Curriculum - an entitlement that ‘Transforms’ lives

Claire Stafford

Curriculum Expert

As Curriculum Lead for Transform Trust, I am often asked what I care about in terms of curriculum content. This is a really interesting question as there are so many different thoughts around curriculum, perhaps based on your philosophy around teaching in general, or even your political standpoint. At Transform, we have maintained focus on ensuring that what we care about for curriculum matches our Trust values and reflects the needs of our diverse communities and partnerships of schools. ​

Fundamentally, I care about providing ALL children with a rich entitlement; a powerful curriculum that ensures they have the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed to make a positive difference to the world. I also wholeheartedly believe in removing barriers that may limit their aspirations. This vision stays the same, although the more I read and develop my own knowledge around curriculum, the more I adapt and change my approach to CPD. ​

As a Trust, we have made a conscious decision not to provide schools with a ‘one-size fits all’ downloadable curriculum. We firmly believe in providing leaders and teaching staff with the knowledge they need to plan and implement a curriculum that meets the needs of their school community. We share a variety of approaches to curriculum design from a range of educationalists with differing viewpoints so that they can make the strategic decisions that are right for them.  They are also supported by work that our team of experts at Transform have done on individual subject disciplines, cognitive science, SEND and Oracy.​

Our Curriculum offer, which sits within our Transform Teaching and Learning Applied model, complements this by having two strands: knowledge of subject and knowledge of leadership. We have planned and delivered a number of CPD opportunities this year, including training up Primary Curriculum Specialists in almost all Trust schools, a Subject Leadership Development Programme with over 100 delegates and a range of subject expertise workshops, designed to develop subject knowledge for teaching staff. We also kicked off the year with a Trust-wide Curriculum INSET day with over 700 delegates!​

So coming back to what I care about for our children. The curriculum is so much bigger than simply the National Curriculum.  It is the holistic entitlement that all children receive when they walk into your school. Your consideration as leaders is around what you want this entitlement to look like.​

I regularly ask myself the following question:​

Are we offering a curriculum that ensures that children fit within the world that we’ve created or are we providing them with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to shape the world for themselves?’ ​

I like to think that we do both. After all, they need to learn about the past to learn from the past. What I do know is this:​

The curriculum we provide shapes their legacy. ​

And that is why we do what we do.​

Claire Stafford Curriculum Expert, Transform Trust