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Curriculum Progression

There are more and more conversations around the curriculum happening now but are we talking about the right things?

I would argue not completely, let me explain:

Vertical Progression of a topic
Quite often we talk about how we can progress a topic vertically e.g. how percentages develops from finding a percentage, to increasing and decreasing, compound growth and decay, reverse percentages etc. This is often taught and learnt over a number of years and we look at where that fits in our Year 7 SOW and where it leads in Year 8,9,10 and so on. I love this from @SarahFarrellKS2 about how she progresses times tables in her Primary school over a number of years. https://mrsfclassroom.wordpress.com/2022/01/19/times-tables-understanding-and-applying-them/

Horizontal Progression of a topic
We discuss horizontal progression less than vertically e.g. how percentages links across the curriculum. If we continue with the example of percentages, I am sure lots of maths teachers make the link with fractions, decimals and ratios but do we go any further than that? What about linking percentages to areas of shapes? How does it link to linear graphs, how can we show an increase or decrease of percentages graphically? Can we use models/methods to support these links?  There are some fantastic resources produced for bar models and ratio tables and how they can be used across the curriculum from @amiecoley (https://alcmaths.wordpress.com/2022/05/02/ratio-tables/) on ratio tables and @bengordon (https://t.co/QDNLri3GK3) on bar models. 

Progressing Literacy 
I think there are very few conversations about progressing literacy outside of the English department. But it plays a big role in being able to do the Maths if students understand the keywords being used. My schools English department talks about focussing on single sentences in Year 7, multiple sentences in Year 8, Paragraphs in Year 9 and finally essays in Year 10 and 11. Should Maths have a similar progression of how words are used? What key words do we want students to know? Do we just look for definitions in Year 7? By year 11 are students able to write sentences or verbally use the keywords within their work? 

Progressing a model/method
Finally I don't think there are many, if any, discussions about progressing a model/method that we use. Do we consider why we use a certain method and how that will help students in Year 11 and beyond? Why solve equations using the balance method instead of function machines, how does that benefit us in the long run? How do we introduce a model/method? Are making links to models/methods used in Primary schools?


Curriculum progression is more than just a linear conversation about a topic, it is multi-faceted and our conversations about improving the curriculum need to reflect that. 

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