sounds in words and are then encouraged to blend them together to make words. For example "s-t-r-ee-t". Supporters say it has had a positive impact on literacy, and point to significant long-term benefits for disadvantaged pupils.

Critics say phonics training only helps children to do well in phonics tests - they learn how to pronounce words presented to them in a list rather than understand what they read - and does nothing to encourage a love of reading. England's Pisa reading scores are virtually unchanged since 2006.

The report outlines three key approaches to the teaching of reading. As well as the government's preferred approach using systematic synthetic phonics, there is a whole-language approach, where the focus is on real texts, the emphasis is on reading for meaning and any phonics teaching is non-systematic. The third approach is "balanced instruction" which balances the different approaches.

Prof Dominic Wyse, co-author of the UCL study, said: "Teaching children to read and to make sense of texts is crucial to improving their life chances and is one of the most important tasks of primary schools and early-years settings.

"Although there are some strengths to England's current approach to teaching reading, our new research shows that the government's policy is uninformed because it is not underpinned by the latest robust evidence."

Wyse went on: "For the first time in more than 100 years we see that a balanced-instruction approach to the teaching of reading is no longer the norm in England. The majority of teachers are now reporting the more frequent use of the narrower synthetic phonics approach.

"Our view is that the system doesn't give teachers enough flexibility to do what they think is best for their pupils, nor to encourage pupils to enjoy reading."

Co-author Prof Alice Bradbury said research had showed that teachers feel pressured by the compulsory screening check. Results from a survey of 2,200 teachers found synthetic phonics was their main focus for teaching reading.

All but one of the 936 comments from the survey were negative about the screening test, while one teacher described having to "live and breathe phonics" and another appealed for "reflection on the mass of skills involved in reading rather than solely focusing on phonics".

"Policy changes have led to changes in teaching, including more time being spent on phonics, the separation of phonics from other literacy activities, and a reliance on a small number of phonics schemes," said Bradbury. "This is an important shift in how children are taught to read, a shift which is not underpinned by the research evidence."

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the phonics check should be abolished. "When it comes to detailed questions of teaching children to read, ministers should accept that government does not know best. It would be more responsible for them to trust research evidence rather than to follow their own prejudices and instincts."

A Department for Education spokesperson said systematic phonics teaching had been proven the world over to be the most effective method of teaching children to read.

"Since the introduction of the phonics screening check in 2012, the percentage of Year 1 pupils meeting the expected standard in reading has risen from 58% to 82%, with 92% of children achieving this standard by Year 2."

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Focus on phonics to teach reading is 'failing children', says landmark study

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Government urged to drop emphasis on synthetic phonics in English schools as not backed up by latest evidence

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Mackenchnie, C., 2020. Spelling- Year 5 and 6 National Curriculum Objectives. [Blog] Linguistic Phonics Blog, Available at: <https://linguisticphonics.wordpress.com/2020/07/02/spelling-year-5-and-6-national-curriculum-objectives/> [Accessed 24 February 2022].

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Twinkl.co.uk. n.d. National Curriculum for Phonics in KS1. [online] Available at: <https://www.twinkl.co.uk/teaching-wiki/national-curriculum-for-phonics-in-ks1> [Accessed 24 February 2022].

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Progress in phonics from Foundation to KS2

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Progress in phonics from Foundation to KS2

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Research shows that when phonics is taught in a structured way, starting with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex, it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read. It is particularly helpful for 5- to 7-year-old children (Learning to read through phonics, 2013). But phonics is only taught in foundation and year 1. Phonics is used in every aspect of both KS1 and KS2, with evidence showing aspects of phonics is also taught in KS3.

In foundation stage, learning is focused on quickly developing word recognition and spelling, Children spend time developing their ability to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, whilst learning about the relationships between sounds. From my experience, most schools have now transitioned to using Read, Write, Inc by Ruth Miskin, which I find to be incredibly useful. Read Write Inc. Phonics is a DfE-validated systematic synthetic phonics programme with a whole-school approach to teaching early reading and writing, designed to ensure progress for every child, in every primary school (Miskin, n.d.) and is designed for children in EYFS, up to year 2.

Moving into year 1, children will continue with the Read, Write, Inc routine as undergone in the foundation stage, but progressing through the set sounds. In foundation stage, they focus on set 1 sounds and in year 1 they focus on set 2 sounds. By following the same routines throughout year groups, children can easily bridge their learning and build confidence when working with sounds. The children will be re-introduced to sounding out and blending, practising bringing together sounds both mentally and verbally. The children will also graduate to bigger and more difficult spellings such as the or come.

In year 2, the children will continue with their final year of Read, Write, Inc. Phonics will continue throughout the year groups but it will present itself as spelling and reading comprehension, on a bigger scale. By the end of year 2, children should be able to read common exception words by sight and sound out unfamiliar words, using blending to bring it all together. By year 2, children should also be reading daily, if not, every other day. This is to help build on their early reading skills which would have been embedded in foundation.

As children transition into year 3, the focus on phonics becomes less prominent, however still holds a valued place in the English curriculum. Children will focus more on reading comprehension, specifically decoding, fluency and vocabulary skills. In spelling, the children will work to learn the rules of spelling, paying special attention to the rules of adding suffixes. This builds on their previous learning in year 2 of using prefixes and suffixes to form a verb.

Moving into year 4, children continue to apply their ever-growing knowledge to their reading and spelling. In spelling, they will be focusing more on homophones and near homophones. In reading comprehension, the children will be developing into incredibly fluent readings, with the focus now being on building an understanding of areas such as prefixes and suffixes, tricky words and interesting words, as well as, looking into poems and scripts and analysing texts. Reading & comprehension: Age 8–9 (Year 4) | (Oxford Owl, 2022) states that the focus will now be on building comprehension, but it is still important that children use their phonics skills to tackle new words.

As we make the final move into years 5 and 6, children will be using their phonics skills to the fullest. In the last 2 years of KS2, the children will be introduced to code knowledge (alternative spellings and pronunciations) homophones, inflectional affected, derivations, affixed and final stable syllables (Mackenchnie, 2020). Children will focus more on analysing poems, scripts and texts, with the ability to comprehend and discuss the information they are reading and the skills to be able to make comparisons across the books. They will be able to show understanding through intonation, tone and volume, with the ability to share their ideas with confidence.

