I recently delivered a session titled, ‘Primary Maths: Differentiation through scaffolding and adaptation’ at the #PrimaryEssentials conference on Saturday 8th May. Recordings of the event are still available for purchase here.

The talk focussed on the importance of high-quality differentiation that allows the vast majority of children within the classroom setting access to the same content with tangible real-life examples of how to do so. Instead of creating 30 different tasks/lesson plans for the 30 children in the class teachers should instead use strategies to ensure children are accessing age-related curriculum expectations. 

Skills progression has an important part to play in designing a well-rounded art curriculum but what does the term ‘skills progression’ actually mean?

In its most basic form, it is essentially advancing pupils through a series of simple steps that becomes progressively more advanced in order to develop proficiency in more complex skills.

Planning backwards and sequencing should be paramount. Teachers should have a firm knowledge in knowing how things fit together. These need to be the fundamental building blocks. Planning a one off, individual lesson in detail with no idea how it fits into wider learning won't help the children. It might be a great lesson but with no understanding of how children learn and how learning will be embedded it's all for nothing.