Huh Curriculum Conversations Between Subject And Senior Leaders

Schools need to have purchase on the curriculum: why they teach the subjects beyond preparation for examinations, what they are intending to achieve with the curriculum, how well it is planned and enacted in classrooms and how they know whether it’s doing what it’s supposed to. Fundamental to this understanding are the conversations between subject leaders and their line managers. However, there is sometimes a mismatch between the subject specialisms of senior leaders and those they line manage. If I don’t know the terrain and the importance of a particular subject, how can I talk intelligently with colleagues who are specialists? This book sets out to offer some tentative answers to these questions. Each of the national curriculum subjects is discussed with a subject leader and provides an insight into what they view as the importance of the subject, how they go about ensuring that knowledge, understanding and skills are developed over time, how they talk about the quality of the schemes in their departments and what they would welcome from senior leaders by way of support. We have chosen this way of opening up the potentially difficult terrain of expertise on one side and relative lack of expertise on the other, by providing these case studies. They are suggested as prompts rather than the last word. Informed debate is, after all, the fuel of curriculum development. And why Huh? Well, 'Huh?' may be John's first response when he walks into a Year 8 German class but, in fact, we chose 'Huh' as the title of our book as he is the Egyptian god of endlessness. As Claire Hill so eloquently comments in her chapter, “Curriculum development is an ongoing process; it’s not going to be finished, ever.” And we believe that 'Huh' captures a healthy and expansive way of considering curriculum conversations.

There’s plenty to do when planning the curriculum in primary schools. If it feels daunting, then one of the most helpful things is to talk to other people about how they have developed the curriculum for their particular subject or key stage. This is what John Tomsett and Mary Myatt have done. After the secondary ‘Huh: Curriculum conversations between subject and senior leaders’ was published, they were flooded with requests to produce a primary version. They enlisted the help of renowned primary specialists, Rachel Higginson, Lekha Sharma and Emma Turner to have conversations with primary teachers and key stage co-ordinators who are doing great curriculum development work. Each chapter provides insights into the importance of individual subjects and the unique contribution each makes to pupils’ cognitive and personal development. The subject chapters discuss the steps colleagues take to ensure that there is a coherent thread across the year groups, as the discrete subjects deliver, collectively, the primary curriculum. These conversations show how the craft of creating a rich, challenging curriculum for every subject is not a quick fix. This is a nuanced piece of work, and there are many ways of approaching it. Each chapter also contains links to subject associations and helpful resources. Primary Huh has been written for subject leaders and key stage co-ordinators; it has also been written for senior leaders, as they prepare to have supportive conversations with their colleagues who are responsible for curriculum development. Primary Huh is offered as a prompt rather than the last word. Informed debate is, as they say, the fuel of curriculum development. And why have John and Mary called it ‘Huh’? Well, John discovered that Huh is the Egyptian god of endlessness, creativity, fertility and regeneration, and they thought that was a pretty good metaphor for their work on the curriculum!

Curriculum, or the substance of what is taught, is the core business of schools, and yet little exists in the way of a theory of curriculum for educators. This book sets out the principles of curriculum theory and provides a common framework and practical strategies for the successful implementation and effective management of powerful knowledge-based curriculum for all. Offering powerful insights across the subject divides, the book explores the key elements of curriculum design including progression, sequencing, substantive and disciplinary knowledge, and the relationships of subjects to their sister disciplines. Providing a crucial foundation for school leadership, it covers: curriculum in the contexts of learning, organisational culture and key philosophical and moral ideas an explanation of thirteen specialist subjects, with outline mapping of the knowledge an emphasis on the cultural elements needed for sustained excellence in curriculum work within schools the codification of curriculum and the multiple values of documents for curriculum thinking and execution. Enabling leaders to analyse and discuss subjects beyond their specialisms, this essential text will equip readers to implement real change by leading intelligently and effectively on curriculum.