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A child’s spellings from Read, Write, Inc - Year 2

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A child’s spellings from Read, Write, Inc - Year 2

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Read, Write, Inc Lesson, spellings section - Year 2

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Read, Write, Inc Lesson, spellings section - Year 2

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The department for Education, 2022. Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. p.13.

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Early Learning Goal - Expressive Arts and Design

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Early Learning Goal - Expressive Arts and Design

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The department for Education, 2022. Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. p.13.

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Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. 2022. Art and design programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2. [online] Available at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

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National Curriculum- Art and Design - KS1 and KS2

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National Curriculum- Art and Design - KS1 and KS2

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Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. 2022. Art and design programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2. [online] Available at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239018/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Art_and_design.pdf> [Accessed 1 March 2022].

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The Guardian, 2018. To foster a love of art in children, we must teach it at primary school. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network

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To foster a love of art in children, we must teach it at primary school

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To foster a love of art in children, we must teach it at primary school

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This article from The Guardian has some really interesting opinions about the importance of art in both primary and secondary school. It talks about fostering interest in art from an early age and encouraging creativity when possible. The article suggests that teachers come together to map out a curriculum for the whole school and that creating an art curriculum from scratch can be daunting, but teachers can make use of other topics that are already being taught at school (The Guardian, 2018). Like the article suggests, using cross-curricular links can be a great way to incorporate other learning into lessons when there isn’t much time to do a whole lesson. For example, when learning about shape in math, you can discuss the art of Henri Matisse who often used bold coloured shapes and patterns to create his landscape art.

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It's no secret that arts subjects are increasingly being deprioritised in many schools, and that there's a fall in the number of pupils taking arts subjects at GCSE. Yet the arts matter, not only to individual learning but to the UK as a whole: the creative industries currently contribute £84.1bn a year to the economy.

Enthusiasm for art should really start at primary school - by the time students reach year seven, attitudes about what matters in education will have already been established. The national curriculum for art and design is sparse and leaves a lot open to interpretation, meaning that provision varies greatly between schools. With pressures on pupil progress for reading, writing and maths, it's not uncommon for a whole term to pass without one art lesson.

Most of the primary teachers I've spoken to say they miss teaching art. Even those who don't think of themselves as artistically minded acknowledge that pupils are missing out on a vital part of education and life if art is excluded. So what can primary schools do to offer more opportunities for creativity? There are a number of small improvements that can make all the difference.

Map out a curriculum for the whole school

Most teachers won't have the time to develop a comprehensive art curriculum by themselves. But if school leadership creates time for staff to work together and share ideas, it's possible to create something worthwhile.

Robust art curricula should cover a range of artists, styles, genres, websites, books and galleries. Look to design lessons that build on prior learning, can be connected to a wider context (historical or geographical, for example) and provide opportunities to further develop visual literacy. Teachers can be encouraged to help children to think critically about images by asking open and closed questions, and giving them sentence starters as a way to talk about art. For example, "I like the way the artist has ... " or "In this artwork I can see ... "

Most importantly, make sure the subject matter is broad and includes culturally and ethnically diverse artists. Children need to understand that art is made by all sorts of people, in a variety of ways, and should feel represented by the art and artists they are exposed to.

Link art to other lessons

Creating an art curriculum from scratch can be daunting, but teachers can make use of other topics that are already being taught at school. For example, a history lesson about the second world war would lend itself to learning about artists such as Henry Moore, Goncalo Mabunda or Laura Knight, who have all produced works that can be used to prompt discussions about war.

Links can be made to science and maths lessons, too. Younger children could look at the use of shapes in artworks, such as those by Paul Klee, or learn about the science illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian, one of the first to show the full life cycle of an insect. The internet makes it easy to find artists that link to various topics.

There are many great artworks with fascinating narratives and symbolism. If you can reference art while ensuring that the children are learning an artistic skill or technique and have the chance to express their own ideas, then you're providing a pretty well-rounded art experience.

Try bite-sized classes

Primary art lessons often happen in the classroom with class teachers, rather than a specialist teacher, which makes it easy for other subjects to overrun and for art to be forgotten. For schools that find it difficult to dedicate an hour a week to art, teachers should still aim to include short bursts of creativity in the school day.

Bite-sized classes (anything from 10 to 30 minutes) could include looking at a piece of art and discussing it, practising drawing skills, or free-flow doodling. Such activities are mess free, easy to deliver and better than nothing when the timetable is tight. Of course, this should not completely replace longer art classes - working for a sustained amount of time on creative endeavours is always worthwhile.

Be resourceful

Funding has left many schools struggling for money. Historically, many artists were forced to use alternative materials because of a lack of funds, and this could potentially be a source of inspiration for ways to keep costs low. Artist Abdulasis "Aziz" Osman began painting on cereal boxes, for example, and Jean-Michel Basquiat painted on doors and tyres before he made serious money from art.

Space permitting, have a collection point for cardboard and other junk in class. Cardboard can be chopped up and used as canvas to paint on, as a glue spreader, as sculpting material, or as pallets for mixing paint. Plastic pots make superb water pots and glue containers, and salt dough, which is frequently used in nursery and reception classes, is a great alternative to clay. When learning about cave art, children could even use mud, sticks and leaves to paint with. Ask the children to come up with ideas to make art on a tight budget - just like real artists do.

Emily Gopaul is a primary art specialist and the author of Teaching Primary Art & Design.
Follow us on Twitter via @GuardianTeach, like us on Facebook, and join the Guardian Teacher Network the latest articles direct to your inbox Looking for a teaching job? Or perhaps you need to recruit school staff? Take a look at Guardian Jobs, the education specialist. Topics

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To foster a love of art in children, we must teach it at primary school

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It's no secret that arts subjects are increasingly being deprioritised in many schools, and that there's a fall in the number of pupils taking arts subjects at GCSE. Yet the arts matter, not only to individual learning but to the UK as a whole: the creative industries currently contribute £84.1bn a year to the economy.

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Richardson, J., 2022. The importance of art and creativity in a child’s development. [online] UAL. Available at: <https://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/short-cour

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The importance of art and creativity in a child’s development

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The importance of art and creativity in a child’s development

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Durham Commission on Creativity and Education (2013) concludes that creative opportunities, like those provided by Future Creatives, stimulate young children’s curiosity, creativity, and imagination, and support the development of communications skills. Being creative helps children cope with their feelings and fears, as well as managing their emotional states. Art can be a huge part of children’s lives, giving them the ability to do more that just paint and draw. Creativity is an amazing skill that lends itself to multiple subjects across the curriculum. It’s important that we as teachers, ensure we include art in aspects of what we teach, when we can. When writing, children rely on their creativity to come up with a story that’ll shock and wow, in maths children lean on their creativity to help them invent new and exciting ways to approach a maths problem, in geography they can use their creativity to design and make fictional or non-fictional maps, the possibilities are endless. While you don’t necessarily need to dedicate a time slot each week to art, there is always a way that you can include across your curriculum. Not only is creativity good for well-being, it can also lead to a fulfilling career (Durham Commission on Creativity and Education, 2013)

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Story

Creativity and the arts are being squeezed out of UK schools, a major report has said.

Over the past several years, there's been a trend of schools cutting the arts from the curriculum. We all know art is important for children. But beyond what we feel or believe, the importance of art in children's development is key. Arts and creativity cultivates well-being and help young learners create connections between subjects.

According to a report put together by academics from Durham University, it concludes that creative opportunities, like those provided by Future Creatives, stimulate young children's curiosity, creativity, and imagination, and support the development of communications skills. Being creative helps children cope with their feelings and fears, as well as managing their emotional states.

Not only is creativity good for well-being, it can also lead to a fulfilling career. The UK has always prided itself on our visionary creatives. The creative industries are the fastest growing part of the UK economy, contributing over £100 billion every year. That is greater than automotive, aerospace, life sciences and the oil and gas sectors combined.

Over the last few months our Future Creatives community has grown so much, and we've been excited to see students joining our online workshops from all around the world. Siblings Aris and Danae are based in Athens, Greece and have frequently joined our online classes, tuning into our courses on how to make self-portraits in the style of Aurélia Durand, learning colour theory plus many more!

When we asked the young learners what they had learnt from working with Future Creative, both were keen to communicate how they feel energised by the abundance of skills they have acquired during our bite-sized chunks of creative education with focused objectives:

"I have learnt how to apply a range of painting and drawing methods in a short space of time." - Danae

"I've learnt how much I can do in one hour with the right materials and teacher!" - Aris

The pair reflected on how their experience learning with Future Creatives offers them the opportunity to utilise more "modern techniques" than they had learnt in school or on other art courses. They highlighted how the sessions have afforded them the chance to bring an idea from formation to fruition in one session: "It is really enjoyable to complete a whole project in one go. At school, we never have enough time!"

Their mother, Stephany, expressed how she was happy to see her children "experimenting and thinking creatively" and how "they've both learnt new methods and were excited to see what they could achieve in such a short space of time." Stephany had previously benefited from the enriching environment of UAL whilst taking a course. She signed her children up for a Future Creatives class to enable them to encounter a wide range of art and design techniques to see if they would be interested in pursuing a career in the arts themselves.

Both the young learners have plenty of ambition. Aris aspires to "be living in Paris, painting and playing football", which seems to be the influence of his self-portrait inspired by Aurelia Durand (pictured). Danae would like to "combine art with photography and video making" to pursue a career in advertising and promotion.'

The two young artists source their inspiration from their local art scene alongside the canon of painting, ancient historical artefacts and contemporary international artists. Aris described how he would have loved to have met Van Gogh to learn how he developed his "amazing drawing style" as well as his appreciation for the "simple forms" of the Keros figurines in Cycladic Art. Aris would "would like to see more public art in Athens". Danae shares Aris' interest in public art, telling of "a large wall at the centre of Athens with a huge graffiti piece created by a group of street artists" that she is particularly fond of. For Danae, being an artist means having the "need to create something", this is a quality that she recognises in Banksy. If she ever met the enigmatic street artist, she would ask him "how he always has the motivation to paint."

We are so pleased to hear that Aris and Danae have been getting so much from the online courses they've been attending and that they're still hungry to learn more creative skills to help them realise their creative ambitions and find new sources of inspiration and motivation through the wide range of courses on offer from Future Creatives.

Is your child interested in pursuing a career in the arts? Perhaps they're looking to reach that next grade at A Level/GCSE, or, maybe they want to try something new and develop their art and design skills in the evenings? It's never too early to start.

Check out our latest courses taught by a fantastic range of tutors with bags of experience in the creative industries.

If you want to meet our tutors, why not have a read of tutor feature with Lydia Brockless! Lydia shares insights about her own methods of making art and offers advice to aspiring young artists and designers.

Related courses

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The importance of art and creativity in a child's development

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Over the last few months our Future Creatives community has grown so much, and we've been excited to see students joining our online workshops from all around the world. Siblings Aris and Danae are based in Athens, Greece and have frequently joined our online classes, tuning into our courses on how to make self-portraits in the style of Aurélia Durand, learning colour theory plus many more!

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Richardson, J., 2022. The importance of art and creativity in a child’s development. [online] UAL. Available at: <https://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/short-courses/stories/the-importance-of-art-and-creativity-in-a-childs-development> [Accessed 1 March 2022].

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Art in EYFS - Lesson ideas that link to the early learning goals

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Art in EYFS - Lesson ideas that link to the early learning goals

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Here I have come up with a sequence of lessons that can be completed over the course of a term. I have chosen the topic nature, as it is a very broad topic that can be used in a variety of lessons across the curriculum, such as science (plants and animals, including humans). Next to this, I have included the early learning goal concepts on the right, which I have highlighted, then I have marked the corresponding colour to the lesson objective that I think it meets. As you can see you can include multiple concepts in one objective which can really help motivate children to be creative.

