On Friday 2nd March 2016, Fiona Anderson, head teacher, shared current developments with the curriculum framework and interdisciplinary learning at Head of Muir PS.

Fiona used extensive data from her consultation of stakeholders to shape the school rationale. Parents placed great store on literacy and numeracy, which resulted in a curriculum framework where these are seen as separate, but integrated where beneficial (see her quick visual curriculum overview above). Staff at Head of Muir therefore teach these key subjects discretely, using interdisciplinary and subject specific contexts where these are advantageous to pupils.

During previous collegiate sessions, staff defined which experiences and outcomes were naturally covered during everyday parts of school life in order to capture and build their Ethos and Life of their School as a Community. These were things like, school assemblies and performances, circle time, eco groups, etc. Many of these related to Health and Well-Being and have been grouped and bundled to help staff in their next steps with tracking progress of these.

Nursery staff worked with Fiona to do the same for the nursery setting (see pic left). As they worked, clear bundles emerged which will now shape nursery planning and help align it with early level in primary 1. This will ensure greater coherence and progression from 3 – 12.

At the latest inset day, staff used the experiences and outcomes with the significant aspects of learning and progression framework statements to define groups which they felt were more powerful taught together. They tried to do this without linking expressly to contexts such as World War II, so that teachers would have more professional autonomy, and would be better placed to respond to the prior learning and interests of their pupils. Staff at Head of Muir PS are trialling the pupil-led planning sheets originally developed by colleagues at Stirling Council. The examples pictured show how these plans are influenced by the interests of pupils, and how they develop over time.

At the end of this blog post please click the video screen to hear what Louise in primary 7 thinks of this planning.

The bundling exercise is building the contexts/aspects of interdisciplinary learning and discrete curricular areas and subjects within Head of Muir PS. Fiona and her senior manager colleagues will streamline the bundles to create progressive frameworks which ensure progression and coverage across all four contexts. She  intends to work with staff to explore how skills are progressed through their bundles, to work towards ensuring that learning is progressive and challenging for every pupil. Like many other schools in our authority and across the country, these processes also aim to reduce workload and increase the efficiency of planning, tracking and monitoring processes. By working collegiately from their curriculum rationale, staff are building a shared understanding of what makes their school unique, AND basing this on reflective self-evaluation.