Breadth and depth labels
Within our Knowledge-rich projects, several lessons have been labelled as 'breadth and depth'. This article will explain why this is the case and what this means when planning your own curriculum.
As many schools in Wales are choosing to incorporate some of the Knowledge-rich projects into their own bespoke curriculum, it may be helpful to understand why some of the lessons in these projects have now been labelled as 'breadth and depth'. This does not apply to the Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs). These notes are therefore mainly applicable to schools in England who are using The Cornerstones Curriculum, a knowledge-rich model curriculum designed to support schools with coverage of the English National Curriculum, but there may be some relevance if you are using these projects in your school.
Once the release of our recommended curriculum for England (formally Curriculum 22) was completed back in October 2022, our Curriculum Team worked alongside our Curriculum Advisers to conduct research with schools to see the impact of the curriculum in the classroom. During customer feedback, some schools asked if they could remove some project content because of time constraints, especially during shorter terms.
The Curriculum Team then reviewed the curriculum content and to help schools in this situation, they have labelled some of the project lessons with Breadth and depth. These lessons expand and deepen children’s knowledge and skills, as well as provide cross-curricular opportunities, and it is highly recommended to teach them. However, if they are not taught, the sequence of learning and the coverage of national curriculum programmes of study will not be affected.
It is recommended that only senior leaders decide whether to remove Breadth and depth lessons from their Cornerstones Curriculum and consider each lesson carefully before it is removed. This will also help with consistency across the school.
The new Breadth and depth labelling has now been added to Maestro and appears like this:
If you need support with the content of this article or anything else, please do not hesitate to contact us on 03333 20 8000 or use our Live Chat facility to speak to one of our helpful and friendly team.
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