A guide to our new curricula

What you need to know about our new curricula

Contents

• Introduction
• How we created our new curriculum plans
• Our curriculum principles
• Using our curriculum plans
• How to adapt our curriculum
• Our curriculum won't work for everyone
• When will all the teaching resources be available to accompany the plans?

Introduction

We’ve been working closely with our partners, subject experts and hundreds of teachers to bring you our new interactive curriculum plans.

Here are just a few of the benefits of using our new plans. 

• Learn about the thinking, structure and focus of our curriculum design.
• View the full sequence, with an explanation of why each unit is placed in that part of the sequence.
• See how our threads weave their way through our curriculum so you can see common themes running through key stages in the subject.
• Download curriculum plans to use offline to help with planning.

This is just the start. We’ll be sharing much more information within the curriculum plans in the months ahead to help you develop your school curriculum and build your confidence in curriculum planning. You can read more about using our new curricula in our blog - New curricula: what you need to know.

How we created our new curriculum plans

Our new curricula have been created in collaboration with a diverse range of partners across the education sector. Alongside our fantastic curriculum partners and Oak subject leads, we have been guided by feedback from our expert groups.

These groups have included teachers, representatives from subject associations and other experts, each bringing their deep subject and phase knowledge to help us make our curricula the best they can be.  

Our curriculum principles

Underpinning all of our work are our curriculum principles which guide our curriculum design.

Our subject-guiding principles sit alongside these overarching curriculum principles to reflect the unique nature of each subject. You can view these in the curriculum overview area of each subject and phase in our new interactive curriculum plans.

Using our curriculum plans

Unit sequence

You can view our curriculum sequence using the unit sequence tab. It will display the units available for each year group, how many lessons are available in a unit and a recommended order. You can look at how threads develop across an entire phase or filter the view to see a single year group.

• Threads

We use the word 'Threads' to mean a common theme or topic that provides coherence as it weaves its way through the curriculum. Our interactive curriculum plans will bring these threads to life, allowing you to easily gain a sense of which units form part of which threads to make your planning easier. 

When you navigate our interactive plans you will see a handy list of the available threads to choose from. Once you have chosen your thread the curriculum plan will highlight the lessons in the overview so you can see at-a-glance which lessons you might want to include. 

Exam boards and tiers

At key stage four, we’ve initially provided curriculum plans that cover the specifications of at least the two most popular exam boards in most subjects.  In future we hope to increase this further.

You won't see this in maths , simply because the exam boards’ specifications are very similar, with our units covering these requirements.

To find a sequence for a particular exam board you can choose this at the beginning of your search from the Oak’s curricula page.

- Choose your subject and select the secondary phase.

- You will see which exam board sequences we have available for you to view.

- Select your preferred exam board and press View.

In maths and science at key stage four you can also choose to see units for Foundation or Higher tiers.

Explainer

Curriculum thinking and decision making is complex. Our 'curriculum explainer' guides you through a series of questions that led our thought processes when designing these curriculum plans. Perhaps they might guide the thinking that goes into your planning too? 

Download

Download a plan to help you see all the content in one place including the explainer, the units and the lessons.

How to adapt our curriculum

We can’t plan a curriculum that is contextualised for your school and pupils, and nor should we try. But we can share high-quality models representing great design from across the sector to inspire and inform your own thinking.

Using our curriculum plans as inspiration for your own planning you can choose to use as much or as little of our curricula as you like. Using our interactive curriculum plans you can easily view the sequence and threads of the curriculum to help you make the most effective curriculum choices for your context.  

Our teaching resources are free, adaptable and optional. There when, and if, you need them. 

Our curriculum won’t work for everyone

We know that if you have already committed to a curriculum, whether that was designed in your school or one of the other great packages available, our curriculum sequences may not be relevant to you and that’s ok. There are lots of other great options out there. You could always compare our curriculum to your own to see if it can add any inspiration.

We are optional as well as adaptable and will always be there if you need us.

When will all the teaching resources be available to accompany the plans?

All of our new lesson planning and teaching resources for English, history, maths and science from key stages 1, 2, 3 & 4, plus primary geography are now available for you to use.

We’re releasing the new resources for the rest of our subjects on a rolling basis over this academic year, as soon as they’re ready. By autumn 2025, you’ll have access to everything we’re releasing for these subjects.