Our Story

What do a city in the north of Italy and the suburbs of South Yorkshire have in common?

Answer: They both played a part in the beginnings of Cornerstones. Read our story to learn more!

IN THE BEGINNING

A need for change

In 2010, after years of the QCA schemes of work, the national strategies and pressure to teach to SATs, our founder Simon, like many other primary heads at the time, witnessed a slow and creeping narrowing of his school’s curriculum, a decrease in teacher motivation and a lack of children’s engagement in their learning. For Simon, something needed to change and fast.

Inspiration from far away

For Mel, a visit to the Schools of Early Childhood in Reggio Emilia, northern Italy, inspired change. Spending time in Reggio’s classrooms, Mel saw how creative approaches to knowledge acquisition, community involvement, and using beautiful resources led to exceptional learning outcomes and a happy and purposeful workforce.

Be the change you want to see

Each inspired by their own experiences, Mel and Simon’s desire to do something different became Cornerstones Education. Their ambition? To provide a broad and balanced curriculum, beautiful resources, top-notch support, and the necessary tools and tech teachers need, to reclaim their freedom to teach.

From acorns to oak trees

The first Cornerstones curriculum was launched in 2011. This first curriculum was paper-based and had a multi-disciplinary approach – giving schools the necessary enrichment. In 2014, with the introduction of a new national curriculum, we launched our second version, this time with teaching resources and on our first online platform, The Hub.

As the educational landscape changed, with the rise of cognitive research and the move towards a more knowledge-led curriculum, we created our most up-to-date sequenced curriculum. To give schools maximum flexibility and address the growing burden of teacher workload, we developed Maestro’s timesaving, workload-reducing technology.

The first Cornerstones curriculum was launched in 2011. This first curriculum was paper-based and had a multi-disciplinary approach – giving schools the necessary enrichment. In 2014, with the introduction of a new national curriculum, we launched our second version, this time with teaching resources and on our first online platform, The Hub.

As the educational landscape changed, with the rise of cognitive research and the move towards a more knowledge-led curriculum, we created our most up-to-date sequenced curriculum. To give schools maximum flexibility and address the growing burden of teacher workload, we developed Maestro’s timesaving, workload-reducing technology.

Choose a selection of different curriculums for primary schools

Where we are now

Today, we offer two curriculum models: a multi-disciplinary, more creative model and a sequenced, knowledge-rich curriculum. This, along with hundreds of teaching resources, single subject schemes and the functionality of Maestro, has seen Cornerstones continue to grow and meet the needs of an increasing number of primary schools. So, while our intentions remain the same as at the start of our story, our means of achieving them have changed for the better.

“Our previous curriculum wasn't sequential at all. It jumped all over the place. As there were no flow, children were not able to make any links from prior learning. Whereas now, children are already making links!”

Claire Taylor, Year 5 Teacher – History Lead

Churchfield Primary School