Why teach units in blocks?
At Mapplewell we pride ourselves in teaching engaging topic units that excite and enthrall pupils, leaving them wanting to learn more. Having a focused half termly unit ensure that every unit has an engaging hook to start off a unit, a clear and methodical learning journey where pupils can readily obtain bitesize chunks of knowledge that flow from lesson to lesson, allowing them to build connections and remember more. Pupils work towards an outcome which they are aware of at the start of the unit, so they know that they are adding 'tools' every lesson readying to create their final outcome.
Reducing Teacher Workload
For teachers it reduces workload, as there is a clear focus on a key driver for every half term. This makes arranging parental engagement and school trips more focused, something we pride ourselves on at Mapplewell to make every school trip meaningful and memorable. Subject leaders also receive CPD prior to their subjects half term, ensuring that they have ample time to update their subject leader action plan. At Mapplewell we use INSIGHT to assess in wider curriculum subjects and this again allows teachers to focus on few subject areas giving more accurate summative and formative assessments.
Weekly Taught Subjects
Below is a list of weekly taught subjects and a rationale as to why these lessons are not "blocked" like the rest of the curriculum.
- Computing - giving pupils modern day skills to be successful in the wider world.
- Science - as a core subject this ensures science is given the time to be covered with sufficient depth.
- RE - frequent reviewing of different religions around the same key question. Keeping the same key question allows pupils to know more and remember more and make specific links across religions.
- PD & RSHE - Having weekly sessions allows lessons to be made topical to recent major events such as the war in Ukraine. It also allows lessons to be linked to themed celebration days such as Anti - bullying week.
- PE - A weekly opportunity for physical exercise is a model of good practice to allow pupils to develop good routines around physical wellbeing to carry through to later life.
- Music - Due to recent government research and shared guidance (below), Music has been prioritised to have weekly teaching to ensure all aspects of the music curriculum are covered.
- The power of Music to change lives.
- Model Music Curriculum
- MFL (KS2 only) -As this subject is not taught across whole school this is taught weekly to allow the differences in KS1 and KS2 weekly timetables.
Knowledge organiser - front covers
At the start of every unit, pupils are presented with an outline of the unit. This will include key vocabulary that they will learn throughout the unit. It will also map out the hook, the learning objectives they will cover, through to their final outcome. Pupils will be given bitesize and achievable chunks of knowledge in every lesson that they will be expected to build upon for their next lesson. Key concepts will also be outlined, which allows subject leaders to easily map out important strands of learning that will be built upon throughout the school. This gives subject leaders a clear overview of what progression looks like from EYFS to Y6.
Curriculum Overviews
Below is an example of a curriculum overview. Senior leaders have worked with class teachers to map out what the academic year will look like and what will be covered to ensure the curriculum in engaging, progressive and not repetitive. As CPD is given by subject leaders, units will be added to as the year progresses.
Learning Logs
To encourage pupils to reflect on their learning every Friday, pupils are challenged with 5 open - ended questions that they discuss and complete on Seesaw. The nature of questions changes so that they can be topical - like the example below which was given to the pupils a the end of Anti - bullying week.
Learning logs also give pupils an opportunity to reflect back on "blocked units", and having an opportunity to reflect on the unit gives them the skills to know more and remember more. Below is an example given to the pupils after their History unit: