Curriculum and advice & guidance

“Personalising Learning: Curriculum and Advice & Guidance” is a joint publication by the Specialist Schools Trust and The Secondary Heads Association. The publication is part of a series of six pamphlets on personalising learning through nine gateways.

The fourth pamphlet, “Curriculum and Advice & Guidance,” focuses on how two gateways, curriculum and advice and guidance, can help teachers and students personalise learning. The publication defines personalising learning as a professional process or journey, rather than a product to be delivered. It explains that personalising learning demands that every aspect of teaching and support is designed around a pupil’s needs. The publication emphasises that teachers have always sought to personalise learning, but they do not always succeed in meeting every need of every student. Therefore, the publication calls on teachers to make any changes to current practice that will allow them to meet more of the needs of more students more fully than in the past.

The publication is divided into five core themes or strands that capture what characterises a student for whom learning is being successfully personalised. These themes are the engagement of the student in learning and schooling, responsibility assumed by the student for learning and behaviour, independence in student control over learning, maturity in relationships with staff and peers, and co-construction by students of their education and the design of teaching and learning.

The publication contains case studies that illustrate how these five themes constantly appear as a kind of trademark of successful personalisation. The discussion of each gateway explores the steps teachers can take to personalise learning for their students and also reveals complex interactions between the gateways, which are not silos to be treated independently.