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Curriculum Skills and Progression Map - Early Years - Art

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Curriculum Skills and Progression Map - Early Years - Art

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I think this school has a really in depth curriculum map for art. They’ve included all the main areas of art, linking back to the early learning goal, they’ve included a section about how they can evaluate the children and they have a section for greater depth. It interesting to see a breakdown a thorough break down for each section as it helps the teacher see clearly, what steps they should be taking to ensure positive progress in Art. They have been sure to include some teaching techniques and questions to ensure that all areas of the early learning goal are covered.

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Korbey, H., 2021. How arts practices can be the foundation of teaching and learning. [Blog] Mind Shift, Available at: <https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58668/how-

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How arts practices can be the foundation of teaching and learning

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How arts practices can be the foundation of teaching and learning

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Halverson (2021) argues not only do the arts belong in schools, but the core tenets of arts learning belong in every classroom. Education should use the arts—and especially the process of how artists create their work—as a blueprint to re-make more effective learning. Art-making is an act of representation. And the ability to create an effective representation is actually the single most important skill for all classroom learning (Korbey, 2021).

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And it got me thinking about, why did you want to write this book? What were the challenges that you were seeing in education that you wanted to address?
Erica: This goes back to the advent of the accountability system in the late '90s and early 2000s, where for very good reasons that have to do with issues of equity and inclusion, policy makers focused on metrics of success such as test scores on fixed, normed reading and math tests, and measurable outcomes like attendance metrics, as the primary way that we as a society could understand whether we were serving all of our kids.

I think that approach was fundamentally misguided-because it eliminated all of those inspiring and arts-based practices that you described that were hallmarks of our childhood teaching and learning experiences. Because all of a sudden, if what counts as good learning looks like performance on a reading test, then all of our educational efforts get laser-focused in service of performing well on those metrics.

My experience both as an artist and an arts educator, is that the outcomes of arts practice are themselves the measure of learning. Making art of any kind is an act of representation , taking an idea and giving it a form for other people to respond to. That form is anything from a painting, a song, a Tik Tok video, you name it. Art-making is an act of representation. And the ability to create an effective representation is actually the single most important skill for all classroom learning.

The challenge is, when we fix the outcome of representation as performance on an exam, then we've eliminated all the choices for moving around the representational process. Because we're not really asking the fundamental questions that make learning compelling, like, What's the idea you have? How do these tools allow you to represent that idea? And how do audiences respond to your representation as a good version of that idea? And that's true from writing expository essays to using math equations to represent how to communicate a mathematical practice, to a complicated science experiment.

That's a long way of saying: I think we went off the rails when we let the outcome measures of standardized learning drive the design bus.

Erica: It is remaking our systems of teaching and learning by using arts practices as the foundation for what good teaching looks like, for what good learning can be, and how our learning environments can function.

Here's an example: in the chapter where I talk about remaking curriculum, I describe how the process of art-making is fundamentally the cycle of coming up with an idea, creating representations and then sharing those with an audience. The strong argument I'm making is that cycle, that process is the model for how all learning experiences are designed, regardless of the discipline that you're in. The foundation of the learning process ought to be coming up with the idea that is the subject of your inquiry, and developing tools for representation that are germane to that discipline. Every discipline has its own tools for representation. I don't think music ought to be used necessarily for representing math, though there is a place for that.

What I'm saying is, what are the tools for representation in mathematics? And how do those tools afford you to represent the idea or concept, and then what happens when you share those representations with an audience? What kind of feedback do you get? Does that give you an opportunity to help you think about the connection between the idea that you had and the representation that you've chosen? Does it teach something about that idea that they didn't already know? Either way, how should we understand what you get out of that process beyond simply knowing the facts of a particular discipline or domain.

Many of us grow up with artistic superpowers, artistic ways of knowing and doing. You don't have to be a tuba player! These artistic superpowers could serve us productively in our inquiries into other disciplines. And that's another way of saying, it's not that we all need to learn the tuba, right? It's the way of engaging in arts practice, which pretty much we all do whether you're a cook, or you make clothes for your family, or the myriad ways we express ourselves. In education we do everyone a disservice by not acknowledging that we should be drawing on those ways of knowing and doing as an integral part of how we learn to do stuff.
What I worry about is that students have to have the basic facts first in order to enjoy this kind of learning-what you're talking about here is a lot like project-based learning-and what we're missing, especially most often for the most vulnerable children, is that they don't have the basics to work with.
Erica: I think two things. There is a place for drill and practice as a tool for acquiring information. And the arts certainly do our versions of drill and practice-if you want to become a trained singer, you spend 20 minutes a day warming up your voice, to set the conditions for being able to sing. So I'm not arguing that there is not a time and place to use those tools. I think what we miss when we say you need to start with the basics, is that cognitively if students are not ready to use those tools to make something they care about, none of it is going to stick.

Here's an arts-based example: Video editing is an extremely technical and trying process, with many sets of technical tools, informational processes, etc. If you have no need for audio level adjustment, memorizing where and how audio level adjustment works is a bit of an act of futility. But, once you need to adjust the audio levels of an interview you've done-that info and knowledge, whatever you want to call it, is much more likely to become part of what you know and do if you use it than if you are in a video editing class and it was the week to learn about audio level adjustment.

The same goes for multiplication tables. We need to drill and practice in order to make that part of your memory, of course, in the same way that a video editor needs to adjust audio levels 40 times, so when it comes to being able to do that seamlessly they can do that with no problem. However, if the impetus of that drill isn't grounded in some practice of conceiving, representing and sharing, it's going to be much harder to motivate, much harder to sustain, and it's going to be harder to convince young people that it matters for them.
Holly: It makes me think of Jal Mehta's and Sarah Fine's book "In Search of Deeper Learning ." Some kids seem to gravitate towards this kind of project-based learning. In the book, they talk about how it's often the after-school activities that kids get so deep into-sports, the arts, marching band-because of exactly what you're saying.
Erica: Yeah, of course, you're going to find that in your 'after-school' time, because those practices are part of what it means to make things. And where are we mostly making things? We are mostly making things now outside of school time. There are often critiques of those after-school learning spaces, "But you're only talking about the kids who opt in." And my response has been, "That's because we don't give all kids the opportunity to do these things. We treat them as if they're special. What if there was an all-in system, because this is how we do teaching and learning at scale?"

