Improving curriculum planning
Key stage 3
How do I get started?
The planning stage, whether it is for the short, medium or long term, is the crucial ingredient in ensuring effective teaching and learning in history. Read on if you want to make the most of greater flexibility in delivering the national curriculum by reviewing your existing plans for teaching history.
If you have been to this section before, or are looking for guidance on a specific aspect of curriculum planning, why not go straight to the sections on short-, medium- or long-term planning, or to the models and case studies for the latest examples of innovative practice in schools.
Making the most of flexibility in the national curriculum
The programme of study for history at key stage 3 was revised in 2000 to make it more flexible and less prescriptive. The changes to the programme of study for history included:
- the removal of the detailed specification of what should be taught leading to reduced prescription
- the replacement of the study units by broader and more flexible areas of study
- the removal of the requirements relating to the sequence of study.
These changes give schools the opportunity to review their existing plans for history at key stage 3 to maximise students' learning, make the subject even more relevant to their needs and experiences, and to enhance history's contribution to the wider curriculum. There is greater scope for schools to innovate and to adopt aspects of emerging good practice in history pedagogy.
Key principles for effective curriculum planning in history
- Do your plans develop the pupils' historical knowledge, skills and understanding in an organised, systematic and rigorous way?
- Is there a balance in your programme between overview and depth with sufficient depth enquiries to enable the pupils to explore key historical issues in detail and to produce significant outcomes?
- What is significant, diverse, engaging and meaningful for your pupils about the events, issues, themes and individuals contained in your programme of study for history?
- Is your programme of study for history exciting, motivating, moving, accessible and relevant for all your pupils?
- Does your programme of study for history provide a coherent experience, enabling your pupils to make links and connections between different aspects of the past within a broad chronological framework?
- Is there a balanced approach to the local, national, European and world dimensions of history?
- Has your plan addressed the social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of societies studied in Britain and the wider world?
- Is a range of historical perspectives (political, religious, social, cultural, aesthetic, economic, technological and scientific) included in your plan?
- Is the provision for history in your school accessible and challenging for all your pupils?
- Do you build in an expectation of progress in terms of depth, range, scale, and complexity of study?
- Are ideas and concepts revisited and reinforced in different contexts?
- Are there sufficient opportunities for the pupils to show greater independence with various forms and amounts of history?
- Do your plans account for the pupils' prior and future experiences in history?
- Do you provide opportunities for a wide range of teaching and learning experiences, including visits to museums, galleries and historical sites?
- Do your pupils have access and the opportunity to work with a wide and diverse range of historical sources?
- Does ICT make an effective contribution to teaching and learning in history in your school?
- Do you make the most of history's potential to contribute to the wider curriculum in your plans?
The three elements of curriculum planning
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