How to systematically design, develop, implement and evaluate a knowledge-rich curriculum

1. How to systematically
design, develop, implement
and evaluate a knowledge-
rich curriculum
Amy McJennett and
Nick Wallace

2. Outline
• School curriculum vs subject curriculum
• Principles of curriculum design
• Application of these principles
• Evaluating: our Pilot Impact Report
• What next for curriculum?

3. Curriculum’s moment
• HMCI comments:
• ‘For too long, the curriculum – the thing that
should lie at the heart of educational thinking
– has come second to the pressures of
accountability and performance tables.’
• ‘The curriculum isn’t an esoteric concern. It
goes to the heart of what our schools and
colleges are for: it is about the very substance
of education.’
• 2019 School Inspection Framework

4. School curriculum vs subject curriculum

5. English Mastery
• A key stage three English curriculum programme
• Informed, delivered and refined by expert English teachers from across the country
• All components of the programme are rooted in the latest cognitive and educational
research
• English Mastery’s mission is to transform the way the subject of English is taught at key
stage three in UK classrooms.
• Three-year pilot launched in seven Ark schools in 2014
• Our curriculum programme has had a demonstrable impact on student outcomes and on
teachers
• This year, we are partnering with 57 schools to deliver on our mission

6. Principles of curriculum design
• Dylan Wiliam, ‘Principled Curriculum Design’ (SSAT, 2013)
• Explores three terms
• The intended curriculum: the knowledge we want students to learn
• The implemented curriculum: comprises textbooks, long-term plans, schemes of
learning and lesson plans
• The achieved curriculum: what young people experience

7. Intended

8. Implemented

9. Achieved

10. Principles of curriculum design
A great coffee badly made is likely
to be a much worse experience than
a bad coffee well made.
‘A great intended curriculum badly
taught is likely to be a much worse
experience for young people than a
bad intended curriculum well
taught.’
(Dylan Wiliam)
achieved
intended

11. The intended curriculum
How do you design a strong intended curriculum?
Curriculum leaders require:
1. a clear vision of what it means to be a student of your subject
2. the ‘big ideas’ for the discipline: the areas that sustain study from cradle
to the grave
3. a convincing argument for how the ‘big ideas’ integrate with each other –
how they converse
4. a strong rationale for how the knowledge is selected, then organised and
sequenced

12. English Mastery: our intended curriculum
Curriculum leaders require:
1. a clear vision of what it means to be a student of your subject
2. the ‘big ideas’ for the discipline: the areas that sustain study from cradle
to the grave
3. a convincing argument for how the ‘big ideas’ integrate with each other –
how they converse
4. a strong rationale for how the knowledge is selected, then organised and
sequenced

13. The key stage three English curriculum
R.A. 10/11
…why?

14. What does it mean to be a student of English?
A broad, simplistic, potted history
• The Latin classics for grammar and rhetoric
• Study of English begain with the ‘belle-lettres’ of late 17th century –
collections of speeches, essays, prose, poetry
• F.R. and Queenie Leavis codified what it means to study English
throughout the 1930s
• For our programme, English is a study of the canon

15. What are our ‘big ideas’?
Writing
Grammar and Punctuation
Explicit knowledge of grammar allows conscious control and
choice in language for effective written communication.
Vocabulary
Abroadanddeepknowledgeofwords,
prefixesandsuffixes,wordclassesand
etymologyfacilitatescomprehensionand
clearexpression.
Composition and Editorial
Writing clearly and coherently involves articulating ideas and
structuring a text for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
Reading
Comprehension and Thematic Analysis
Knowledge of the text, and the society in which it is written, allows
a deeper understanding of authorial intent.
Structural Conventions
The structure of a text contributes to its meaning.
Language Analysis
The details of a text's language contribute to its meaning.

16. How do the ‘big ideas’ integrate?
Writing
Grammar and Punctuation
Explicit knowledge of grammar allows conscious control and
choice in language for effective written communication.
Vocabulary
Abroadanddeepknowledgeofwords,
prefixesandsuffixes,wordclassesand
etymologyfacilitatescomprehensionand
clearexpression.
Composition and Editorial
Writing clearly and coherently involves articulating ideas and
structuring a text for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
Reading
Comprehension and Thematic Analysis
Knowledge of the text, and the society in which it is written, allows
a deeper understanding of authorial intent.
Structural Conventions
The structure of a text contributes to its meaning.
Language Analysis
The details of a text's language contribute to its meaning.

17. How do the ‘big ideas’ integrate?
Grammar and Punctuation
Composition and Editorial
Using words accurately and in the
right sequence create sentences,
the base unit of meaning.
Sentences can be sequenced into
a logical order to create and
develop meaning in greater detail
across a whole text.

18. How do the ‘big ideas’ integrate?
Comprehension and
Thematic Analysis
Structural
Conventions
Language
Analysis
Successful readers have detailed
knowledge of a text and its domain.
Successful readers are interrogate
why writers have used certain
words and phrases, or why they
have constructed their work in a
particular way.
This is only possible with a literal
understanding of a text.

20. What is the rationale for the curriculum sequence?
• What is selected?
• The canon
• Explicit teaching of grammar
• In what order?
• Building a mental model of English
• Developing a student’s schemata
• Builds on what has gone before…
• …acknowledges what is yet to come

21. What is the rationale for the curriculum sequence?
• Chronological / non-chronological?
• Breadth of study?
• Depth of study?
• Locus of control: what has come before?
• Pragmatism: GCSE study

23. Year 7
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
Year 8
The Tempest
Year 9
Romeo and Juliet
• Conventions of
comedy
• Family conflict
• Supernatural
• Italian city-
states
• Usurping rulers
• Kingship
• Conventions of
tragedy
• Italian city-
states
Years 10 and 11
Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado, Julius Caesar
• Conventions of tragedy
• Italian city-states
• Kingship
• Usurping rulers
• Family conflict
• Supernatural

24. Year 7
Oliver Twist
Year 8
The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes
Year 9
Jane Eyre
• The city
• Characterisation
• Antagonists
• Scientific
developments
• Periodicals
• ‘Dual nature’
• Victorian
morality
• Childhood
• Pastoral
Years 10 and 11
Jekyll and Hyde, A Christmas Carol, Frankenstein
• The city
• Characterisation
• Antagonists
• Scientific
developments
• Periodicals
• ‘Dual nature’
• Victorian
morality
• Childhood

25. Limitations
• Yes, the curriculum is the progression
• But how useful is this for teachers and school leaders?
• How can curriculum developers articulate the intricate detail of a
cohesive, cumulative curriculum in a clear way?
Here are some ways that do not capture this:

28. -Dickens’s morality
-treason
- moral and immoral
criminals (Nancy & Bill)
-chaos
caused by love
potion device
-Miranda and
Ferdinand marry
-moral (n.)
-Protagonists
-villains
-Prospero’s
colonialism
-crime,
transportation
& hanging
Caliban’s dual
nature
-overpopulation
& poverty
-Titania as
victim of love
potion
-poor sanitation &
disease
-Man’s exploitation
of animals-usurpers
-villainous Bill Sikes and
Fagin exploiting children
-The love potion’s
removal of free will.
-The Poor
Law of 1834
-manual
labour
-child criminals
-victims
-vulnerability
-Jane is an orphan and
a dependent
-Brocklehurst
uses his
authority to
humiliate
Jane
-Victorian orphans
are oppressed
-Brocklehurst
is a Christian
but a moral
hypocrite
-Brocklehurst
gets his
comeuppance
-Egeus is a
severe father
-Orphans and
their
mistreatment
-sonnet form.
-The feud between the Montagues and Capulets
is an obstacle to Romeo and Juliet’s love
-The conventions of
tragedy
-Juliet is a tragic hero
-’Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art
thou Romeo?’
-Romeo and Juliet’s love is ill-
fated, ‘star-crossed lovers’
-Juliet’s love is what
makes her exceptional
but also what leads to
her downfall-Romeo and Juliet’s deaths are a
catastrophe which force the families
to reconcile
--the invention
of the Metropolitan
Police Force
-what a clergyman is
-Chaucer, Canterbury and
pilgrims
-what the night
mail was
-colonialism, Christopher
Columbus & the age of
exploration
-Milton & the
temptation of
Adam & Eve
-epic poetry
-Satan’s rebellion
against God
-What a tragic flaw is
-Helen Burns is a
kind and
forgiving
Christian
-shrine
-temple
-Good triumphing over evil
(criminals brought to
justice)
-Jane Eyre is a
dependent
-Conventions of
comedy
-unrequited love
-Jane Eyre and Juliet both
challenge the status quo
-Tragicomedy
-allegory-metaphor
-Boxer as
the
exploited
working
class
-The windmill
-Stalin & The
Russian
Revolution
-social
responsibility
-an immigrant’s
journey
1 2
3
4
56
-love potion: plot device
-Powerful
animals
-The animals’
commandments
-city states
-forests as liberating but
dangerous
-Oberon’s humiliation
of Titania.
-Magic as an
instrument of
Comedy, chaos and humiliation
-Magic as
an
instrument
of torture
-Noah as malicious
bully
-The Bumbles’
corruption
-Magic as
removing
free will
-spirits, witches-fairies
-Slavery,
spirituals
-Napoleon’s use of
propaganda to create a
cult of personality
-treachery
-Slavery
-Nancy as
symbol of
compassion
-The English
landscape
-woodlands
-changing
seasons
-the harvest
-punk & coming of age
-A child is born innocent and pure vs. a child is born
evil vs. a child is a blank slate
-modernism
-lovesong
-The Yorkshire
countryside
-Caliban’s island
-characteristics of
farm animals
-Sherlock’s dual
nature
-Victorian Christmas
-deduction
-No treatment for
typhus and TB for the
orphans
-all of Charlotte Brontë’s siblings
died of illness. One of her sisters
died of TB.
-introspection
-John
Snow
and the
preventi
on of
cholera
-sidekick
-what a
scandal
is
-first
person
narrative
-Victorian
modes of
transport
-the invention of
forensic science
-status in
Victorian society
(Kings,
countesses &
maids)
-Victorian
media
-children in the charity school are
vulnerable, malnourished and
mistreated
-The roles of women in
Elizabethan society
-narrative
structure
(exposition,
rising tension,
catastrophe)
-soliloquys
-usurpers
-Napoleon is a
tyrant
-rebellion
-Prospero’s control over Miranda
and ‘oh brave new world’
-Caliban’s abuse
of Miranda
-Irene Adler as
challenging woman
-Lord Capulet is a
tyrannical father
-The
prologue
-extended
metaphor
-A. C.
Bradley
-The Montagues & the Capulets
-The deaths of
Romeo & Juliet
-briars
-dog roses
-a tempest
is a violent
storm
-hedgerows
-frogs-Buddha -‘the hazel
switch’
-corruption -conscience
-lack of police &
forensic science
1 2
3
4
56
7
8
Unit Year 7 Year 8 Year 9
VictorianNovel
• Writing correct topic sentences
• Using evidence correctly
• Portraying a single view on a topic
• What a novel is
• How to use a glossary
• Moral of the story
• That writers use characters to
represent their view (Mr
Brownlow)
• Third person narrative
• Discussing a topic from
multiple perspectives
• using topic sentences to link
analysis
• Allegory
• That characters represent
groups of people or real
historical figures
• Formulating and sustaining
a thesis
• The structure of a text
(juxtaposition)
• First person narrative
Shakespeare
• Writing correct points/ topic
sentences
• Using evidence correctly
• Discussing a topic from multiple
perspectives
• What a play is
• How to read a play
• Soliloquys
• Stage directions
• Closed text assessment
• Analysing multiple plot lines
• Tragicomedy
• Pathos
• Closed text and unseen
assessment
• Formal conventions
• Hyperbole
• Foreshadowing
Modern
Novel
• Historical context
• Authorial intent
• Allegory
Poetry
• Unseen assessment without note
page
• Close textual analysis
• What a poem is
• Identifying tenor, vehicle and
ground
• Closed text and unseen poem
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
bold Explicitly taught vocabulary
‘Oliver
Twist’
‘A Midsummer
Night’s Dream’
‘Romeo &
Juliet’
‘Sherlock
Holmes’
‘Jane
Eyre’
poetry
‘Animal
Farm’
poetry
English Mastery Progression Map
‘The
Tempest’