Erica: Yes, and I think an even stronger claim is to stop equating school performance with smartness. The problem is not with the kids, the problem is with the way we've set up what these learning experiences are for. What you said-well that person isn't good at math. I would say, are they not good at math? Or, is the way that school math was designed not reflective of what it means to be smart in math?

And like, you may not like math class, but what I would hope for, is that we give more kids more chances to be smart, and enjoy more school-based disciplines, when we use these arts-based strategies to engage.

Erica: I think the number one thing that I learned is that good teaching and learning is built on a foundation of risk-taking. That is, learners' willingness to take a risk, and teachers' willingness to take a risk. Risk-taking means everything from a willingness to try out an answer and be wrong, to a willingness to take leadership, cognitive leadership or project leadership. There are a lot of ways that it looks. But my mantra is: we can't teach or learn anything unless we are willing to take a risk.

And a thing that I've learned from formal learning systems of all kinds, from tutoring to college classes to K-12 school: we don't scaffold risk-taking as a normal part of the way we design learning environments. Like, "getting to know you" games have a really bad reputation, and I think the reason is we've lost sight of what they're for. What they're for is to set the conditions for people to be able to take risks together, to learn and do new stuff.

There are many classroom teachers who do that as a natural part of their practice. When we go in with Whoopensocker, you can tell right away the classrooms that are set up to do that kind of risk-taking.

We always start with warm-up games for everyone. In classroom spaces that are not scaffolded for risk-taking, sometimes that is as far as we get in the first few weeks, just getting learners and teachers to do a call and response game altogether, which is its own form of risk. In classrooms that are set up for risk-taking, they are ready from the jump to contribute new ideas and let those ideas be a dialogue.

What I have learned from being an arts educator for 25 years in elementary school classrooms, is that scaffolding risk-taking is the single most important feature of an effective learning environment.

Erica: We can't afford for there not to be room. The kids who are consistently left out of the system, and this has not changed one iota since No Child Left Behind, are still being left out. Accountability systems have not created universally more successful schooling or equitable schooling.

So I would argue that we need to ditch the content-forward, content-pressured model of schooling, in service of scaffolding risk-taking as the mechanism into much deeper and more meaningful understanding of concepts and information and how they're represented in a discipline. I know as an individual classroom teacher, that's not a super-helpful comment, because that's a system-level response.

This only happens if we all collectively acknowledge that sticking things in the margins is not the way to systemic change. When you clean out your closet, how often are you shoving tee shirts into a drawer before you finally say, this drawer can't hold any more tee shirts? And you dump the whole drawer out?

The model of, "how do we shove more pieces into an already packed agenda?" is never going to get us anywhere.

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How arts practices can be the foundation of teaching and learning - MindShift

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Applying the creative and iterative processes of art can be applied to more academic subjects to make learning feel more relevant to students.

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2013. Durham Commission on Creativity and Education. [online] Available at: <https://docreader.reciteme.com/doc/view/id/621fc9aaac779> [Accessed 1 March 2022].

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Horsfordprimaryschool.co.uk. 2021. Curriculum Skills and Progression Map Art and Design. [online] Available at: <http://www.horsfordprimaryschool.co.uk/assets/U

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Korbey, H., 2021. How arts practices can be the foundation of teaching and learning. [Blog] Mind Shift, Available at: <https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58668/how-arts-practices-can-be-the-foundation-of-teaching-and-learning> [Accessed 1 March 2022].

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Halverson, E., 2021. How the arts can save education. Teachers College Press.

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Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. 2022. Geography programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2. [online] Available at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/gove

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Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. 2022. Geography programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2. [online] Available at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239044/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Geography.pdf> [Accessed 1 March 2022].

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Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. 2022. Geography programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2. [online] Available at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/gove

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Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. 2022. Languages programmes of study: key stage 2. [online] Available at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239042/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Languages.pdf> [Accessed 1 March 2022].

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Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. 2022. Music programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2. [online] Available at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governme

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Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. 2022. Music programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2. [online] Available at: <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239037/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Music.pdf> [Accessed 1 March 2022].

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I made my own cross-curricular planning that would focus on the topic Europe, looking into the languages, geography and music. Typically this would be in a KS1/KS2 topic, but I wanted to show what it could look like in EYFS if you wanted to incorporate something new into the curriculum that could provide a sort of pre-teach for the later year groups.

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This is another cross-curricular plan I have created, this time for KS2. I have used the same topic as my choice for EYFS to show the differences and similarities in teaching topics. Given the right topic, you can create a cross-curricular plan for any year group and edit the learning objectives to best suit the age group. By repeating topic use in EYFS, KS1 and KS2 you can build on prior learning and further current knowledge.

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Cross-curricular planning - Year 3 - Epic Egyptians

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Cross-curricular planning - Year 3 - Epic Egyptians

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This is a year 3 cross-curricular plan for Egyptians. The plan is set out neatly with clear cross-curricular links to a wide range of subjects including Maths and English. The topics chosen for each subject mostly fit, however their are a few things I would change, such as, the music choice. Although it’s stated that one of the songs is linked to something else it would be beneficial to choose music that is suitable to the theme, avoiding any confusion during the learning. I would try find a more suitable lesson for computing such as designing a poster linked to ancient Egypt, or designing their own plan for an Egyptian building using planning software. In P.E, you could come up with your own Egypt themed games and activities.

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studylib.net. 2015. Cross Curricular Planning - Terms 1 & 2. [online] Available at: <https://studylib.net/doc/6964519/cross-curricular-planning---terms-1-and-2> [Accessed 1 March 2022].

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Lynch, M., 2019. PROS AND CONS OF CROSS-CURRICULAR TEACHING. [Blog] The Edvocate, Available at: <https://www.theedadvocate.org/pros-and-cons-of-cross-curricular

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Pros and cons of cross-curricular teaching 

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Pros and cons of cross-curricular teaching 

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Pros and Cons of Cross-Curricular Teaching

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Spread the loveCross-Curricular teaching is the essence of collaboration for students' learning-a fundamental way to teach concepts in the context of multiple subjects at once. It requires the math teacher to align with the literature teacher, who aligns with the art teacher. Cross-Curricular teaching is a fresh perspective for teaching and for learning.

