Skip to main content

KS3 Curriculum - almost there!

Spent an excellent day at New Place with the geography team last week. We managed to hammer out the KS3 curriculum map and plan up until Christmas. Regular readers may be aware of the unique situation at my school: the geography department had no Schemes of Work. At all. Ever. Therefore I have had the rather onerous task of not only creating a curriculum from scratch but having to ensure that it is implemented for September 2008. In Year's 7, 8 and 9.



The show above outlines the new curriculum. The presentation will change a little as I'm still playing around with the format. I've tried to use the 'dartboard' to visualize the curriculum, linking to some of the Key Concepts around the outside. I'd welcome feedback as I don;t think this is 100% successful at the moment. The dartboard also has to show the sequence of units so that staff can easily see progression.

It's my intention for this to sit on the school's (a my own) website so that the actual Schemes of Work and resources can be accessed via this one page.

This curriculum will be 'living'. In other words, it will change and update. I hope to incorporate some of the ideas in the Toolkit series (frustrating that not all of it is available this year for the planning stage of the curriculum!) and other ideas. The RGS units will be adapted to include some local examples and to make some of the activities more accessible to our special brand of pupil!

Many thanks to all those who hae provided inspiration and materials, especially Noel Jenkins, Alan Parkinson, Tony Cassidy and Jeff Stansfield.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What makes a learning experience profound? Personal reflections and possible implications for classroom practice.

I have recently begun a Leadership Pathways journey.  As part of the first core day, we were asked to reflect on a profound learning experience. This got me thinking about how many profound learning experiences I have both been involved in, and how many I have been able to give to others.  Our group came up with a huge long list, but these are my five. Emotional Connected Demanding Reflective Collaborative As always, these are personal thoughts and quite mixed up.  I put them here so that I can look back on them (plus they’d get lost inside my world-cup-free brain) 1. Emotional I can’t think of a time where deep learning hasn’t engaged my emotions.  From being awe inspired to that tingle feeling when a student gets a light bulb moment.  From this-is-the-happiest-day-ever, to I-think-I’m-about-to die.  How often do we engage the emotions of those we teach?  Here, I would argue that having a safe learning environment is not always conducive to profound

The danger of Teaching and Twitter conversations: poorly formed bipolar arguments.

Sometimes in life, there really are only two options.  Get the wrong one and you can look like a muppet.  Take this useful sign for the toilets in Morocco.  I successfully navigated it, choosing the right option.  The result? No egg on my face.  As a mountain leader, there are many right or wrong decisions that I’ve faced, as there are all over life.  It’s not a good idea to let inexperienced young people walk themselves down Snowdon.  They may die or be seriously injured.  If someone is showing the signs and symptoms of hyperthermia, you need to treat it fast in a specified way.  There is no real arguing with this sign: Other options are less obvious.  Take this sign recently spotted near to where I live: Now, I wouldn’t consider sleeping in a bin.  However, faced with a sub-zero night, I could see the appeal.  The danger? Being tipped into one of those huge lorries with a compactor. (by the way, I only really considered all of this thanks to questions from my four year old boy).

Banned Word Board

Today I want to share some simple ideas that I have found to be very effective in the classroom. I can't say that they are my own original ideas, although I have played around with them. The first is the Banned word Board. This is a simple display in the classroom that lists a number of words that are not allowed to be used by pupils in their written or oral answers. The effect has been an increase in the quality of written work, and I have almost made comments such as 'Sir it's simple, the stuff just affects the thing and causes people problems'. Pupils are now more able to use specific language, something that is vital especially at GCSE. I have had to make a few modifications, such as the introduction of 'Heavenly Words' This is an additional display placed on the ceiling. I found this necessary as pupils needed some stimulus in finding replacement words. After advice received after posting the idea on the SLN forum , I have also introduced semi-banned words