How to design an ambitious primary curriculum

‘leaders take on or construct a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or high needs, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.’

Education inspection framework, Ofsted

What is an ambitious curriculum?

There are many ideas about what makes an ambitious curriculum. The two main defining features are that it is the whole curriculum rather than a narrowed version and that all children have equal access to it, regardless of their starting points. This is a broad definition.

 The following points will provide more detail about the integral features and give you some useful starting points for discussions about your curriculum.

1. The curriculum is for all children

An ambitious curriculum is an entitlement for all children regardless of their starting points or prior learning:

‘the provider has the same academic, technical or vocational ambitions for almost all learners. Where this is not practical – for example, for some learners with high levels of SEND – its curriculum is designed to be ambitious and to meet their needs.’

Education inspection framework, Ofsted

The ambitious curriculum should be broad and balanced for all children, including those who find learning more difficult. Teachers should think carefully about how all children can access the planned curriculum and use a range of appropriate teaching strategies to make it accessible. Strategies may include modelling, group work and scaffolding to enable this, rather than the traditional approach of differentiating learning tasks.

Read more: Developing cultural capital in your primary school

2. The curriculum values all subjects

In an ambitious curriculum, all subjects are taught well and valued. The foundation subjects are not the poor relation to the core subjects of maths and English. Subject skills and disciplinary knowledge are taught and practised, and teachers have excellent subject knowledge. As the curriculum is broad and balanced, children excel and find their passions in different subjects. All subjects are also assessed well so that gaps in learning and misconceptions can be fully identified and addressed.

3. The curriculum has clearly identified larger concepts

Larger concepts, also known as big ideas, provide the backbone for an ambitious curriculum and act as a hook to hang all learning. Big ideas also give the connective tissues that link different aspects and subjects of the curriculum so teachers and children can see how their knowledge connects and builds over time. They can act as curriculum endpoints; what you want your children to know or experience by the time they leave their primary education.

Listen: Curriculum intent: big ideas and larger concepts [podcast]

4. The curriculum teaches children knowledge and skills

An ambitious curriculum values both knowledge and skills. The knowledge in the curriculum is meaningful, not just a tick list of facts. Through your school’s careful planning, children acquire substantial knowledge and are also given the opportunity to use and apply it skilfully in various contexts.

Read more: How to balance knowledge and skills in the primary curriculum

5. The curriculum is well-sequenced

Feedback from recently inspected schools tells us Ofsted’s lines of enquiry mainly focus on how well the curriculum is sequenced: what is taught, where and why. Another popular line of enquiry is how subject concepts develop and connect to other subjects. An ambitious curriculum is well-sequenced, with new knowledge building on prior knowledge and opportunities for retrieval. Horizontal and vertical threads connect content, skills and knowledge across the curriculum.

Read more: How to sequence your primary curriculum

6. Expectations are high

High expectations and principles drive an ambitious curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to be confident in their subject knowledge and involved in the design of the curriculum. All staff are aware of the whole-school curriculum aims, targets and how learning progresses from one year group to the next. Lessons are carefully planned with clear outcomes and encourage children to be intrinsically ambitious. Teachers expect high-quality work and share good examples. They use well-pitched lesson resources and model outcomes to set standards.

Read more: What are curriculum principles?

7. Expertly taught

An ambitious curriculum is only as good as its teachers. Expert delivery sees teachers challenge and move children on through questioning, discussing, explaining and demonstrating but offer repetition and consolidation where needed. They provide support and scaffolds so that all children can achieve, and encourage them to express their understanding differently, such as through writing, talking, presenting, debating and demonstrating.

8. High-quality resources

High-quality practical and academic resources support an ambitious curriculum. Teachers have the correct equipment for practical work in subjects like science and art to support the most accurate learning outcomes. Lesson resources are not ad-hoc; they are coherent and well-matched to curriculum objectives. Children are not given poor-quality resources littered with errors, which would ruin a well-planned curriculum.

‘If we show children poorly written resources, how can we expect them to be ambitious themselves?’

Melanie Moore, Cornerstones Curriculum Director

Read more: How to create the best resources for your primary curriculum

9. Subject leaders are knowledgeable about their discipline

In an ambitious curriculum, subject leaders are well acquainted with their subject’s schema and can articulate how key concepts of their subject connect to others. They also demonstrate confidence when talking about their subject area and can communicate what children learn, when and why. 

Read more: Why subject leadership is crucial to the success of your primary curriculum

10. A rich and diverse vocabulary

For a curriculum to be ambitious, language and vocabulary must be of a high standard. Key subject vocabulary is planned out across the subject and is used in the teaching and supporting resources. Children are confident in using disciplinary language and can articulate their learning using a rich vocabulary. Reading standards are aspirational, and texts are often challenging. The rich vocabulary children learn supports their abilities to read and write across the curriculum.

Summary

An ambitious curriculum should benefit all children but moving towards a more ambitious curriculum can be challenging. It takes investment in time and resources. There is a greater demand for subject leaders, and the pressure to know their subject well increases with the teaching of ambitious content and deep knowledge.

However, as the curriculum has more time to embed, children will begin to build on their previous learning and achieve things they thought were unattainable. Teachers also become more accustomed to higher levels of expectation in their subject knowledge, which can also build over time.

The best results occur when everyone buys into an ambitious curriculum goal. It may require a more significant financial investment, better teaching resources and more professional development opportunities for all staff. But if the effects of an ambitious curriculum are better educated, more well-rounded individuals, then we have to aim for it, don’t we?

Want to realise your perfect primary curriculum?

If you’re looking for a fully sequenced, ambitious curriculum that you can personalise to meet the needs of your school, then we can help. Cornerstones has a fully sequenced primary curriculum supported by thousands of beautifully crafted lesson plans and resources designed by our expert curriculum advisers, writers and designers.

For existing Curriculum Maestro users

The curriculum on Maestro is ambitious. Here are some benefits you can take advantage of if you are already a Maestro user:

• instantly boost the quality of lesson plans and resources
• increase the quality and consistency of literacy levels across the curriculum
• evidence a clear knowledge framework across the school
• gain clearer connectivity between subjects
• provide consistency across year groups
• enable better subject leadership
• improve standards in the subject knowledge of all stakeholders
• children can know and do more
• a more robust, cohesive curriculum
• raised levels of literacy for all children
• better standards of expertise across all subjects
• better engagement of all children in the curriculum