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Fulton, J., 2019. How to make cross-curricular teaching part of your plan. [Blog] Classcraft, Available at: <https://www.classcraft.com/blog/how-to-make-cross-c

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How to make cross-curricular teaching part of your plan 

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How to make cross-curricular teaching part of your plan 

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How to make cross-curricular teaching part of your plan - Classcraft Blog

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Cross-curricular teaching helps students make more connections and gives more meaning and relevance to the subjects and skills they are learning.

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History.org.uk. n.d. Cross-curricular learning / Leading Primary History / Historical Association. [online] Available at: <https://www.history.org.uk/primary/mo

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Cross-curricular work offers a creative way to develop children's knowledge, skills and understanding while motivating them to learn through stimulating, interconnected topics. A study which crosses subject boundaries allows for investigations that engage children's imagination. It also gives teachers opportunities to encourage active enquiry, taking the initiative, and discussion and debate by children.

As history is above all the study of the human condition, it provides us with endless opportunities for fostering children's personal development.

In all cross-curricular topics, the history provides an ideal context for extending children's literacy, in speaking and listening, reading and writing. See History and Literacy.

Curriculum breadth and balance. This is considered at the long-term planning stage. Long-term plans exist to ensure that pupils receive their entitlement to the whole primary curriculum. They map the curriculum for the school over a whole year, and are generally the responsibility of the Senior Leadership Team.

Links between subjects. Make links real, not contrived. Choose areas where genuine connections between subjects occur naturally. Will the connections make sense to the children? On the school's long-term plan, look for any obvious links between subjects and areas. For example, if for geography you plan to study Mexico as a locality, and for history to study a world civilisation, choose the Aztecs, as this will create a genuine history/geography cross-curricular topic, into which you can build social understanding.

Coherence. Teaching cross-curricular topics does not mean doing the kind of unfocused topic work that was common before the introduction of the National Curriculum and was heavily criticised by HMI in 1978. Good cross-curricular topics can include several subjects, but there should be just one or two lead subjects. The lead subject provides a framework and focus for the topic.

Keep track of subject objectives. Use your medium- and short-term plans to map the learning objectives for each separate subject to be included in the cross-curricular topic. Even though the teaching may be integrated, objectives should be identified as history, PSCHE, geography, and so on. This is the only way to check your coverage of the primary curriculum overall, and to plan for progression in each subject.

Ensuring progression. There is a difference between children making progress in a subject and doing a bit of practice in it. For example, in a local study, asking children to make a key for a historical map does not in itself ensure progression in geography, though it will give the children the opportunity to use and apply geography knowledge, skills and understanding in a purposeful context.
Questions to ask yourself

Am I tackling substantive concepts, knowledge or skills in all the subjects included in the topic?

Will the children be making real progress in each subject?

If not, will they be using and applying such subject knowledge in the course of a cross-curricular topic?

Framework and focus
You can give your cross-curricular topic a coherent framework through:

Key concepts
These are powerful tools for developing thinking and understanding.

At key stage 1, the key concepts of change and continuity could involve shopping, transport or school, comparing now with then - parents' or grandparents' generation - and involve geography (surveys, maps), art (such as collage of a street now and then) and maths (using and applying - pictorial graphs), as well as the key subject of history.

At key stage 2, studying aspects of British history provides an ideal historical framework for examining concepts of change and continuity. It could incorporate RE (new religions in Britain); geography (change/continuity involving a locality and/or a geographical theme - water, settlement, environment); music (continuity - classical; change - such as rock/punk/rap); ICT (now and fifty years ago), and so on.

A main theme (such as Our school, or The story of flight). The latter is an old favourite at key stage 1, and makes a good cross-curricular history-led topic, incorporating design technology and science (when we taught it, hot air balloons and paper aeroplanes were the focus of science and design experiments) See also Creativity.

A specific focus (such as Local study). Local studies are perfect for both key stages and are available to us all. Using the local area as the focus of learning can serve different subjects splendidly and naturally. Studying local history always involves geography (using maps and plans and looking at settlement and change) and social understanding, as children enquire into people's beliefs, attitudes and environment in the past. Local studies can also include art, design, science, RE and other subjects, as in our cross-curricular project on local urban parks and gardens. Here the two key themes are: The parks and their environs in the past and People, plants and animals in the parks. See Urban spaces.
Practical approaches
There are so many ways to teach exciting, enquiry-led topics that link history with geography and social understanding, as well as with subjects in Rose's other five areas:

1 History-led topic, e.g. investigating historical sites and buildings includes elements of geography; see e.g. Castles in KS1 and a Local Study in KS2. See also The Great Fire of London, which includes art, drama, story-writing and poetry.

2 Topic with two lead subjects, such as history and literacy. Most of our lessons include the teaching of literacy, but for those with particularly strong joint history/literacy objectives see: Boudicca, Haughmond Abbey, Slate mines, Two mining disasters, a Tudor Tempest, the two Archimedes and the Kings crown and Archimedes and the Syracusan War, and Great Fire of London lesson 1 and Great Fire of London lesson 4.

3 History could form one strand in a more general topic. See, for example, our Urban spaces investigation. Key stage 1 teachers have traditionally taught through topics. See these key stage 1 lessons for history taught as part of topics:

Flight: a science and design technology topic, with history stories providing a chronological thread and a stimulus to science and design technology activities Flight: cross-curricular lessons

People who help us: Florence Nightingale, a history and literacy sub-topic.

Local history: Magdalen Road, a geography, history, art and literacy topic.

Winter: Geography and history topic, focusing on weather, conditions for survival, and Scott and Amundsens journeys.

Water: The stories of Columbus and Magellan formed the history part of this topic. The history-focused lessons included discussion and debate, role play and design. See Columbus: was he a hero? Columbus the explorer: story-telling and Magellan(coming soon).

Toys and games: The topic focused on forces in science, storytelling in English and objects and pictures in history. See Toys and games.

Key questions
Drive your topic with key questions; they will provide a purpose for activities. For example in a Mexico/Aztecs, history/geography and social understanding topic:

How did the Aztecs keep control over their Empire?

What did the Aztecs believe in?

What were the roles of men and women? Were their roles similar to or different from those of men and women in Europe/Britain?

