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Planning your curriculum


Advice and planning tools to help you to design your new curriculum


Top Tips

London delegates came up with the following top tips:

  • Make sure you know what your school is planning in relation to the new curriculum
  • With your department, decide what you want to develop - build on something you are doing well
  • Go to other subject leaders to see if you could make links. What are other subjects doing?
  • Reassure your staff by looking at what you are already doing that fits the new curriculum
  • Find out what support networks there are within the school and borough-wide, and get involved
  • Ask pupils what they enjoy and what helps them to progress.


    • Basic information to get you started


    1) Essential documentation
    The revised programme of study for languages (pdf file)
    At a glance! The programme of study on one side of A4 (pdf file)
    QCA's new curriculum website

    2) Planning advice
    The following pdf files provide a useful overview:
    Implications, planning and first steps (905KB)
    Frequently asked questions (924KB)
    Languages and whole curriculum dimensions (898KB)
    Supporting the gifted and talented and SEN learners (893KB)

    Managing change: some points to consider

    QCA is asking schools to 'refresh and renew' their curriculum, not plan from scratch. Success in implementing one new idea can be a powerful beginning on which to build. Ask an enthusiastic and energetic colleague to pilot a new activity. It can then be evaluated, tweaked and rolled out to other classes. Think about what kind of change would have the most impact AND be manageable.

    If you haven't recently observed teaching in local primary schools, ask to visit one to find out how pupils are learning a language there. Could you use some of the same approaches in year 7? This case study describes how one school did this with very positive outcomes.

    You will need to map your scheme of work against the revised programme of study. Are there some aspects that need more emphasis? You could also note which Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills are being developed in learning activities, and where topics are relevant to one or more of the whole curriculum dimensions. By doing this you will raise your department's awareness of key aspects of the new curriculum, and be well prepared to contribute to whole school work on skills and themes.

    No need to throw out the text book! Why not look at each unit and refresh some of the learning activities:

    • Could you give pupils access to a real audience?
    • Could you use more authentic resources from the internet?
    • Could you bring in a stronger cultural element?

    There are practical examples of these aspects in the case studies and the intercultural understanding toolkit on this website.

    Planning tools

    (Click on the title links to dowload the relevant Word document or Powerpoint slides)

    1. Some prompts for discussion

    This is an open-ended starting point for discussing your aims for your learners and what kind of learning experience you would like them to have. The 'what-if?' question acknowledges that the new curriculum is inviting schools to be bold and think outside the box. It could prompt an 'anything goes' brainstorm - who knows, one manageable idea might emerge!

    Download here some ideas generated by delegates at a recent workshop: I wish our pupils could... Blue sky thinking

    2. Clarifying our aims

    This activity enables you to revisit what you want your learners to achieve, to explore the balance between attitudes and attributes, skills, and knowledge and understanding, and to consider how to measure success in achieving these aims.

    3. Designing compelling language learning

    This planning sheet is designed to help you plan a specific learning experience or activity. What kind of experience will help pupils to achieve the learning aims you have defined in the previous activity? Which aims will this activity focus on? How can the activity be organised? And how will you evaluate how well it has worked?

    4. Approaches to timetabling

    Many schools are planning to bring in 'collapsed timetable' days (or even weeks) which allow pupils to make links between subjects. If so, they are likely to be reducing 'normal' teaching hours to free up this time. It is important to be in a position to make positive, proactive suggestions to ensure that language learners benefit from the changes. What could languages contribute to skills development and the whole curriculum dimensions? What links with other subjects would be mutually beneficial? Could new approaches to timetabling open up an opportunity for exciting and innovative language learning? This planning document is designed to help you and your team to think about these issues.
    There are examples of ways of linking with other subjects in the case studies and the working with other subjects toolkit on this website.