Melland High School Curriculum Development

Melland High School meets the diverse special educational needs of pupils between 11 and 19 and is a support school for central and east Manchester high schools and is a National Support School.

To review and develop the school's curriculum.

Over the past three years, I have worked closely with the senior and subject leaders in reviewing and developing the school's curriculum. During this time, they conducted a thorough self-evaluation of the provision and, as a result, this school knows itself exceptionally well. By finding strengths to build upon and deciding on a strategic development plan, leaders have established a purposeful, well-sequenced curriculum that meets students' unique needs.

By establishing curriculum drivers, leaders created a curriculum offering that incorporated the school's values, the values of the trust to which they belong, and the needs of students. This collaborative process involved senior, curriculum and subject leaders.

Ensuring the curriculum drivers shape subject-specific provision highlights leaders' commitment to their importance; the associated staff development has been exceptional.

Students' Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC) is fundamental to the leaders and the curriculum's central driver. Ongoing and probing discussions amongst all relevant leaders have led to a thorough understanding of the nature of SMSC and its practical implementation in classrooms.

For the areas of learning, high levels of professional discussion led to the school establishing explicit learning sequences, clearly portraying progress through a qualitative progression model.

Leaders' engagement in educational research has been thorough. Evidence-informed pedagogy is a significant element of staff development and has helped leaders effectively deploy staff.

The school's work on establishing practical assessment procedures that are genuinely useful for a range of audiences has involved thoroughly examining past, existing and future practices. As a result, they are confident in evaluating their curriculum's impact and using assessment to improve student outcomes.

Working with the leaders of Melland has been an absolute pleasure: their professionalism, commitment to excellence and critical self-review have made for a rewarding involvement from which I have benefited enormously.

Chris Quigley Director, Chris Quigley Education Ltd, 30th March 2023