Why was the mighty Aztec Empire so quickly defeated?

How did the Aztecs grow their food? What foods did they give to Europe? How does Mexico produce food nowadays?

What environmental factors did the Aztecs have to cope with? Are they the same for today's Mexicans?

Cross-curricular work

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Cross-curricular work offers a creative way to develop children's knowledge, skills and understanding while motivating them to learn through stimulating, interconnected topics. A study which crosses subject boundaries allows for investigations that engage children's imagination. It also gives teachers opportunities to encourage active enquiry, taking the initiative, and discussion and debate by children.

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Ofsted's subject deep dive: what is it and what should you expect?

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Ofsted's subject deep dive: what is it and what should you expect?

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What is a deep dive?

Deep dives are a methodology that Ofsted inspectors use to gain a deeper understanding of a school's curriculum. Through close inspection of a number of subjects, the inspectorate say that they can make a better judgement about the overall quality of the education delivered by a school. Depending on whether Ofsted is carrying out an inspection over one or two days and the size of a school, inspectors will usually take a deep dive into between three and six subjects.

Reading will always be included in a deep dive in primary inspection, but the remaining subjects are decided on an individual basis. Some subjects are chosen if they are a priority for development, or even a strength of the school.

So what can you expect from a deep dive? According to inspectors, there are six key parts.

1. Discussing curriculum plans

This stage happens before the deep dives. Ofsted inspectors first need to get a 'top level' view of a school's curriculum by talking to the headteacher and senior leaders. During the conversation, usually a 90 minute phone call, inspectors will want to find out about the school's overall curriculum aims, approach and rationale. When at the school, inspectors may ask for additional meetings about the curriculum if they need more information. The aim of these conversations is to grasp the bigger picture of what the school intends for the children to learn, as well as when they will learn it.

Inspectors may want to hear or see your long-term curriculum plans in more detail, although Ofsted are keen to stress that they don't expect to be handed planning folders. These conversations will focus on the wider curriculum coverage, sequencing and progression and on the deep dive subjects that the headteacher and the inspectors will choose together.

Some questions inspectors may ask at this 'top level' include:

How have you designed your curriculum? Why?

How is your curriculum ambitious for all children?

What are you trying to achieve with your curriculum?

How does your curriculum support your school's aims?

How have you decided to sequence your curriculum? Why?

How do you know that children are learning the curriculum content?

What is the school's action plan for curriculum development?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum?

'A deep dive... involves gathering evidence on the curriculum intent, implementation and impact over a sample of subjects, topics or aspects. This is done in collaboration with leaders, teachers and pupils. The intent of the deep dive is to seek to interrogate and establish a coherent evidence base on the quality of education.'
Inspecting the curriculum, Ofsted
2. Meeting curriculum and subject leaders

Inspectors usually need to talk in more depth about a chosen deep dive subject with the subject leader. In smaller schools, one member of staff often leads many subjects, and this will be taken into account. Wherever possible, inspectors will avoid conducting multiple deep dives in subjects that have the same leader. Inspectors will ask questions to get a deeper understanding of how a subject has been planned across the school, the rationale behind it, how the children learn it, and how the school knows this. Three important things to note are:

1. Inspectors are likely to drill down into programme of study specifics, such as 'Where is clay work taught and developed?' in art and design, or 'Where is light covered?' in science.

2. Inspectors will not make final judgements on individual subjects, but on the curriculum as a whole.

3. Collection and scrutiny of internal data is not a part of the inspection. In fact, Ofsted have been clear that inspectors won't look at internal progress and attainment data.

In May 2021, Ofsted released a report on the subject reviews they undertook which is a useful reference here.

'I hear one or two primary colleagues worrying that Ofsted will expect to see a secondary-style curriculum in a primary school and I just want to say that's absolutely not the case.'
Matthew Purves, Deputy Director, Schools Ofsted
3. Observing learning

Inspectors will not judge individual lessons, but they will want to see if what's happening in a lesson matches the outline given by subject and senior leaders. For example, if a deep dive is being undertaken in history, inspectors are likely to visit four to six history lessons and ask the history lead 'Where does this lesson fit into the planned history sequence that you told me about?' and 'How does it build on subject learning to help children transition to the next stage?'

Inspectors may also be interested in how key subject vocabulary is used in the lessons, how teachers ensure that Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) pupils benefit from the same ambitious curriculum as other pupils wherever possible and the flow and pace of knowledge and skills acquisition.

Lesson resources, too, are coming under increased scrutiny from Ofsted. Resources should be matched to the curriculum sequence. Good resources should identify and introduce children to knowledge as outlined in the curriculum, and sequence it correctly. Likewise, if the resources require a child to perform a skill, such as analysis, it must be clear that children have learnt the knowledge they need to be able to do it.

4. Talking to teachers

Inspectors do not judge individual teachers. They are primarily focused on how teachers plan and deliver a sequence of lessons over time to help children learn the curriculum content in class. While a teacher of Year 4 may not have in-depth knowledge of the history requirements for another year group, inspectors will expect them to understand what key knowledge and skills they are teaching that will be essential for their study in later years at school; in other words, how their Year 4 history curriculum builds towards what the children will learn in Year 5 and beyond.

Inspectors may also talk to individual teachers about the lesson they've observed, although individual teachers and lessons are not graded in the new framework.

They could also discuss how the lessons inspectors have visited fit within the larger sequence of lessons they are teaching on that subject, what key concepts they wanted pupils to take from the lesson, and how that builds on what they have learned before and gets them ready for what they will learn in the future. Ofsted are keen to make sure that meetings with teachers are planned sensitively and timed in a way that limits the interruption to class teaching time.

5. Work scrutiny

Work scrutiny has been a contentious inclusion in the new inspection framework, but it's here to stay. Inspectors will look at children's work, combined with other evidence, to give them a fuller picture of children's learning of the curriculum. Work scrutiny may be undertaken alongside the subject or curriculum leader.

Inspectors will take a selection of books from a range of classes to scrutinise subject learning, to ensure that learning intentions are tight. They may also look at how misconceptions are addressed in classwork. Inspectors are definitely not expecting a specific style or amount of marking.

