As a school leader with a tight budget, finding a cost-effective way to design and develop your curriculum is a serious responsibility. It can make or break your educational offer and be an excellent investment or an expensive mistake. It’s easy to underestimate the time, expertise and hidden costs involved, so you’ll need to weigh up the options to make the right decision for your school.
Your choice boils down to doing it yourself or buying a curriculum package (or packages) that you can tailor to your school. Whichever way you do it, developing your curriculum will cost you a lot of money, and buying into a curriculum package could be of better value in the long run.
Option 1: Do it yourself
What it takes
‘Doing it yourself’ means allocating key staff to do the curriculum design work and providing sufficient time for them to do it. It can take days to create a long-term curriculum plan, and that’s before you’ve nailed the detailed lesson sequencing, content and resources. Some schools also invest in consultancy support or curriculum training for staff. You’ll also need to factor in ongoing monitoring work to see how children are progressing and allow time to update it when national or school requirements change.
What it costs
Many of the costs of developing your curriculum can appear ‘hidden’ to the naked eye. This is why it often feels more expensive to purchase a commercial curriculum. However, if you take into account costs such as supply cover (about £200 a day), consultancy fees (anything from £200+ per day), plus any other training or resourcing costs, the numbers begin to add up quickly. You’ll also need to find an assessment system that aligns with your curriculum, costing anywhere from £3 per pupil upwards.
Based on an average of 10 days of work (barely scratching the surface), initial costs can be upwards of £3,000. This does not, however, include work teachers do in their own time such as research, writing medium-term plans or creating resources.
Option 2: Buying a curriculum package/s
What it takes
Many primary schools choose this option, as it saves significant time and helps to ensure coherent development and consistency across the whole school. Not all packages are equal, however. Some include teacher planning and some teaching resources, but others offer much more. Make sure that you know what you’re getting.
At Cornerstones, we offer two curriculum models so schools can choose what best suits them. You can either choose from a fully sequenced curriculum or a thematic curriculum, both of which have embedded resources throughout. You’ll also get a fully integrated assessment system, so there is no need to purchase additional packages.
What it costs
Curriculum packages vary significantly in cost and value for money. But how do they relate to what it costs to do the work yourself?
With Cornerstones, for example, the cost of purchasing a curriculum licence can range from £500 to £2,750, depending on the school size. Small schools pay less, and there are discounts for multiple-year purchases. The average development time for a school creating its own curriculum is years. Based on the amount of supply time, training, numerous purchases of support, and consultancy, doing it yourself can certainly add up to a significant amount.
Single subject curriculums
If you’re looking for something other than a whole-school curriculum, why not look at our single-subject curriculums? These include art & design, design & technology, geography, history, science and RE with additional English, maths and computing resources. Our single-subject curriculums also come with an integrated assessment system and ongoing support.
What schools say
‘Without these resources and plans in place, it would have been a monumental job to put this into action. Cornerstones has given us a really good tool to structure our curriculum. It enables us to have a common, cohesive approach across school.’
Sarah Davies, Head of Juniors, Leicestershire
‘With Cornerstones, we have been so well supported on our journey to designing an engaging and exciting curriculum.
Alan Robinson, Head of School, Barking
‘We were not only delighted to have found something so exciting and enriching, but my governors were also very happy with the cost. It is definitely value for money.‘
Angela Euesden, Headteacher, Essex