A template to trigger and capture improved thinking on curriculum and assessment

The Rise – the first school to be opened by Ambitious about Autism Schools Trust, a multi-academy trust for students with an EHCP (education, health and care plan) for autism – is not alone in its quest to improve the coherence of our curriculum. However, as an all-through school, with a slightly shorter school day than our mainstream peers, we need to be even more focused on which aspects of the National Curriculum to prioritise. As Martin Robinson (@trivium21c) recently tweeted, ‘Curriculum has to be ‘joined-up’ with each teacher knowing how what they are teaching fits into the overall narrative. They pass the baton on from teacher to teacher.’ It is exactly this coherence that we are wrestling to achieve: a clear 11-year path from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 4. Once the 11-year path has been mapped out, the second vital step is to zoom in and specify the key content for each unit. Both Willingham (Willingham, 2009) and Christodoulou (Christodoulou, 2016) have debunked th