Just over a year ago, trying to create a better structure of the 20 years of resources, experience and experiences accumulated physically in my classroom, on the pc and in my head, I watched Marlene Wylie's curriculum planning video. In this film, Marlene shows the range of stimuli, resources and research that went in to planning the Oak Curriculum. I thought, "Oh, my goodness. Yes!". Needing to see the wood from the trees, I wanted to create a clearer path through what was on the verge of becoming a Key StageA key stage is a stage of the state education system in England, Northern Ireland and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar setting the educational... 3 (11-14) programme of study that was 'an inch deep and a mile wide'. Within the department, we provide the students with an excellent key stageA key stage is a stage of the state education system in England, Northern Ireland and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar setting the educational... 3 experience to lead them onto key stageA key stage is a stage of the state education system in England, Northern Ireland and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar setting the educational... 4 (ages 14-16), but every year this can always be fine-tuned to be even better.

Initially to get thoughts out of my head and onto a more visual ‘mood board’, I collated some of the key elements of our curriculumIn education, a curriculum (or curricula) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned... onto paper and onto my living room floor, this then thankfully developed into a Padlet. With the clearer structure and potential enabled through the Padlet, I was able to see moreclearly to flesh out the initial skeleton with 'endpoints', coverage, progression etc, to tie together a more workable structure.

The Padlet board was also able to bring together many separate documents essential to the staff and students in the department, such as links to NSEAD guides to writing in artArt refers to a diverse range of human intellectual and expressive activities and the outcomes of those activities. Within this context art is further defined... & designDesign shapes ideas to become practical solutions and propositions for customers and users. Design is all around us, everything man made has been designed. The... [Do we need to spell it out), DrawingThe art of representing object and forms on a surface chiefly with the use of line and with pencils, crayons, pens and a variety of... in Photography, both by Graham Hooper etc. This provided a more workable and helpful structure, yes, but I felt that there was yet more that could be done…

Enter ‘The Big Landscape’ - an entirely new level of potential to elevate curriculum development so much further. Navigating the clear format of The Big Landscape has enabled me to exactly pinpoint how best the school’s Programme of Study can be further enhanced. The toolsA physical item used to achieve a goal. A fashion designer might use a needle and tailors dummy, a jeweller might use a clamp and... of The Big Landscape offer a transparent step-by-step guide. It has enabled me to clearly see and describe our priorities for key stage 3. For example, when considering ‘What learning’, after pinpointing KS3, I was able to focus on Breadth and Balance and used this to then research Domains of knowledgeDomain knowledge is knowledge of a specific, specialised discipline or field, in contrast to general (or domain-independent) knowledge. There are many ways of ‘carving up’ domains... and Theoretical knowledgeTheoretical knowledge is the cultural and contextual content that pupils learn about artists and artwork..

As The Big Landscape points out - there is limited National Curriculum guidance. The teaching and coverage of our subject, as laid out in The Big Landscape, offers an infinite web of possibilities and opportunities for us and for our students. Planning is always ongoing and as I continue to refine our curriculum as a working documentTo record or observe and make written, visual or digital notes from an event, performance or place, The Big Landscape facilitates clarity of thought, highlights vocabulary, content and structure and continues to provide me with a helping hand, a guiding light - a beacon! I know that The Big Landscape will guide me forward in taking each next step needed to deepen every aspect of the programme.