Curriculum management (primary)

Strong curriculum leadership needs the right conditions to thrive. Kat Howard – senior leader at an all-through and author on this topic – sets out steps to create the perfect climate for curriculum work, from making time to have the conversation, to checking gaps in knowledge. Drawing on her experience, she shares effective ways you can support, educate and challenge your subject leaders to develop curriculum excellence at your school.

Get to grips with how to create a curriculum for your foundation subjects that’s every bit as ambitious and well-designed as for your core subjects. Primary school deputy headteacher Andrew Percival shares the key actions that leaders can take to develop and strengthen their foundation subjects, check recall and review content, with examples from his school of what this looks like in practice.

Learn how Victoria Academies Trust rolled out its challenge-based curriculum across schools to drive Ofsted improvement, and how you can apply this approach to your trust.

Adapt our model curriculum statement to save you time writing your own, and see examples of what other schools are doing.

Download and adapt this checklist to help you evaluate the physical space in your classrooms. It can help you identify areas for improvement, such as displays and organisation, to create a positive classroom learning environment.

The Shared Learning Trust has set up many networks and roles to encourage staff in its 3 primary schools to collaborate and share best practice across their autonomous curriculum models. Learn how you can make use of this approach in your trust.

There’s nothing a brilliant curriculum can’t do. It can even help transform an undersubscribed school in special measures into a school that’s ‘good’ and oversubscribed – as Cassie Young found out. Here she explains, step-by-step, how to create a brand new curriculum to increase inclusion and continuity, and give pupils confidence and cultural capital. Learn how to make sure your curriculum suits your pupils’ needs, and how to embed it using knowledge organisers and a curriculum wall.

Boosting staff subject expertise is a win-win way to invigorate the curriculum and strengthen your school’s teaching provision. Sallie Stanton, chief education officer at Advantage Schools Trust, shares the practical steps a primary school took to build teacher and leader knowledge, from working with subject associations to allowing teachers to specialise.

Make sure all pupils in your school feel seen with these ideas for promoting inclusivity throughout your curriculum. Kyrome Adams suggests quick changes you can make to your resources and bookshelves, as well as more long-term planning and collaboration tips to really embed a feeling of belonging for all children, regardless of their race, religion, disability, gender, body type or sexual orientation.

Woodland Academy Trust's curriculum focuses on helping pupils understand their local area. The highly aligned curriculum enables teachers to share best practice and cut workload – and gets top marks from parents and children too.

Use our templates to set out your weekly English and maths lesson plans, and your mid-term plans for foundation subjects. Plus, see our tips to set your lesson planning up for success.

Share our self-assessment tool with teachers to evaluate their subject knowledge and teaching confidence. Use their responses to help you fill in our audit tool, where you'll find resources to address any gaps.

Find expert advice to help teachers cater to pupils of different ages. See how other schools teach mixed-age classes and how to communicate your approach to parents and carers.

Great subject leaders help everyone stay on the same page in their approach to the curriculum. But how? Well, you can start by actually making that page. Headteacher Raakhee Tailor explains how to create digital ‘curriculum portfolios’ that will empower and inspire middle leaders to take charge of their subject – and use these living documents as launchpads for creative, cross-curricular collaboration.