Boom or Bust
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I was talking to my son-in-law the other day about what we do within schools and the SMARTcurriculum work. He, like many outside the education dome, expressed a complete lack of understanding or appreciation of the working of schools. ‘It’s just there – teachers teach classes, don’t they?’ was his response. He had not considered the HR, finance and funding efficiency […]
Hatchet or Scalpel?
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You may not have seen our recent post in the Confederation of School Trusts . The goal is to develop a different narrative in the world of funding challenges toward an investment frame rather than a deficit frame. ‘We do not have enough to carry on doing what we have always done, but rather we […]
The Magnificent Seven
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In an attempt to define Integrated Curriculum Finance Planning (ICFP), the Department for Education (DFE) originally outlined 7 measures that would make a significant difference in managing an establishment budget. Today this has been extended to 10 planning checks (Link here). You may be familiar with other systems that use a combination of these metrics outlined […]
Dream the Impossible Dream
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ICFP, Integrated Curriculum Finance Planning, coined by Kate Copley a Deputy Director within the Department for Education (DFE), is the term that the DFE is now using to describe a process that has had a number of names in recent years. Some will recognise ‘Curriculum Led Finance Planning’ (CLFP) used by Outward Grange Academy Trust (OGAT) and various NPQH/NPQEL providers to describe a […]
A balance of three
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For the past 10 years I have been working on school efficiency, particularly in the area of curriculum design and provision. As a result of that work I would suggest that there are three characteristics of curriculum design that need to be held in balance at every phase. Efficient (can we afford it?), Effective (does […]
Being smart about curriculum
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Leading Quality in the Curriculum – Encouraging Curriculum Dialogue Author: Chris Jones, Managing Director CJ Learning Community We are constantly reminded that the leadership of state (and privately) funded education needs to be more accountable; money needs to be efficiently spent and outcomes need to demonstrate appropriate progress and high aspirations. Current reading will find […]
Scalpel or Hatchet
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You will not have missed the continuing dialogue concerning challenges in school funding. The varied impassioned reactions of educational leaders and the concerned public to the tightening of school budgets, a story that has maintained prominence for more than a year. For many within the state system, the inevitable cut-backs have been a reality for […]
SMARTcurriculum method
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The core principle behind the SMARTcurriculum® method is to have sufficient detail and reason to make good decisions about the curriculum provision reflecting the intent – implementation – impact framework now in popular understanding from the 2019 Ofsted framework- thus ‘To understand’. On so many occasions during my working life I have had reason to […]