Curriculum Sequencing
Every teacher decides, often without realising it, what order to teach content in — and that decision shapes whether new learning sticks or slides away. This session explores why curriculum sequencing matters as much as curriculum content, and why leaving it to chance widens gaps rather than closing them. It gives every member of staff, from EYFS to Year 6, a shared, practical way to check whether their own units are built on secure foundations.
The Big Idea
Pupils learn new content by connecting it to what they already know. A well-sequenced curriculum does not happen by accident — it is the product of deliberate decisions about what pupils need to know first, so that everything taught afterwards has something secure to build on.
The Evidence
Sweller (1988) showed working memory overloads without secure prior knowledge to draw on. Willingham (2009) found factual knowledge in long-term memory is what enables higher-order thinking. Counsell (2018) and Ofsted's Curriculum Research Review Series (2021) converge on a five-step model for deliberate sequencing.
The Classroom Impact
Teachers stop assuming pupils arrive with the prior knowledge a new unit needs, and start checking it explicitly before planning. Units open with short retrieval tasks instead of launching straight into new content. Pupils experience fewer gaps left unaddressed, and can explain how today's learning connects to what came before.
Perfect For
Schools looking to close attainment gaps by ensuring every pupil has the secure foundations a new unit assumes, reduce costly reteaching across the curriculum, and help pupils build genuinely connected, cumulative knowledge from EYFS through to Year 6.
What’s Included:
