Case studies
These case studies illustrate how different schools have interpreted the curriculum within the context of their own setting and to meet the needs of their learners. They show learners and teachers trying out ideas and sharing their experiences and insights. All the schools involved organised their own learning activities and undertook appropriate checks to meet health and safety requirements.
A dramatic approach to ICT
Applying their ICT skills to a school play has proved popular with pupils and resulted in some creative outcomes.
An innovative approach to active citizenship
Ingenious use of time and innovative approaches to teaching and learning are giving pupils new opportunities for active citizenship.
Science in an international light
Investigating scientific discoveries from an international perspective has developed pupils’ cultural understanding.
Engaging with identity and cultural diversity
Staff at Bishop’s Hatfield Girls' School wanted to do more to enable learners to counter the negative views about cultural diverisity that they were hearing from some members of the local community.
Self-assessment supported by the PLTS framework
At Broughton Hall School a student-owned assessment model helps pupils recognise their achievements and make progress.
Engaging electronics
Giving pupils an appealing, relevant brief can make all the difference to their engagement with systems and control.
Inclusive, international and outward looking
Notre Dame High School in Norwich has used a range of approaches to develop its learners' understanding of cultural diversity and encourage them to be more outward looking.
Bringing language learning to life
An e-learning project with a school in Spain has given pupils a real reason to learn languages.
A scheme of historical themes
Can taking a thematic approach at key stage 3 improve pupils' grasps of key concepts such as chronology, continuity and change?
A global perspective on diet and health
A project involving schools around the world has given pupils the opportunity to explore diet and health from a global perspective.
Tags: Science,KS3,Personal development,Be healthy,Global dimension and sustainability,Healthy lifestyles
Inspired engineering
A cross-subject engineering project has helped pupils transfer knowledge and skills between different subjects.
Creativity and healthy eating
Being given free rein to experiment with ingredients has nurtured pupils' creativity and raised their awareness of healthy eating.
Creating an enterprise pathway
How can you modify the key stage 3 art and design curriculum to reflect a particular specialism – in this case, business and enterprise?
Self-assessment supported by the PLTS framework
At Broughton Hall School a student-owned assessment model helps pupils recognise their achievements and make progress.
Community broadcasting
Giving pupils a platform for dialogue can help them to develop as critical thinkers, active citizens and effective advocates.
Inspiring economic understanding
How can pupils’ economic understanding and financial capability be developed through the study of social and environmental issues?
Cultural understanding through poetry
At Whitstone School studying Ghanaian poems has increased pupils' cultural understanding and fired their enthusiasm for poetry.
Getting personal with RE
Relating learning about faith to everyday life has helped pupils to engage with diversity.
Engaging electronics
Giving pupils an appealing, relevant brief can make all the difference to their engagement with systems and control.
Getting passionate about history, in French
Combining MFL with history through the medium of film has engaged pupils and developed their linguistic competence.
Inclusive, international and outward looking
Notre Dame High School in Norwich has used a range of approaches to develop its learners' understanding of cultural diversity and encourage them to be more outward looking.
Bringing language learning to life
An e-learning project with a school in Spain has given pupils a real reason to learn languages.
Personalised learning breathes life into music
Taking a risk and allowing informal learning with its unstructured outcomes into the music curriculum has had remarkable effects on pupils’ enthusiasm and will to learn.
Cutting exclusions through personalisation
How has Coventry local authority achieved a dramatic reduction in the number of learners being permanently excluded?
Creativity through algebra
How did a trip to Rome inspire a hands-on approach to algebra?
Linking geography, history and drama
Changing the timetable has enabled geography, history and drama teachers to embark on innovative work together.
A scheme of historical themes
Can taking a thematic approach at key stage 3 improve pupils' grasps of key concepts such as chronology, continuity and change?
A global perspective on diet and health
A project involving schools around the world has given pupils the opportunity to explore diet and health from a global perspective.
Using mathematics to solve problems
Solving open-ended real-life problems has required pupils at Westhoughton High School to use analytical and reasoning skills in situations where there is no one right answer.
Being safe and responsible online
Concerns about pupils using messaging applications and viewing inappropriate materials prompted a school to focus on safe and responsible ICT use.
The huff and puff scheme
Restructured break times and supervised activities help pupils at Abbey Park Middle School to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.
Action through facilitation
How can training pupils as facilitators develop them as active citizens and confident learners?
An active approach to listening
Scripting and recording dialogue using multimedia players has transformed the way pupils think about listening activities.
Designing healthy food for a local context
Designing a healthy soup using seasonal produce has helped pupils to understand the relationship between design, lifestyle and choices.
Bringing the world into school
Hornsey School is raising its pupils’ awareness of global issues by creating links with schools around the world and embedding global learning across the curriculum.
Motivation through coaching
Can putting pupils in charge of their own and others’ learning increase participation and raise achievement
Enterprising English
Providing a real-life context for developing competence in speaking and listening and writing skills.
Languages through culture
Languages work in year 9 has enabled pupils to use French or German to communicate about issues that are relevant to the world around them.
