Writing a scheme of work is a important business for any English department, but it is not an easy task. I often hear the phrase ‘scheme of work’ used interchangeably with ‘unit of work’, but these are two very different stages of planning . In this article, we explore schemes of work from the ground up: what is a scheme of work, who should design it, what should be included and ten tips to write a top scheme of work that is successful long term.
What is the difference between a scheme of work, a unit of work and a lesson plan?
A scheme of work is a macro-plan: it is the broad, big picture planning of the curriculum across a long-term period, usually one academic year or one key stage.
A unit of work is a meso-plan: it is a medium-term plan which sequences the content, skills and activities used to teach one particular topic for a shorter period of time, perhaps as little as one week or as long as one term.
A lesson plan is a micro-plan: it is a short-term, highly specific outline of the sequence of teacher and pupil activities, learning intentions and resources used for learning within one individual lesson (i.e. a 35 minute lesson, or a one hour lesson).
This model of curriculum planning is like Russian dolls in that it is a plan within a plan within a plan! In other words, a scheme of work contains multiple units of work, and a unit of work includes multiple lesson plans.
Let’s explore these ideas in greater detail. Understanding these big terms, and having your planning clear and in place, sets you up with an intentional strategy for teaching and supports all teachers within your department. This article will begin with a detailed consideration of a scheme of work, then move on to a unit of work. Click here to read more about what a lesson plan should include.
What is a scheme of work?
A scheme of work is the big picture curriculum plan for your class across the academic year or indeed the whole key stage. It will include all of the units of work to be covered across the scheme. A scheme of work will look at the large building blocks, for example what is taught, when it is taught and how many weeks are allocated to that topic.
It should include summative assessment opportunities, for example a Christmas examination week, end of year examinations, reporting deadlines, etc. It should include holidays too, to allow clear guidance on time scales for covering each unit.
Who designs a scheme of work?
The scheme of work is best designed by the Head of Department, in collaboration with other teachers within the department.
There are strategic issues to consider, for example whether all classes in a year group will study the same text at the same time, or whether these units will be taught on a rotation. For example, where copies of texts are in short supply and the budget doesn’t stretch, it may be best to rotate units of work within the scheme to avoid purchasing more copies. How does this decision feed into assessment opportunities if classes have not all complete the same texts at the end of a term? If a unit of work is to be updated or changed, it is helpful to see how it fits into the bigger picture of the curriculum plan. Is there a gap in the experience of language or literature, content, themes, genres, time periods, etc. Are there enough female writers or black writers or local writers being studied?
Another issue to discuss at department level is how much freedom and flexibility there is for an individual teacher to vary the units taught within the scheme: if a Shakespeare play is studied by a class in the summer term, can one teacher choose Macbeth while another teaches Romeo and Juliet? There is no right answer here, but the important thing is to ensure there is strategic leadership so that a Year 8 class does not study Macbeth again in Year 10! A scheme of work that is followed consistently, year on year, ensures there is no accidental repetition. “Miss, we did this last year” is a phrase you don’t want to get caught out with!
Many schools will require schemes of work to be submitted to the senior leadership as part of whole school planning and quality control. With this in mind, it is best to see schemes of work as strategic documents for the school rather than the job of one individual classroom teacher. While each teacher will have a unique style of teaching and lesson planning, it is important to ensure all students, regardless of which teacher they got, have a comparable experience of English at the school. If students end up moving from one class to another (for example, for pastoral reasons), will they be able to pick up in the new class where they left off in the old class?
What should be included in a Key Stage 3 English scheme of work?
As an English teacher, I want to ensure all of the statutory and non-statutory elements are planned strategically. In Northern Ireland, we have a Big Picture document to help you to see how English fits into the wider curriculum. In addition, there is guidance on statutory elements to be taught in English and Media Education. There are examples of units of work that you might want to include in your wider scheme of work, such as this novel quest on the novel Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd. Here are some of the elements I want to include when I create or tweak a scheme of work:
- A balance of experiences of poetry, prose and drama in each school year
- A balance of genres, texts from different cultures and time periods, and diversity in the authors studied
- At least one Shakespeare text, but ideally more
- A balance of fiction and non-fiction texts
- Media education
- Drama skills (drama is not taught as a discrete subject in my school, but this may not be relevant if your school allocates specific lessons to drama with a specialist teacher)
- Grammar, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure skills
- Thinking skills and personal capabilities
This list is not exhaustive, but it does provide a starting point to decide whether your Year 8 scheme, or your KS3 scheme, is covering the skills and content that you are happy with.
10 tips to write a top scheme of work:
1. Involve all members of your department in designing and writing the scheme of work
By taking a collaborative approach, you are better able to play to the strengths of your teachers, as harness their enthusiasm in the curriculum.
2. Take stock of what your department already has at hand
Unless you are starting a brand new school or department, it is highly likely that you are planning or adapting an existing scheme of work. To throw the whole thing away and start anew might seem like refreshing and positive action, but in reality, it is much too demanding on time and resources. If you can keep a core set of units of work in place, you are more likely to succeed in making improvements to the other units, creating a better scheme of work overall. In addition, with the squeeze on school budgets and the ever increasing cost of living and cost of resources, buy new texts for all parts of your scheme is likely to be too expensive. Keeping parts of your scheme of work as a structure allows you to focus in on refining the other parts. You can always continue to make changes to other parts of the scheme in future years. Rome wasn’t built in a day!
