skip to main content
NEW! Tongue Fu Talking - A fully-resourced Oracy Framework

The Essentials Curriculum

This short course is for schools who use, or are considering using, our Essentials Curriculum and need a refresher on its key principles.

chris_cutout
Created and Led by
Chris Quigley
Duration
2 hours
Venue
Online or in-person
Target Audience
Teachers, Senior & Middle Leaders

Overview:

Designed for schools who use, or are considering using, our Essentials Curriculum and need a refresher on its key principles.

Many schools had input when they first embarked on the Essentials journey.  Since then staff changes and, of course, new requirements from Ofsted mean that a refresher would be valuable CPD.

  • Introduction or refresher into The Essentials Curriculum
  • Plan for End Points
  • Suggestions on how to use Essentials to plan your school curriculum.

Learn about:

  • The key principles that are the foundations of  The Essentials Curriculum
  • The curriculum’s structure, including progression through the Milestones
  • How The Essentials Curriculum may be used to establish breadthdepth and retention of learning
  • New materials we have produced to support you in reaching the goals within The Essentials Curriculum.

Why this course is important:

  • It is vital that schools know how to plan end-points in their curriculum
  • It is also vital that schools differentiate between end-points and the specific knowledge needed to reach them.

Take away:

  • A clear understanding of the principles of The Essentials Curriculum
  • Practical ways to use it to develop your school curriculum.

Enquire about a consultant delivering this course to your school/cluster

* means required field

    Can't find your school? Enter the address manually
  1. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Booking Options

What would you like to do?

  1. Book now for Chris to deliver this course online
  2. Enquire about one of our team delivering this course in-person at your school

Enquire
Evidence Informed
Evidence Informed
All our courses are based on peer-reviewed research.
Practical and inspiring
Practical and inspiring
We bridge the gap between evidence and practice.
Versatile environments
Versatile environments
We offer a choice between on-demand and live courses.

This event was part of a really important piece of work in our 3 trust schools beginning to collaborate on curricular development and staff felt Chris delivered a really useful session in cementing their understanding of the fundamentals. It gave opportunity for staff to link back to the design of the Essentials Curriculum and how to effectively use the Curriculum Companion products that each school has access to. I would rate my booking as excellent. Good communication throughout the process from booking to delivery. Many thanks for your support.

Sasha Furze
Enrich Learning Trust, Norwich

Great feedback from Ofsted for one of the schools we work with. The school also uses our Essentials Curriculum:

The school has established a well-designed, broad and ambitious curriculum. It
clearly sets out and sequences the important information that pupils need to know
in all subjects from the early years to Year 6. This helps pupils to build on what they
already know. Ofsted School Report November 2023

Thank you for all your support in helping me get our curriculum off the ground.  Couldn't have done it without Chris Quigley Associates. The curriculum comments are about the Essentials Curriculum. 

 

Ellie Rowe, Headteacher
The Grove Primary School, Cambridge

Latest from the Blog

Oracy for More Able Pupils: Why Structured Talk Still Matters
Oracy for More Able Pupils: Why Structured Talk Still Matters
28th Aug 2025
Oracy strategies for more able pupils must go beyond giving them a platform to talk. High attaining students need structured opportunities to develop advanced vocabulary, practise metacognitive strategies, and engage in exploratory reasoning. This blog explores how Tongue Fu Talking® provides a progressive framework to ensure more able learners thrive in both Explorer Mode and Presenter Mode, moving beyond surface eloquence towards clarity, substance and collaborative thinking.
Practical Oracy Activities for Every Key Stage: From Sentence Stems to Structured Debates
Practical Oracy Activities for Every Key Stage: From Sentence Stems to Structured Debates
24th Aug 2025
Looking for oracy activities for primary schools and KS3? This guide shares six practical oracy lesson ideas, from sentence stems and mini debates to structured presentations and reflection. Perfect for embedding speaking and listening skills into everyday teaching, these classroom talk strategies work across subjects and support progression, inclusion, and assessment with the Tongue Fu Talking® Oracy Framework.
Inclusive Oracy: How Tongue Fu Talking® Scaffolds Every Student
Inclusive Oracy: How Tongue Fu Talking® Scaffolds Every Student
19th Aug 2025
This article explores a key question in oracy education: how can schools ensure that oracy frameworks include every student, not just the most fluent speakers? Oracy is the disciplined art of speaking and listening—where thinking, language, expression, and collaboration come together to shape understanding and communication. A narrow focus on fluency in statutory requirements or oracy frameworks can unintentionally exclude students with speech, language and communication needs, autistic spectrum conditions, or those who stammer. This article analyses the 23 teachable practices of Tongue Fu Talking®, showing how each is scaffolded to ensure inclusion. Practices such as expressive eyes and face, rhetorical flair, and managing interactions—often difficult for some learners—are made accessible through sentence stems, multimodal communication, and progression belts. Tongue Fu Talking® provides a structured oracy framework for schools that values reasoning, expression, and collaboration, ensuring all students can become confident and effective communicators.
Tongue Fu Brand Mark