An issue many schools struggle with is how to ensure progression in the non-core subject areas and, indeed, in science. A particular challenge arises from the curriculum's organisation around different content elements. For example, Year 3 might study the Stone Age, closely followed by the Romans in Year 4. Similarly, Year 4 might study rivers, followed by biomes in Year 5.
The substantive knowledge we want children to gain in one unit does not link seamlessly to the substantive knowledge in the next. This has been a prohibitive feature in many of the curriculum designs that I have evaluated in schools and has often led to children lacking a cohesive understanding of the subject.
The progression, therefore, must come through the disciplinary knowledge. For example, there is an expectation of a hierarchy of disciplinary knowledge for such areas as chronology, significance and evidence-base in history alongside such areas as settlements, climate and trade in geography.
In this way, we can see how children’s knowledge of the impact made by the Romans when they invaded Britain builds on the knowledge the children already know about the Stone Age times. In geography, greater understanding of the physical features of river basins helps them develop a greater understanding of diverse types of biomes.
So, if we want the curriculum to support children’s deeper understanding and interest, progression in most subjects needs to be set out under both substantive and disciplinary knowledge. Another important feature is that the progression should start with EYFS so that the school’s curriculum is cohesive, allowing for a natural transition from reception to Year 1.
However, building progression through substantive and disciplinary knowledge is just one aspect that we need to ensure continuity. We also need to build up a lexicon of children’s subject specific vocabulary and enable them to express their knowledge maturely. Identification of key vocabulary alongside the use of subject specific sentence stems is a key consideration.
In our latest publication, we have built on our previous publication, ‘How to assess a knowledge-rich curriculum, focusing on sticky knowledge’ by identifying more precisely the disciplinary knowledge required and providing the key vocabulary children need. We also include sentence stems for each subject, supporting children in their ability to express their new learning.
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Clive Davies' latest publication 'Raising Expectations across the Primary Curriculum: Identifying ‘Sticky Knowledge’ offers a helpful and time saving guide to curriculum planning and implementation
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