Personalised Learning – The Four Deeps

Personalising learning has gone from contentious double-speak first spewed forth by central government in 2004 to something that is at the heart of curriculum development.

” John White, emeritus professor of philosophy of education at the Institute of Education, one of the most consistently original and free-spirited thinkers in British education, has called into question one of the mantras at the heart of government policy: personalised learning. What does it mean?

According to White, it is a sloppily defined term that means so many things at the same time as to mean nothing at all. It made its entrance in Blair’s speech to the Labour party conference last year: “Personalised learning for every child in new specialist schools and city academies” (those in the remaining bog-standards will have to satisfy themselves with their learning experience remaining impersonal). At this point, it was merely a seductive slogan in search of meaning.”

The Guardian, Oct 3rd 2006

Although its definition has taken time to evolve, the concept of personalising learning is now a familiar concept to curriculum managers and indeed many of the other staff in schools.

There are a massive range of papers, resources and studies that cover the agenda – enough to populate a blog in and of themselves, however this document written by David Hargreaves and published by SSAT and iNet, uses a model based around “the four deeps’ – Deep Learning, Deep Experience, Deep Support, Deep Leadership which I have found to be particularly useful in the past. There are a range of supporting pamphlets that I will post in due course.

"How Well are we Achieving our Aims?" – SSAT (1)

Once the wheels start turning on your curriculum change it will be important to gather feedback in a range of contexts and via a number of pre-determined way-stages. Collecting information from stakeholders – yes even the pupils! – is a crucial step along the way.

This first document, produced by SSAT, will be of use during the early stages to gather information about where the strong opinions lie in your school regarding possible changes to the way the school curriculum operates. As usual, grab the DOC version if you want to make changes specific to your school situation.

Gathering Opinions (PDF)

Gathering Opinions (DOC)

The second document will be of use a little further up the thinking tree and asks important questions about transition, progression, timings, flexibility and choice. Both documents come highly recommended!

Curriculum Checksheet (PDF)

Curriculum Checksheet (DOC)

"How do we Organise Learning?" – SSAT (2)

SSAT have produced a list of questions that could be used with stakeholders from a range of backgrounds to consider what it is you are trying to achieve in your particular school. As with previous posts the questions come in a pretty PDF and a more pragmatic DOC format.

Questions to develop thinking around curriculum change (PDF)

Questions to develop thinking around curriculum change (DOC)

“How Do we Organise Learning?” – SSAT (1)

SSAT – the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust – have produced exhaustive and high quality resources to support curriculum development. Getting staff to buy-in to the vision of the senior leadership team is critical in the creation of a coherent curriculum that is equally owned by teachers at all levels – to say nothing of the pupils but that’s a whole different post!! This document is aimed atthe initial meeting with staff to set out the range and philosophy underpinning the next steps of curriculum change. Establishing a whole school response to “what are we trying to achieve?” will dictate which direction these steps go in. (The document comes in two flavours – PDF with graphics, etc and DOC to allow you to make any necessary alterations)

Curriculum Context (PDF Version)

Curriculum Context (Word Version)

Have You Had YOUR Training?

Over on the ‘About’ post, there was a question that raised some interesting issues around training. As you may, or may not(!) be aware, training on curriculum change is being provided through a range of support partners. NCSL (National College of School Leadership) and SSAT have been charged with providing support for leadership and curriculum managers in schools. At subject leader level CfBT
(an education trust) have been running courses since January, on through until March for foundation subjects. I am awaiting permission to post the remaining dates on this site but in the meantime if you are a subject leader of a non-core subject and are desperate to know, please email me on the address on the ‘About’ tab and I will provide details on a one-to-one basis. Finally the Secondary National Strategies are responsible for the delivery of training to core subjects via LA consultants and subject leader network meetings happening this and next term.

I am really keen to hear how well these events and training providers have been advertised to schools. Did you know CfBT were offering events in your subject area? Have the dates reached subject leaders in schools? Has anyone been on the training and have anything they can share, feedback or evaluate for us?

If you are a core subject leader have you had your SNS training yet? There will be consistent messages across the Maths, English, ICT and Science subject leaders’ meetings and it will be important to collaborate not just as core subjects but also as a wider team of curriculum subjects. Having had the training is there anything you would wish to share – especially to foundation subject subject leaders who will not have had the same training? What gaps, if any, do you feel were left in the training materials? What further training would you wish to have?

For core subjects the strategies will shortly (end Feb/ Start March) be producing frameworks to flesh out the PoS statements and illustrate progression in skills and content across levels and school years. Hopefully these will be of great benefit when it comes to writing schemes of work, etc. to ensure that the full

As ever, if you can provide any answers or would wish to share any information relevant to this post, please hit the comment link below.