Chronological coherence
Creating a scheme of work based on themes across time periods has brought a new coherence to one school’s key stage 3 curriculum.
Storytelling in French
Working within the familiar context of nursery rhymes, fables and fairytales has given pupils the courage to experiment with their use of language.
Learners lead the way in physical activity
Sacred Heart High School set its learners on the path to increased physical activity and a healthier lifestyle through a project led by year 10 students.
Personalisation and relevance
How can schools develop a whole-school approach to inclusion that enables all students to learn, thrive and achieve their full potential?
Developing musical skills
Discovering what pupils really wanted to learn in music lessons and then delivering it has had far-reaching effects at one school.
Increasing participation in PE
Bordesley Green Girls’ School wanted to deal with the cultural challenges of getting Muslim girls involved in PE and school sport in order to increase participation and improve learners’ general fitness and health.
Playing at mathematics
Baliol School, Sedbergh, draws on a wide range of activities beyond the classroom to support mathematics.
A new look at literacy
The flexibility of the new secondary curriculum is supporting an innovative approach to literacy at Fir Vale School in Sheffield.
Success through personal, learning and thinking skills
A PLTS-focused curriculum at Top Valley School and Engineering College in Nottingham is engaging learners and helping them to become more independent and effective learners.
Controversy in the community
As a school in a community where organised racist groups are influential and active, Heanor Gate Science College was keen to raise learners’ awareness of racism locally.
Personal growth
How has Stoke Damerel Community College given its pupils the confidence to talk frankly about emotions, safe sex and relationhips?
Identity and cultural diversity
Prompted by concerns about racial tension in the local community, Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School is focusing strongly on celebrating cultural diversity, encouraging inclusion and involving the local community.
Writing for real audiences
Pupils with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties have benefited from taking part in a city-wide reading project.
Linking mathematics with other subjects
Using mathematics to solve problems in other subjects can have a positive effect on pupils’ learning in both areas.
Broadening learners’ horizons
Learners at The Leigh City Technology College are benefiting from a project that is encouraging them to learn about, investigate and act on global issues.
Bringing electronics to life
An innovative electronics project that fosters creativity and independence has inspired and motivated pupils.
Confidence through leadership skills
Team-building activities have developed pupils’ leadership skills and given them the confidence to take responsibility.
Planning for historical enquiry
How can the changes to the programme of study be used as the stimulus for a new approach to key stage 3 planning?
Engaging pupils as historians
How can you use the new flexibility offered by the revised programme of study for history to design a curriculum that meets your pupils’ needs and interests?
Cultural diversity through history
Henry Compton School in Fulham, west London is a science specialist college, noted by Ofsted as having a ‘harmonious atmosphere’ where relationships are ‘built on mutual respect’.
Cultural understanding: from Beowulf to Dr Who
An English department is refreshing and enriching its schemes of work by putting the new key concepts at the heart of learning.
Art, dance and image
New technologies were the starting point for an inspirational multi-disciplinary, cross-curricular dance project.
Confidence through cooperation
Teaching art in the community has had a remarkable effect on pupils with low self-esteem and behavioural problems.
Sharing plans for access
Two mainstream secondary schools in different parts of London have benefited from working together to plan access for key stage 3 pupils working around level 1 of the national curriculum.
Challenging stereotypes
Shifting the focus from covering content to developing RE skills has helped to engage pupils and make learning more meaningful.
An individual approach to history
Exploring the lives of individuals from the past is helping pupils at Fernhill School and Language College make sense of history’s big issues and key concepts.
Tags: History,KS3
Making connections within and beyond science
How can taking a thematic approach help you to make links both within a subject and across the curriculum?
Building a language bridge between primary and secondary
Woolston School in Southampton has helped local primary schools introduce French, smoothing the transition between years 6 and 7.
Media arts in public spaces
A multi-disciplinary project involving creating art for public spaces has given pupils valuable insight into contemporary practice and teamwork.
Riches for all
The mathematics department at Comberton Village College wanted to enhance their work to reflect the revised national curriculum.
Creating coherence with key concepts
Linking units of work through key concepts is bringing a new coherence to the curriculum and helping pupils to see their progress.
Putting students at the heart of assessment
Reflecting on the PLTS framework has helped students at Pool Business and Enterprise College to understand the assessment process and their progress within it.
Personal challenge week
A week of activities designed to encourage learners at Cramlington Community High School to make a positive contribution has had much broader benefits.
Inclusion and success for all
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School is committed to ensuring that it meets the needs of all its learners and enables them to succeed.
Tags: KS3,KS4,Successful learners
Keep talking, keep listening, keep thinking
Recording role-plays of difficult situations helped sixth-formers at Chapel Road School understand emotions and the consequences of not controlling their behaviour.
Supporting looked-after children
Children in care in Birmingham local authority are supported through their schooling by the Looked After Children Education Service – LACES – which aims to promote stability, learning and achievement.
A whole-school approach to personal development
By planning personal development across all aspects of school life, Standish Community High School is promoting the wellbeing of all its learners.
Learner voice at the heart of school improvement
Putting personal development at the heart of learning and giving students a voice has made the difference at Birches Head High School.
