28 June 2016

Scheme of Work Development

In March the Independent Teacher Workload Review Group recommended that "a fully resourced, collaboratively produced scheme-of-work should be put in place for all teachers for the start of each term". This is meant to reduce workload, though of course we all know that creating and maintaining a decent scheme of work is an enormous task.

Anyone who has worked at more than one school knows that schemes of work vary hugely in format and content. A good scheme of work, when followed by all teachers, ensures consistent topic coverage across teaching groups. I'm not saying that teachers shouldn't be allowed to go off on a tangent, but it's helpful for an incoming Year 11 teacher to refer to a GCSE scheme of work to see what topics their students studied in Year 10. And if teaching groups change year-on-year then it makes life easier if all students studied the same topics in Year 10.

I'm working on my school's GCSE scheme of work at the moment and I thought it might be useful to share my thoughts and experiences.

My previous school's GCSE scheme of work was created in Word, and looked like this:
It wasn't perfect, but it worked well and had been in place for a number of years. The sequence of topics was sensible, the timings worked and the format was fairly user-friendly. Importantly, teachers could quickly access useful resources, saving them time in lesson planning.

I moved school last June and found that my new school used a timeline which was created in Excel. Having picked up some ideas from Twitter (mainly @missradders - thank you!) I set about turning their timeline into a fully resourced PowerPoint-based scheme of work.

The PowerPoint I've created opens with a timeline showing the order of teaching, as shown below. Each topic is hyperlinked to a slide which contains more details about exactly what to teach.

At seven lessons a fortnight we've been fairly tight on time this year but this allocation is increasing next year. I hope to finish teaching new topics to Year 11 by Easter but I've cautiously indicated on the scheme of work that we may run into the summer term, leaving very little time for revision.

Clicking on a topic leads to a slide that sets out the specification (using extracts from AQA's Teaching Guidance) and provides links to resources. Here's an example:

I've edited this format slightly for the Year 11 pages I've been working on lately, increasing clarity for Foundation teachers.

I find these pages very useful when I'm planning lessons - I can see exactly what I'm meant to teach and what resources are available for each topic. I think it's working well.

So what's next for my scheme of work? Well the order of topics didn't work brilliantly this year so we need a reshuffle for our next cohort of Year 10s. For example, linear graphs was taught prior to solving equations and rearranging formulae, which doesn't make sense. In general the order seemed a bit haphazard, so I'll work on grouping and ordering topics in an attempt to make it flow better.

I'd love to see your GCSE scheme of work if you're willing to share it. I know that Craig Barton has recently launched a new GCSE scheme of work here - given the quality of Craig's work, I'm sure this will be worth exploring.





21 comments:

  1. I'm in the middle of a Year 10 scheme of work for the new IGCSE, and I've gone for a similar timeline approach although all based in google docs. Click on the topic title and it takes you to a page lifted from the Edexcel SoW (which has objective, possible success criteria, opportunities for reasoning/problem solving, common misconceptions, notes and questions from SAMs) and then I'm also adding in (slowly but surely but it might have to remain a work in progress at this rate!) my own notes and ideas for teaching methods, plus links to good resources.

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  2. I worked with a group of teachers a few years ago and we produced this:
    https://sites.google.com/site/maths2014sow/
    Although through moving schools I don't use the scheme much, just the resources.
    We adapted the Norfolk Pi Scheme which I think has been used in other counties too (we heard that Edexcel pinched it for their own scheme of work!). It is progressive and we are not tied to teaching particular topics to defined years or sets. With a great set of maths teachers you need the flexibility to teach the right content to students based on a loose framework.

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  3. This looks great! Do you have an updated version showing what changes you've made?

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    Replies
    1. Hi. If you email me I’m happy to email the latest version!

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    2. Hi Jo, is there any chance you have a final copy of this powerpoint to share - it would be really helpful in terms of workload for me to edit adapt your creation?

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    3. Hi Jo,
      I hope you and your family are all doing well, and keeping safe and healthy at this very challenging time.
      Me and my students love your work. Thanks for sharing with us. Would it possible for you to email me the latest version of your Sow please? We are currently developing ours and it will be good example for us.
      My email address is esinertan87@hotmail.com
      Thanks a lot again.

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  4. Hi. Would it be possible for you to email me the latest version of your scheme of work. I am in the process of changing things around and there are only 2 full time members of staff in the department, so it is a big task and any help would be much appreciated. Thank you

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    1. Hi Jo. I am huge fan of your work. I would also love to see the latest version of your SoW if possible. We are currently developing ours.

      If possible could you email it to me too.

      c.shakespeare@kingsmeadschool.net

      Many thanks

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  5. Email for above comment!
    alison.dixon@ksgs.cumbria.sch.uk
    Thank you

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  6. Hi Jo,

    After listening to the podcasts between yourself and Craig, as well as the blogs you post and the research we have read. We are going to change to AQA. Therefore it would be great to look at your SOW please as a starting point if you don't mind. We are trying to create a 5 year plan. Many thanks!!Amy (amylj30@outlook.com) Thank you in advance.

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  7. Hello Jo,

    Would you mind if I took a look at your latest version of the IGCSE SOW. We are using the higher tier only but would appreciate looking at what you have.

    Thank you
    higgins.k@dbsbangkok.ac.th

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    Replies
    1. Hi. Sorry, I thought I replied to this. I don't have IGCSE, only GCSE. Sorry!

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  8. Hey Jo,

    Newly appointed Head of Maths here and part of my performance management is to enrich the SOW. I want to include common misconceptions and literacy links such as Frayer's model to support our non-specialist staff. I would be really grateful if you could send me a copy of your latest SOW. My email is;

    bdaly@debenhamhigh.co.uk

    Thank you

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  9. HI Jo
    I am just looking to move back to AQA and would love to see your 5 year plan. My email is ssloan593@c2kni.net
    Thank you
    Sharon

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  10. Can i have it too vicneswaran88@gmail.com
    Thanks for sharing your SOW

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  11. Hi Jo, Can I also have a look at you SOW? My email address is rimsaada@gmail.com
    Thanks for all of your amazing work.
    Rim

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Jo
    Could I possibly have a look at your SOW. My email is neil.moore@utcplymouth.org. Once again(so many times), thank you so much for all that you share.
    Neil

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  13. Hello. Please could those who have recently left comments on this post to email me instead of asking here please? Sorry to be a pain but I get hundreds of spam comments on my blog that I have to sort through so this is not a good way to contact me! Plus I'll lose track of who I've sent it to if this is where requests are made. Email me at resourceaholic@gmail.com instead please and I will reply.

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  14. Hi Jo,

    I am looking to train next year (currently on SKE) and would like to plan ahead for my training year, would it be possible to email me the version you have. I am collecting as many as I can find to put together one of my own.

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    Replies
    1. Hi. See comment above. Please email me. :)

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