How to roll out one school's curriculum across your trust: case study (primary)

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.

Last reviewed on 14 March 2022
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 44172
Contents
  1. In a nutshell
  2. Why this approach?
  3. How the trust made it happen
  4. How to apply this approach in your trust

We spoke to Julie Carson, director of education at Woodland Academy Trust, about the curriculum in their 4 primary schools. 

In a nutshell

How it happened: the trust's curriculum was developed at one of its schools, and following its success, was rolled out in the other 3 schools. 

A common philosophy of celebrating the local area: Pupils learn to understand and develop an interest in where they live, and this is channelled through the topics they learn (see below) Each topic starts with a focus on local impact before moving on to the wider region, UK and world A topic-based approach:  Geography, history, art and design, design and technology, and music are all taught through discrete 'topics' Science is also taught through the topic up to year 5, but separately in year 6 to help pupils prepare for secondary school Not all topics are done in all schools, as there's flexibility to cover topics that are most