One of our school values involves the delivery of an inspiring curriculum, personalised to the needs of our children and community. That’s hard to achieve without quality time for teachers to collaboratively think about what they want to cover and how; the danger is that you slip back into teaching “what we did last year”.

So for the past two school years we have allocated designated planning time, as well as normal planning, preparation and assessment time. Each half-term, we arrange cover, so teachers in a year group can work together for a day to make the vision of an inspiring curriculum a reality. Our senior leadership team don’t look at any planning other than the outcome of these days, trusting teachers to get on with their job and do what they need to do for our children. The following is what happens during our planning days.

Reflection

The first part of every planning day is spent thinking and talking about what the children enjoyed learning, and the successes of the previous half-term.

Hook, visit, outcome

We plan each half-term’s work using the same structure. Teachers decide on a hook to engage the children; a visit or visitor to give them a broader experience; and then a final outcome that gives them something tangible to work towards. For example, our recent Year 4 topic was “The Great Outdoors”. For the visit, the children went to a local outdoor centre for a guided walk and the outcome involved inviting parents in to read their wonderful writing, based on their experiences.

The content to be taught in each of the foundation subjects has been agreed across the whole school to ensure we teach everything we need to. The way it is taught is up to the teachers to decide.

Revisiting assessment policy

We ask teachers to remind themselves of our school assessment policy. The policy is designed to make feedback as effective as possible while reducing the need for written marking. It has changed over the past year, and it is worth the time spent reading it again and talking about it with colleagues to ensure everyone understands it.

Gap analysis

At the end of each term, the children complete standardised maths and reading tests. At the planning day, teachers go through the results and identify the areas with which individuals, groups and perhaps the whole class are struggling. This information is used to help plan what needs to be taught during the coming weeks and which interventions may be required.

Key objectives to teach

Teachers look at key objectives in reading, writing and maths to identify what the focus of their teaching needs to be for the next six weeks.

Homework menus

Each year group plans homework for the coming half-term to give the children (and their parents) a choice about what kind of activity they would like to complete. This came about because our parent questionnaire showed a wide range of preferences, and we wanted to try something that would meet as many of these as possible.

Online safety and PSHE

The final thing teachers do is to identify the activities required to reinforce online safety.

The key challenge is money. Amid shrinking budgets, every aspect of the school’s work has to be considered and reviewed, but we made the decision that the planning days are so critical that we had to ring-fence the money for them.

The biggest benefit has been the sharing of expertise and creation of collective responsibility for the curriculum. Providing time for teachers to reflect and plan together has been the most effective strategy we have used for improving the quality of teaching and learning. Teachers have the opportunity to try different ideas and approaches, knowing that they will be given time to look back and see if they have worked or not.

There is also the additional benefit of improved teacher wellbeing. When we asked teachers this term what had made the biggest difference to their wellbeing this year, planning days topped the list.

The most important aspect is that teachers get time together to plan, think and reflect on children’s learning. The quality of teaching, the exciting curriculum and reflective practice we get as a result of prioritising this time make them worth every penny of the money invested into them. I am sure we will continue to see our curriculum blossom.

Roy Souter is headteacher at Stoke Hill Junior School in Exeter