Bringing Shakespeare to life
At Fernhill School using a variety of innovative activities to teach Shakespeare has engaged pupils, increased their confidence and raised their attainment.
History matters
If you want to design a curriculum to motivate and engage pupils, where better to start than by listening to their views?
Writing funky fairy tales for children
Pupils at Cowplain Community School in Hampshire used ICT and English functional skills to write funky fairy tales for children at their local primary school.
A cross-curricular challenge
Year 7 pupils at Bowring Community Sports College develop their functional skills through cross-subject work.
Tags: Design and technology,KS3,Confident individuals,Responsible citizens,Successful learners,Functional skills,Functional English,Functional ICT,Functional Mathematics,Personal development,Make a positive contribution,Community participation
Resourceful and enterprising learners
Perins School in Hampshire is developing gifted and talented pupils’ ICT functional skills while generating online learning resources for year 7 pupils.
Exploring ultimate questions
How can the ultimate questions confronting humanity be explored effectively at key stage 3?
A culturally inclusive school
Whalley Range High School is aiming to create a culturally inclusive environment in which all learners feel valued and diversity is respected.
Cultural understanding through music
A unit of total immersion in African music and life at Formby High School has improved not only pupils' cultural understanding but also their musical abilities.
Functional skills engage learners
The Bridge Academy in Fulham is using a functional skills project to increase a group of key stage 3 pupils’ motivation and their sense of belonging to school life through real decision-making.
Looking for meaning
Taking a philosophical approach to learning about religion is equipping pupils with skills that will stand them in good stead beyond key stage 3.
Cutting the cloth to fit
Relating mathematics to fashion design and experiencing the connections poses a challenge for both learners and teachers at Henrietta Barnett School for Girls.
Safe and sound online
Making sound recordings to communicate the online safety message has had a powerful impact on pupils.
Improving assessment gives status to skills
Oasis Academy Enfield has made assessment of progress an integral part of a motivating culture which rewards achievement.
Creativity in the making
Putting creativity at the centre of a design and make activity has set a design and technology department on the path to curriculum change.
Transforming geometry
Belper High School aims to develop approaches where students take greater responsibility for the work they do, to develop students’ mathematical thinking skills and to support differentiated learning.
Meaningful mathematical contexts
Wellacre Technology and Vocational College has devised a strategy to embed functional mathematics across the curriculum.
Changing lifestyles
A focused six-week project has raised year 9 pupils’ awareness of the benefits of exercise and healthy lifestyles.
Economic matters
How does Aylsham High School in Norfolk use financial capability to connect pupils’ learning across the key stages?
Taking a risk with creativity in art
Imagination, experimentation and risk taking in art and design can produce rewarding results for pupils and teachers alike.
Butterfly broadcasts get pupils thinking spiritual and moral
Daily news broadcasts have made the spiritual and moral side of learning come alive for pupils at Park Community School in Hampshire.
Promoting lifelong learning
Changing the curriculum in years 7 and 8 has proved a powerful starting point for improving attitudes to learning at Glossopdale Community College in Derbyshire.
From prescription to personalisation in PE
Allowing pupils to make informed choices about what they learn in PE is setting them on the path to lifelong physical activity.
Swings and roundabouts
Wildern School employs a motivating context and well-structured tasks to exploit the use of information and communication technology in developing mathematical understanding.
Making sense of money
A project delivered in PSHE is helping year 7 pupils get to grips with real-life finance
Making progress in creative thinking
St John’s School and Community College's focus on developing skills and nurturing creative thinking has led to pupils being more in control of their learning.
Tags: KS3,PLTS,Creative thinkers,Personal development,Enjoy and achieve,Creativity and critical thinking
Bringing skills to life
Honywood Community Science School in Essex has found that spending specific days focusing on skills has had an impact on learners’ achievements across the curriculum.
Exploring history through speeches
Thanks to parallel planning by the history and English departments, pupils at Kesgrave High School in Ipswich are learning about significant historical figures and the power of persuasive speech.
Understanding interdependence
Making a topic relevant to pupils can significantly improve learning about unfamiliar concepts.
A richer mathematical experience
Sharnbrook Upper School gets the best out of a one-off event.
Communicating the way to success in science
Mapping the progression of communication skills in science is helping to reinforce the literacy skills of all pupils.
A new focus on personal, learning and thinking skills
West Kirby Grammar School is putting the development of pupils’ personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTS) at the heart of its curriculum.
Geography hits home
Could your home be flooded? If so, what’s your best form of defence? Pupils from North Yorkshire get the opportunity to explore relevant, real-life issues through geography.
New geography schemes for a new school
Deacons School – about to become part of a new Academy – has taken a radical approach to designing a new geography curriculum.
Cultural diversity across the curriculum
Wallasey School is using culture weeks to help learners understand their own and other people’s cultural identities.
Democracy in action
Giving pupils opportunities to build on their citizenship skills of advocacy and representation year on year is giving them the confidence and experience to take responsible action.
Quick links
No pages are available.
Curriculum case studies
Role play with morals
Recording role-plays of difficult situations helped sixth...