Building Stronger Curriculum: Bolton’s Five Pillar Approach

Now in its second year, the Curriculum Executive Board (CEB) collaborates with Bolton leaders to provide training & resources to support curriculum development to ensure there is consistent high quality teaching in all subjects in all our schools. The CEB has established five pillars: subject expertise, quality instruction, making knowledge stick, adaptive teaching, and assessment/feedback. In 2023-2024, subject hubs received research and training on the first two pillars, focusing on enhancing teachers’ expertise and using memory strategies to prevent cognitive overload.

Within subject expertise, we explored the novice/expert theory and ways in which subject leaders can use department meetings to enhance teachers’ expertise in areas such as developing resources, explaining abstract concepts and reshaping explanations to address misconceptions. Within quality of instruction, we explored Willingham’s model of memory and strategies to avoid cognitive overload using Rosenshines’ Principles and elements of Teach Like a Champion. We also explored an article by Beth Budden around ‘seductive teaching’ and how this can reduce focus on the most important elements of a lesson.

In the current academic year, we have continued our focus on the five pillars.

We started with making knowledge stick, starting with an analysis of the 19k’s complex cohort such as 34% of pupils living in the 10% most deprived areas of the UK and 70% living in the 30% most deprived areas of the UK. We linked this to potential vocabulary and cultural capital barriers that teachers need to overcome to help pupils to learn well and make links in their learning. We explored how we can use strategies from John Dunlosky and Tom Sherrington to overcome Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve. In our next session, we will start to explore adaptive teaching for pupils with SEND, including research from leaders across Bolton and beyond.