How to Design a Curriculum: Behind the Scenes at Developing Experts

Curriculum design is the structured process of planning what pupils will learn, how knowledge and skills will be sequenced across year groups, and how lessons will be delivered to ensure clear progression, coherence, and engagement. Designing a curriculum is much more than putting together a sequence of lessons. It’s a careful, considered process. Read on for an insight into how we develop schemes of work here at Developing Experts. 
 

Step 1 - Starting with the National Curriculum

The National Curriculum in England is a statutory government framework that sets out the subjects taught and the knowledge and skills pupils are expected to learn at each stage of their education. When writing for KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4, we always start by looking at this document. Our goal at this point is to gain clarity - what exactly has to be taught? 

Step 2 - Market research: Listening to teachers 

A curriculum only works if it is usable in the classroom. At Developing Experts, we are constantly engaging with our teachers and finding out what they really need. Knowing this, as well as what the government requirements are, puts us in a strong position to start writing. 

Step 3: Mapping the overview 

The next stage involves high-level curriculum planning and design. We map all of the National Curriculum objectives across topics and year groups, making sure each statement fits naturally within an engaging unit. We can see the whole-school progression at this point as we start forming our coherently sequenced curriculum. At the start of EYFS, we begin by building on the experiences of the children, preparing the foundations of knowledge, skills, and vocabulary for them to build on unit by unit, year on year. During the mapping of our scheme of work, we see the web of knowledge form across themes and topics, giving children the opportunity to revisit learning as they form an understanding of new concepts.  It’s about seeing our ambitious curriculum as a complete sequence, not just as isolated units.

Step 4: Building the units 

Once the overview is complete, we start the more detailed lesson plan writing process. We break all our units down into 6 lessons, with three differentiated lesson objectives and the details of what pupils will learn. We also incorporate key vocabulary, ensuring it develops progressively across units and year groups. We plan out a main task for each lesson, and include opportunities for extended writing tasks that consolidate learning and support literacy skills. At this stage, we take into account how children progress over their time in one year group. For example, the writing expectation at the start of Year 2, in their Castles unit, is less than the expectation at the end of Year 2 in the Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole unit. Prior knowledge is built upon lesson-by-lesson before we plan an end-of-unit assessment task for pupils to showcase all they have learnt. 

Step 5: Telling the story 

We then bring these lessons to life. Our lesson presentations are created using carefully-chosen wording so that each lesson tells a story. Every lesson begins by consolidating prior knowledge through careful questioning and discussion, giving teachers time to assess children’s understanding and address any misconceptions. We carefully source images to ensure they are scientifically or historically accurate, and help to bring the children's learning to life. We create differentiated resources and printable handouts to ensure all learners are catered for. Our videographers and editors create informative key points videos and animation videos to add some energy into the units. Everyone in the team has their part to play. 

Step 6: Fine-tuning the experience 

And finally, before launching our new curriculum, we proof and fine-tune. We take feedback from our team of experts, refine our ideas, and double-check everything against that all-important National Curriculum. We work together to ensure a well-sequenced, ambitious curriculum is ready for classrooms. 
 

Designing a coherent curriculum takes time, but when done well, it can spark a pupil's lifelong love of learning. At Developing Experts, our attention to detail means our schemes of work are well scaffolded, progressive - and fun! Explore our full range of units and lessons designed to support effective curriculum delivery in your classroom. 

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