29. English Mastery: Progression Map
Year 7 Year 8 Year 9
Unit Oliver Twist (OT)
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
(AMND)
Poetry (P)
The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes
(SH)
The Tempest (T) Animal Farm (AF) Jane Eyre (JE)
Romeo and Juliet
(RJ)
Poetry
Assessment
task (increasing
conditions)
What type of
character is Bill
Sikes?
Is the love potion
good or bad (students
told task late in unit)
How does the poet
describe the tom cat?
(unseen poem)
What kind of
Character is Sherlock
Holmes? (students
told task in lesson
before assessment)
How is Caliban
presented in the
extract and in the rest
of the play? (closed
book)
How and why does
the farm fail in
Animal Farm?
Explore the way
Brontë presents
Jane’s childhood
experiences
How does
Shakespeare present
Juliet as a tragic
hero? (unseen task)
Compare the ways
pets present x in two
poems (unseen task
for teachers)
Comprehension
and thematic
analysis
 Good vs. evil
 Victorian London
 Childhood
 Plight of working
classes
 Victorian crime
 Power & its abuse
 Morality
 Free will
 Love
 Family conflict
 Women & marriage
 Power & its abuse
 The natural world  Technology and
science
 Duality
 Colonialism
 Nature/ nurture
 Russian Revolution
 Agriculture
 Victorian attitudes
towards children
 Rural isolation
 Christianity
 Tragedy  The nature of
journeys
 Spiritual journeys
 Power & abuse
(OT)
 Childhood (OT)  Victorian crime
(OT)
 Good vs. evil (OT)
 Victorian London
(OT)
 Power & its abuse
(OT)
 Duality (SH)
 Morality (OT)
 Power & its abuse
(OT)
 Plight of working
classes (OT)
 Plight of the
working class (OT)
 Power & its abuse
(OT)
 Nature/ nurture
(T)
 Morality (OT)
 Family conflict
(AMND)
 Women &
marriage (AMND)
 Free will (AMND)
 Love (AMND)
 Natural world
(Poetry)
 Christianity (JE)
 Duality (SH)
 Morality (OT)
Structural
conventions
 The form of a novel
 Beginnings
 Endings
 Comeuppance
 Moral
 Construction of
character
 The form of a play
 Comedy
 Recurring plot
device
 Forms of poems  The form of
periodicals
 Openings
 Multiple plots
 Conventions of
comedy
 Soliloquy
 Allegory
 Perspective
 Character
development
 Juxtaposition
 Sonnet structure
 Foreshadowing
 Conventions of
tragic form
 Conventions of
tragic heroes
 Modernism
 Epic poetry
 Oral poetry
tradition
 Comeuppance
 Plot device
(AMND)
 Construction of
character (OT)
 Construction of
character (SH)
 Moral (OT)
 Recurring plot
device (AMND)
 The form of a novel
(OT)
 Comeuppance (SH)
 Perspective (AF)
 Character
development (JE)
 Soliloquy (T)
 Forms of poem (P)
Language
analysis
 Metaphor  Sibilance  Allegory
 Recurring imagery
 Punctuation for
effect
 Religious imagery
 Extended
metaphor
 Literal vs.
figurative language
 Metaphor in prose  Metaphor in
drama
 Metaphor (T)
 Religious imagery
(JE)
 Religious imagery
(JE)
Vocabulary
orphan, moral (n.),
vulnerable, brutal,
corrupt, villain,
malicious, victim,
naive
soliloquy, severe,
conflict, unrequited
love, to mock, chaos,
to resolve
metaphor, literal
language,
metaphorical
language, tenor,
vehicle, ground
to enlighten,
deduction, scandal,
periodical/ serial,
introspective, dual
nature, observation
colonialism, to usurp,
tempest, treason,
callous, pathos,
nurture, tragicomedy
allegory, tyrant,
rebellion, harvest,
propaganda, cult of
personality,
treacherous
dependent (n.), to
oppress,
juxtaposition, thesis,
to humiliate,
hypocrite,
comeuppance
tragic, prologue,
sonnet, feud, status
quo, obstacle,
hyperbole, tragic
flaw, exile,
foreshadow,
catastrophe
extended metaphor,
epic poetry,
procrastinate

