Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment
Our approach to improving teaching and learning is set out in our education strategy. We are committed to high standards and collaboration. In all our work, we draw a careful distinction between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment – this ensures that the core knowledge we want pupils to know and remember is front and centre.
This clarity about what we want to teach helps us think about how we might best approach teaching. We utilise a coaching approach and insights from research (including Barack Rosenshine’s principles of instruction) to constantly improve our pedagogy. We understand the limitation of assessment and emphasise formative approaches.
Our education strategy has been designed by a former SHMI and Ofsted deputy director who has specific experience in curriculum and policy development. They led Ofsted’s curriculum unit and have received specific training and support from some of the country’s best educational thinkers like Heather Fearn, Mark Enser, Dr Julian Grenier, Dr Dan Owen, Dr Richard Kueh, Michael Young and Christine Counsell.
To ensure our strategy is effective we have thought very carefully about quality. Without a shared sense of what quality means to us all, we can’t draw valid and reliable conclusions about the impact of our work. For that reason, we have established ‘conceptions of quality’ that codify what we think good looks like.
Exactly what is a COQ?
- COQ set out our shared idea of what makes for quality practice. We have established COQs for many areas of our work. They are co-produced by experts from across our trust. They help us have rich conversations about what we do and why we do it.
- COQ operate at a high-level. They set out guiding principles for what lies beneath. They are not ‘straight jackets’ or rubrics.
- COQ help focus thinking and school improvement work – they keep the main thing, the main thing.
- Ultimately, they keep our work grounded in research and stop us going down rabbit holes!
We have established networks for each subject in the national curriculum - networks meet termly to discuss developments in their disciplines. Leaders share insights and think deeply about how pupils make progress.
Our school improvement team offer bespoke support to each of our schools following a programme of reviews and categorisation. All improvement work is ‘done with’ schools – we do not wander around schools with clipboards. We use evidence and insights to target developments and support growth.
The rapid impact of our school improvement strategy has been recognised on a national stage. Over half of our key provision areas have been judged outstanding at inspection since summer 2024 and our special school has been judged outstanding for the third consecutive time.
Our curriculum, pedagogy and assessment programme can also be accessed/commissioned by schools beyond our trust – call us to find out more about school reviews, networks and ongoing improvement work.
Testimonials - what our partners have said about our school improvement work:
I can't begin to thank you for today. It is the best CPD I have attended in years. The team have key areas of focus and have left feeling informed about their next steps. It was a positive experience for us all.
‘The experience was challenging but incredibly positive in terms of establishing some specific direction at this stage on our journey. The school improvement team are incredibly skilled in building safe relationships where developmental challenge is not posed as a threat, but something to be excited about.’
