Skill Profile
Curriculum Design
"Sequencing what is taught, in what order and with what assessment points across a course or subject, so learning builds cumulatively towards defined outcomes."
YOUR SKILLS
Problems This Skill Solves
- Pupils encountering a topic before they have the prerequisite knowledge to understand it
- Gaps or unnecessary repetition across year groups because the curriculum wasn't planned as a coherent whole
- A curriculum that doesn't prepare pupils for the actual demands of external exams or later study
- Inconsistent teaching quality across a subject because there's no shared curriculum framework to teach from
Curriculum design is just choosing which topics to cover.
The harder, more valuable work is sequencing topics so each one builds on secure prior knowledge, and building in assessment to check that happened.
A national curriculum framework removes the need for local curriculum design.
National frameworks set broad content expectations; schools and departments still need to sequence, pace and assess that content for their pupils.
Research & Outlook
Curriculum design is increasingly informed by cognitive science on memory and retrieval practice (e.g. spaced repetition, interleaving), and digital curriculum-mapping tools are making it easier to spot and fix gaps across a whole school's sequencing.
See This Skill In Action
Watch a professional demonstrate Curriculum Design in a real working environment — what it looks like, how it's applied, and why it matters.
Education / Curriculum & Learning Design
Curriculum Design
Also Known As
Growth Path
Contributes lesson content to an existing scheme of work within a set curriculum structure.
Designs a coherent unit or year-long curriculum sequence with built-in assessment points.
Leads whole-school or multi-year curriculum design, ensuring coherence across subjects and key stages.
How to Practise
- 1.Map a full year's curriculum for a subject backwards from the final assessment or exam specification
- 2.Identify and sequence the prerequisite knowledge needed before introducing a complex topic
- 3.Review and refine an existing scheme of work using pupil outcome data from the previous year
- 4.Study a subject association's curriculum guidance (e.g. from a national subject body) for best practice sequencing
How to Prove
- ·A full scheme of work or curriculum map you designed, adopted at department or school level
- ·Evidence of improved pupil outcomes following a curriculum redesign you led
- ·A recognised qualification (e.g. NPQ in Leading Curriculum, PGCE with curriculum design modules)