There is no preference over children having 'topic' or 'subject' books or folders, as long as it is clear to the children which subject they are learning. If the subject is more practical, inspectors may not even look at the books.

6. Talking to children

As well as looking at children's work, inspectors will have conversations with children about their learning. Again, this is to help them build a clearer understanding of how well curriculum content is learned and retained in school (as Ofsted put it, 'Progress in curricular terms means knowing more and remembering more'). Inspectors will want to meet a cross-section of children, including those whom they have seen in lessons and whose work they have scrutinised.

Inspectors will sometimes ask children to recall and describe their learning in the previous year, which provides evidence regarding progression and sequencing. Inspectors are sensitive to the fact that different children can be more or less talkative and don't reach conclusions solely based on pupil conversations - the main objective is to connect lots of different types of evidence.

Inspectors will also hear a selection of children read. This includes looking at how early reading is taught to help children become as fluent as they need to be in order to access the curriculum. Inspectors may discuss the learning of reading with the children.

Bringing the deep dives together

The aim of the deep dives is to give inspectors an overall picture of curriculum quality. They will bring the evidence together to see if any issues identified during the deep dives are 'systemic'. Systemic means the underlying problem or strength, rather than what's on the surface. According to the framework, where inspectors identify systemic issues, school leaders will usually be asked to provide further information and inspectors may need to gather additional evidence.

The journey, not just the destination

It is important to keep in mind that deep dives are just one method that inspectors use to gather evidence about the quality of education in a school. Ofsted is extremely interested to hear the curriculum journey your school is on. This includes hearing about your plans for how you intend to develop your curriculum, interventions, changes and resources you are going to put in place, or have only just implemented and are waiting to see their impact.
This article is taken from the Ofsted inspection framework edition of The Curriculum magazine from Cornerstones Education. It is an Ofsted approved article and has been reviewed by Matthew Purves, Deputy Director, Schools - Ofsted.
Overall, it's worth keeping in mind that curriculum development is both a journey and a destination.

Subject deep dive checklist*

Questions to reflect on as senior leaders

1. Do we ensure clear subject coverage, progression and sequencing in our curriculum?

2. Does actual taught and learned coverage match intended coverage?

3. Are transitions smooth between year groups?

4. Does the provision meet the same standards across different subjects?

5. Do children know more and remember more?

6. Are subject misconceptions addressed?

7. How do teachers and children record learning? Can this be easily accessed?

8. Do teachers teach, and children learn, key subject vocabulary?

9. Do teachers have sound subject knowledge?

10. Do senior leaders, subject leads and teachers have good pedagogical content
knowledge?

*Please note that, although reviewed by Ofsted, this is not an official Ofsted checklist.

Questions to think about in your subject

1. How have you designed your curriculum?

2. What are you trying to achieve in your curriculum?

3. What are your aims for this subject in the school?

4. What schemes do you follow?

5. Why is this subject taught in this way?

6. How do children progress in this subject over their time at the school? (Remembering that progress is knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more.)

7. How do you ensure that subject knowledge is retained?

8. How do you ensure that pupils with SEND benefit from the curriculum in this subject? Are expectations high enough?

9. What do curriculum leaders expect that inspectors will see when they visit lessons and speak to pupils?

10. How are misconceptions addressed in the subject?

11. How does this subject link to other curriculum areas?

12. How do you support staff? How do you avoid unnecessary workload?

13. What subject resources do you offer children and how are they matched to the curriculum?

Find out more about how Cornerstones Curriculum can help you feel prepared for inspection.

Curriculum Maestro

Curriculum Maestro is a simple-to-use online platform that helps primary schools to implement, manage and articulate an ambitious curriculum all in one place.

Cleverly designed tools help reduce unnecessary workload, allowing you to define curriculum intent, check live coverage, view subject progression and sequencing at the click of a few buttons. You'll also have access to the new fully sequenced, interconnected and adaptable Curriculum 22, hundreds of resources and much, much more.

With Curriculum Maestro, you have the power to design, deliver and manage an impactful curriculum that's right for your school and more than meets the requirements of the new inspection framework.

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Ofsted's subject deep dive: what is it and what should you expect?

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Deep dives are a methodology that Ofsted inspectors use to gain a deeper understanding of a school's curriculum. Through close inspection of a number of subjects, the inspectorate say that they can make a better judgement about the overall quality of the education delivered by a school.

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Cornerstones, 2021. What to expect from Ofsted’s subject ‘deep dives’. Available at: <https://cornerstoneseducation.co.uk/news/what-to-expect-from-ofsteds-subject-deep-dives/> [Accessed 2 March 2022].

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Advantages of a cross curricular approach

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Advantages of a cross curricular approach

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•Topic work can make learning motivating and stimulating for children, supporting
engagement, (Hayes, 2010 p10)
•Expecting children to use and apply learning from other subjects supports learning because…
•Recall supports embedding learning into the long-term memory.
•There are opportunities to apply and practice new knowledge and skills from other areas in
new contexts (developing mastery)

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Hayes, D., 2010. The seductive charms of a cross-curricular approach. Education 3-13, 38(4), pp.381-387.

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Creative thinking is a process through which knowledge, intuition and skills are applied to
imagine, express or make something novel or individual in its contexts. Creative thinking is present in all areas of life. It may appear spontaneous, but it can be underpinned by
perseverance, experimentation, critical thinking and collaboration.

The outcomes of a good arts education are:
• Students are appreciative, critical audiences and participants, and active engaged
producers.
• They are cultural citizens now and well prepared for their futures

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Cross-curricular planning - Year 3 - Ancient Greece

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Cross-curricular planning - Year 3 - Ancient Greece

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This is a cross-curricular plan I created for Year 3, with the topic of Ancient Greece. I have made links to History, English, Art and Drama. In the plan, you can see how I have set out the learning based around a book; life in Ancient Greece. I have broken down each chapter of the book into weeks I.e chapter 1, week 1, and detailed some activities and learning objectives which link to the other sections of the curriculum as previously mentioned. I have include a section for opportunities to explore texts in English and a section for maths opportunities. At the bottom of my plan, I showcase some ideas on how the children can share their final projects with the class (linking back to the policies on the National curriculum).