Education Durham: Early Years Curriculum Project Part 2

Publication date

16 September 2024

Authors

Charlotte Norman
Early Years Leader, Seascape Primary
Paige Hutchinson
Early Years Leader, Shotton Hall Primary

A focus on meaningful contexts, sequenced learning, school leadership involvement and provision for 2-year-olds. The progress from the Durham Early Yeats Curriculum Project is shared here by 2 early years leaders.

The curriculum project

The Durham Early Years Curriculum Project involves 26 schools focusing on strengthening purposeful curriculum design and implementation, and empowering leaders and educators in creating meaningful contexts for progressive teaching and learning. You can find out more about the wider project at the bottom of this article.

A meaningful and purposeful curriculum

Ensuring the early years curriculum is meaningful and purposeful for all children is a challenge. Practitioners and leaders must develop a clear understanding of the community they serve and the background, experiences, strengths and needs of their children. This, alongside shared aspirations and an understanding of the learning sequences across all aspects of EYFS, enables high quality pedagogy, and a freedom to follow children’s interests while, at the same time, meeting their needs.

The school community

Unpicking and understanding the context of the school’s community and the possible learning sequences across the areas of learning, and development and characteristics of effective learning, is a central focus for the Education Durham Early Years Curriculum Project. Early years leaders, alongside senior and subject leaders work together to explore this for their schools and their children. Professional development sessions enable schools to share aspirations through exploration of the school context and the unique characteristics of the children they serve. ‘Reverse engineering’ tasks support early years leaders and their primary subject leaders to explore appropriate progression models towards the Early Learning Goals, linking effective experiences and pedagogy for each stage of development, thus ensuring that the content and delivery of the curriculum is progressive, purposeful and meaningful for all children.

Curriculum ownership and empowered educators

The aim of these project activities is to support autonomy, advocacy and educator decision making, shaping deep thinking and understanding about responsive and responsible curriculum design and implementation. The discussions arising and the process of these activities are strengthening curriculum ownership and empowering leaders and educators in understanding and articulating the curriculum they deliver, and how it ensures effective and appropriate progression.