30. Limitations
• It is easy and right to demand a curriculum be logical, cohesive and
cumulative
• Properly resourced, it is also perfectly possible to design
How do you neatly articulate the intricate complexity of
this kind of curriculum?

31. Recap
A strong intended curriculum should contain:
1. a clear vision of what it means to be a student of your subject
2. the ‘big ideas’ for the discipline: the areas that sustain study from cradle
to the grave
3. a convincing argument for how the ‘big ideas’ integrate with each other –
how they converse
4. a strong rationale for how the knowledge is selected, then organised and
sequenced

32. Some strategies
• DfE assessment objectives
• Specs from different boards
• A-level specs
• Undergraduate course descriptions
• Undergraduate reading lists

33. Is it worth it?
• Evaluated impact of programme on students in key stage three English
• Used GL’s Progress Through English assessment to measure students’
national percentile rank at the end of each academic year
• We wanted to see whether students were rising through the national
percentile ranks – i.e. making better than expected progress
• We also wanted to investigate the impact the programme has had on
teachers

34. Group Number of
students
(schools)
Response
rate
Effect size Estimated
months’ progress
Cost
rating
Secondary
vs.
comparison
14 schools
(1700 students)
91% 0.30 +4 months ££
The treatment group
• 7 Ark secondary schools
• 40 teachers
• 851 students
The English Mastery programme had a significant positive effect on
pupils’ English scores. Pupils in the English Mastery treatment
group scored on average, 4.32 percentage points higher than the
control group.
The pilot study and its impact

35. Comparison with national trends
Treatment group
Pupils in the
treatment group,
on average,
made progress by
0.5 of a grade.

36. Teacher survey
1. English Mastery is having a positive impact on my students’ progress.
93% of teachers strongly agree or agree
2. English Mastery is helping to enhance my subject knowledge as a teacher.
80% of teachers strongly agree or agree
3. English Mastery is helping to reduce my workload as a teacher.
86% of teachers strongly agree or agree

37. What next for curriculum
• Impact of the 2019 inspection framework
• Knowledge of teachers
• Burden on teachers
• Curriculum programmes are a solution, but…
• Conversation needs to move on

38. References
• Arthur N Applebee, Curriculum as Conversation, University of Chicago: 1996
• Helen Appleton, Seamus Perry, Adam Smyth, ‘English Reading List, Balliol College’
https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/english-reading-list
• Jonathan Bate, English Literature: A Very Short Introduction, OUP: 2010
• Department for Education, ‘English language: GCSE subject content and assessment objectives’
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254
497/GCSE_English_language.pdf
• Robert Eaglestone, Doing English, 4th ed, Routledge: 2017
• Ofsted, ‘The Wasted Years’, 2015
• Parents and Teachers for Excellence, ‘What should schools teach’?
http://www.parentsandteachers.org.uk/resources/what-should-schools-teach
• https://thecoffeeofficina.com/
• Dylan Wiliam, ‘Principled Curriculum Design’ , SSAT: 2013