3. Research and work collaboratively with teachers and leaders from others schools, both locally and across the UK
Both sharing your own, and gleaning from others, the ideas, resources and strategies is important in ensuring your department is staying relevant, inclusive and innovative. Professional development cannot happen in a silo; working alongside others outside of your own school context can give fresh focus and new ideas to enrich your own work.
4. Look for opportunities for cross-curricular links
Could the English department plan a scheme of work to coincide with the History department’s to plan for shared learning opportunities? If Private Peaceful could be taught in Year 9 English at the same time as the History department taught World War One, just think of the enriching experience and depth of knowledge your students would gain. English lends itself to shared learning with some many different departments, the opportunities are endless: just think of the range of topics we read about when we read non-fiction and media texts. There are infinite creative writing opportunities which could pick up on big topics from History, Geography or Religious Education. Using ICT is another obvious area for mutually beneficial overlaps in learning experiences. I am getting excited … just imagine what could be possible if we worked together for the benefit of our students’ learning.
5. Create progression within your scheme
Aim to step the learning challenge across the school year and across the key stage, for example increasing the complexity of poems from Year 8 through to Year 10, increasing the level of challenge in grammar skills, etc. Ideally, there your scheme of work is fixed for several years before any further big changes to allow you to monitor the students progress through effective use of data and outcomes. A group of students who start your KS3 scheme of work in year 8 can be monitored and tracked across the three years to see how the scheme supports their learning. After a three year cycle, you can make changes to the sequence and content, remembering that small changes can make a big difference.
There are resources to help you on your curriculum website. In Northern Ireland, there are documents to support your tracking and mapping of skills. For example, these Ready Reckoners are excellent resources to support skill development, and these Communication Levels of Progression support classroom teachers in monitoring progress and including specific skills in learning intentions.
6. Plan a rich and diverse range of texts, topics and authors
How many of your texts are written by women? How many are written by local writers, and how many are by writers from other cultures? Do your learners experience a range of historical and geographical contexts? How many of your texts are positive and uplifting compared to dark and tragic? Do your texts explore a range of human experiences and teach valuable lessons in regard to topics such as diversity, inclusion, mental health, moral values, etc? By the way, there is no correct ratio or formula. The main purpose of asking these questions is to encourage intentionality rather than feel that there is a ‘right’ list of texts to cover.
7. Map out the skills taught across the scheme of work
This is a huge goal to work towards, and it is not necessarily possible to achieve in initial planning, and may even be the work of several years. However, mapping skills to ensure there are no gaps, no accidental repetitions and a clear sense of progression will create a scheme which very clearly builds towards a robust and effective scheme in which students complete a coherent course to prepare them for their next step, and in which teachers feel confident of prior learning. When I talk about mapping skills, there are so many skills which we can refer to: these skills might be grammar or punctuation skills, language devices, reading skills, skills in relation to problem solving, working with others, ICT, drama, etc … there are many skills to map and many many opportunities to teach them! Without a coherent plan, some classes may miss out, some classes may feel frustrated by repetitions and some teachers may feel overwhelmed by the long list of skills they want to cover in too short a time period. Map these out across the scheme to ensure you know what has been taught and when. Try using different colours to help you to visualise the skill area on your unit to help you visualise the organisation of these skills across each unit. Cautionary note: just because a skill has been taught, that does not necessarily mean that it shouldn’t be revisited later in the scheme, or repeated year after year but again, be intentional with prior learning and planning for progression.
8. Align the skills taught to the assessment opportunities
When planning an examination or assessment task, ensure that all students have been specifically taught the skills they need to succeed in this particular assessment in the unit(s) of work that precede the assessment. English, which is a particular skill-heavy subject, is more like to text skills than knowledge. This means that our assessments should assess the skills that have been taught and practised in the term leading up to that assessment.
9. Ensure your scheme of work is a 'working document' rather than set in stone
I know that it will take blood, sweat and tears to create a ‘perfect’ scheme; you will feel delighted with it when it is complete. And I also know that you will be devastated and frustrated when you are asked by SLT to revise it, or add to it, or remove from it. Don’t they know what a masterpiece it is? But if you have been in education for longer than a week, you will know that nothing is ever finished. There is always something new to include, more to add to the workload of teachers, and more ways that we can enrich learning experiences for our students. Add careers education to every unit of work across the key stage/add opportunities for thinking skills/create knowledge organisers/homework schedules/word banks for all topics, etc. When you see your scheme as live and changeable, you are able to make changes without breaking your heart.
Of course, I have mentioned above that you should allow time for your scheme to settle – if it is a three year scheme, allow three years to assess its success. If a one year scheme, allow one year to monitor progress, or two or three to track the data. But roll with the punches too – if something is not working, or SLT have requested additions, you need to be flexible to make these inclusions and to make changes as you see fit.
10. Seek feedback on your scheme, review it regularly and don't be afraid to make changes
Teachers are reflective practitioners, and reflection requires feedback. This feedback can be through self assessment, peer assessment and feedback from your line managers or leadership team. Sometimes, a fresh pair of eyes can see what you cannot. You can also seek feedback from students: what topics did they enjoy most, learn most from, feel supported their progress, find challenging, need more support with, etc.
If you found this helpful, take a look at some recent posts on differentiation and on getting students to think. And if you would like a free weekly printable planner, check out this resource page.
As always, I’d love to know your thoughts – how do you go about planning your scheme of work? Do you map skills across the key stage? Do you have any questions? Leave me a comment below, or use the contact form to get in touch.
