Why I find it helpful to learn from others

Hello Colleague

We can sometimes think we’ve got to do everything ourselves, from scratch.

But if someone has done something similar to what we’re working on, why wouldn’t we check out what they’ve done?

This isn’t copying or plagiarism, instead it’s about checking out ideas that might be useful in our contexts.

We’ve all checked out recipes online and then adapted them as we cook them ourselves.

Each time we do this our repertoire expands.

It’s the same with professional learning.

For example, if we are revisiting the curriculum, then it’s helpful to consider the underlying principles, for example coherence, knowledge-rich, sequenced, underpinned by high-quality texts and whatever else we believe to be important for the curriculum in our context.

Then, to bring it to life, it’s helpful to have examples of how others have tackled the same projects.

When we see what others have done, we can adapt their ideas.

We are also free to disagree.

In fact, that’s really powerful, because in thinking that we would do things differently, we are strengthening our rationale for the way that we have developed our curriculum.

This is why we created the Curriculum Leaders course for colleagues looking to develop their curriculum leadership whether from a whole school perspective, or as a subject leader in secondary or subject co-ordinator in primary.

Work on the curriculum is never ‘done’!

Curriculum work is a process of iteration and improvement, and it needs to be developed and improved over time.

The course has 8 easy to access modules and we’ll be releasing each session on a weekly basis on Myatt & Co.

To kick off, we unpack the three elements of the curriculum:

• The content to be taught

• Assessing whether pupils have learnt what they are meant to

• Adapting in the light of feedback

We also consider different types of settings and how the curriculum is shaped in different contexts: we compare the headlines of curriculum planning in primary compared to secondary or special school contexts.

To access the course, you just need an annual subscription to Myatt & Co.

Access is just £150 for an annual subscription and you’ll also get access to over 500 CPD films, including the popular primary and secondary subject networks.

Until next time

Mary

PS The cost for Myatt & Co is going up shortly, so it’s worth getting on board now!