Long and Medium Term Planning
At curriculum level their are long and medium term plans (sometimes called a Scheme of Learning) that will ensure that pupils are able to make progress. How the development of these are allocated are very much dependent on on the subject area and staffing but it is vital that these are clear, share the objectives and outcomes of the course in the long and medium term and how pupils learning will be assessed in the longer term. It is vital is that these documents do not become a ‘to do’ list or list of activities or pages from a text book. The focus is what pupils are learning, what outcomes they need to achieve and how learning could be assessed.
As departments and practitioners we need to work together to ask ourselves:
As a department do we have a long term plan in place for delivering the curriculum?
Does the planning show what pupils are aiming towards at the end of the key stage/course/unit of work? What do they need to be able to do at the end of it?
Does the course/unit of work have a series of activities/suggestions for activities that would enable learners planned for this purpose?
Is it clear how learning will be assessed?
Are regular assessments planned? How often is often enough?
Is the method of assessment fit for purpose?
How do we make sure that assessments are valid, reliable and comparable?