Curriculum Thinking Week 2023
How often do you get a chance to visit other schools to see how they do things?
Not as often as you’d like, I imagine. As a teacher, I managed it maybe five times.
I wish I could’ve done it more. Every time I did, the things I learned, the people I met and the resources we shared challenged and supported me for years to come.
But your timetable just makes it too hard.
That’s why we do what we do at We Are In Beta.
It’s also, why we organise Curriculum Thinking Week.
What is it? Read on.
We - schools - Are In Beta - always learning (especially when tune in to hear what others are doing in their departments).
This week
📚🧠 Curriculum Thinking Week 2023.
💼 🔎Jobs with We Are In Beta community members.
🤝🚀 Why you can’t afford to not build relationships with colleagues in other schools.
📚🧠 Curriculum Thinking Week 2023.
Learn how our member schools’ brightest subject experts are developing every aspect of curriculum in their departments including…
🔬Research and theory, 🎯 intent / vision, 🗺 cross curricula coherence, mapping, sequencing, 📆 interleaving, 🧠 retrieval, 💼 embedding careers, 💭 metacognition, ✊🏾 diversity / decolonisation, 📚literacy and reading, 🧮 numeracy, 📊 assessment and more.
Curriculum Thinking Week Spring 2023 is our third online conference, celebrating incredible subject-specific practice in schools across the community.
The 2021 and 2022 conferences here and here shared 190 sessions, 660+ resources, across 15 subjects which 3000+ colleagues have attended.
Colleagues across our 200+ Curriculum Thinkers member schools have been nominating subject experts to present on every aspect of curriculum for 10 minute talks.
Join us between 30th Jan & 3rd Feb 2023 to:
Learn from schools beyond your school, MAT or region
Meet fellow subject experts
Download hundreds of resources
Challenge your thinking
📅 RSVP to register and add it to your diary for a reminder.
Ahead of the event, we’ll send you an email with:
a private invite link to access the online conference space and all the resources presenters will be sharing
full line up for all the sessions to plan your week
⏯ Catch up on previous Curriculum Thinking Weeks:
Can't access these?
Already a member? Activate your membership plan.
Not a member? Get a trial.
👀 If you’re not a member yet, get a sneak peek at the line ups for previous Curriculum Thinking Weeks:
Sent this by a friend?
🙏 Huge thanks to all the schools and MATs who have supported so far.
Special thanks to our partner MATs. Their trust wide memberships, alongside our individual school memberships and partnerships, help make this national collaboration possible.
Learn more about them here:
Want to see your MAT here? Excellent. Reply to this email.
💼 Jobs with We Are In Beta community members.
Want the 14.5k+ people reading this newsletter to see your roles?
System leadership.
Director of Secondary Education - The Priory Learning Trust (Somerset). Message HR School Partner, Alex Tedford.
Senior leadership.
Deputy Headteacher - Park House School (Newbury). Message Head of Pupil Services, Janice Bowling or Head, James King.
Assistant Headteacher - Park House School (Newbury). Message Head of Pupil Services, Janice Bowling.
Assistant Headteacher - Gloucester Academy (Gloucester). Message Head of Pupil Services, Janice Bowling or Head, Phillipa Lewis.
DDSL - Brackenhale (Bracknell, Berks). Message Head of Pupil Services, Janice Bowling or Head, Bhavin Tailor
Middle leadership.
Director of Science - Ivybridge (Devon). Message DHT, Tim Cresswell.
Head of Performing Arts - Blaise High School (Bristol). Message head, Nat Nabarro.
Head of MFL - Park House School (Newbury). Message Head, James King.
Head of Chemistry - Greenshaw High School (Sutton). Message Head of Pupil Services, Janice Bowling.
Teaching.
Computing/Business - Watling Academy (Buckinghamshire). Message Head of Computing, Karl Bartlam.
English and Maths - Cumberland Community School (Newham, London). Message Exec. head, Thahmina Begum.
French and Spanish - Forest Gate Community School (Newham, London). Message Exec. head, Thahmina Begum.
English, Maths, ICT, Food - The Robert Napier School (Medway). Message DHT, Jane Dunnett.
Interested in these roles?
Send the people who posted them a message to find out more. But first…
🤝🚀 On a personal note.
In my 7th year of teaching I was tasked with setting up BTEC Science. From scratch.
If you’ve ever taught any BTEC you’ll know how hard that is.
On top of your usual workflow, you assume a whole chunk of work that’s usually done by someone else.
The exam board.
You’re not just their curriculum designer and teacher.
You’re their examiner and their verifier - the pain of which every teacher is now familiar with after TAGs and CAGs.
At the time I was working part time while setting up We Are In Beta. The BTEC workload was so high I was working a 4 day week on a 2 day contract.
That was until I heard a fellow Head of Science, who I’d met through networking some years prior, had been through a similar experience.
I asked the cheeky question that offered salvation.
They said yes. They agreed to share their entire BTEC Science shared drive.
It gave me a starting point. A sense check. A huge sense of relief.
That would never have happened if my Head a few years earlier has not encouraged me to get out there and visit other schools.
I doubt it would have happened if I hadn’t have helped them the first time I met him either
It goes to show the how powerful building relationships with people in other schools is.
Do you or your team want to meet generous subject experts?
Thanks for reading.
@NiallAlcock and the We Are In Beta team.
📱 Get 15,261 school leaders and teachers in your pocket - download We Are In Beta app
🆕 New here? Catch up with previous editions, podcasts and webinars via the archive.