At a time of renewed focus on the schools curriculum, Roy Blatchford has brought together some of the sharpest thinkers in education in a brilliant mixture of both practical and conceptual essays about what makes for a positive primary curriculum, 4-11. Perfectly timed to reflect the new Ofsted framework, the contributions reflect a range of thinking, planning and delivery, as schools do it now and will for the future. It is a compendium of proven practice, offering tips to less experienced/adventurous middle and senior leaders. Featuring contributions from: Katherine Benson; Kate Dethridge; Koulla Anslow; Mary Myatt; Aidan Severs; Marc Rowland; Siobhan Horisk; Claire Lotriet; Kate Atkins; Tim Coulson; David Ingham; Lilian Bell; Sean O'Regan; Colin Lofthouse; Janine Ryan; Simon Knight; Penny Slater.

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together

If we don't ensure that our teachers are physically and mentally well, they cannot be their best for their students.If we do not ensure, first and foremost, that our teachers are feeling physically and mentally well, they cannot be their best for their students. Consequently, a school which does not prioritize staff wellbeing is disadvantaging its own students. �Students first' is a misplaced sentiment: the best thing for students is a happy, healthy, motivated, well-trained, expert staff. By putting staff first you are providing for students the one thing which will help them make good progress in their learning: truly great teaching. Whilst it is easy to say that schools would not exist if it were not for the students, the glib converse is that without truly great school staff, the students would not be taught. What we need - as recruiting subject specialist teachers, school leaders and specialist support staff becomes increasingly difficult - is a revolution in how we treat our school staff. We have to put our staff before our students because it is the only hope we have of securing what our students need most: a world class education. The longer our schools are populated with hypoxic adults, we imperial all our futures.

Written at a time of uncertainty about the implications of the English government's curriculum policies, Knowledge and the Future School engages with the debate between the government and large sections of the educational community. It provides a forward-looking framework for head teachers, their staff and those involved in training teachers to use when developing the curriculum of individual schools in the context of a national curriculum. While explaining recent ideas in the sociology of educational knowledge, the authors draw on Michael Young's earlier research with Johan Muller to distinguish three models of the curriculum in terms of their assumptions about knowledge, referred to in this book as Future 1, Future 2 and Future 3. They link Future 3 to the idea of 'powerful knowledge' for all pupils as a curriculum principle for any school, arguing that the question of knowledge is intimately linked to the issue of social justice and that access to 'powerful knowledge' is a necessary component of the education of all pupils. Knowledge and the Future School offers a new way of thinking about the problems that head teachers, their staff and curriculum designers face. In charting a course for schools that goes beyond current debates, it also provides a perspective that policy makers should not avoid.

Co-authored by Zoe Enser and Mark Enser, The CPD Curriculum: Creating conditions for growth shares expert and practical guidance for schools on designing and delivering continuing professional development (CPD) that truly lives up to its name. There is a wealth of research available on professional learning, from both within and outside the education sphere, and in this book Zoe and Mark pull it all together to help school leaders optimise teachers' ongoing learning and growth. Zoe and Mark explain how schools can overcome issues with CPD that can leave teachers plateauing in their development after just a few years, and share a variety of case studies that illustrate the key components of an effective CPD programme that builds on teachers' prior knowledge. The authors spell out the importance of CPD and explain how, when done well, it gives teachers the agency to make professional decisions informed by the best evidence and experience they have to hand. Furthermore, they explore how high-quality professional development contributes not only to a collaborative culture within the school staff team and enhanced job satisfaction for teachers, but also to improved student outcomes. Split into three parts - intent, implementation and impact - the book covers a range of key areas, including: coaching and mentoring, subject-specific CPD, empowerment and self-efficacy, delivery methods and quality of materials. They also examine the current issues and common pitfalls surrounding CPD and offer guidance on how it can be improved, with clear end goals in mind. Suitable for school leaders, heads of department and CPD leads in all settings.