Primary School – Medium Term planning

Medium Term planning – lets make a start on this area of the planning system.

Now if you are at a school with computerised planning systems then the practicalities of what I am about to write will not apply – however don’t switch off because the logistical thinking and process will be useful to you and hey who knows …your next school might not have a computerised system.

Once again lets re-cap on what we have discussed before which was Long term planning and here’s a good example from that article

We now move on to Medium Term planning which takes the “Topic Plan” we have created and puts in more detail.

In our Long term topic plan we had identified the areas of the curriculum individually and written bullet points for the areas of each subject that we would be teaching in that particular term. Nothing else just bullet point areas. (take a look at the above plan)

In our medium term plans we now take each subject area individually and give more detail for each area we have identified.

In looking around at the various attempts by schools to produce Medium Term plans it quickly becomes clear that there is no set approach or thinking to this point in curriculum planning. However what does become clear is that there is a huge variation in the ways that schools present their planning.

What is worrying however is that many many schools have NO IDEA what constitutes medium term planning , how it should be presented and how it should be successfully used in school.

Coupled with this uncertainty are the schools that then try to cover all bases in this planning area and ask for huge amounts of detail  and create mountains of work for their staff all of which is unnecessary – but as we’ve said before “covers all the bases ” for insecure management teams facing OFSTED !

There seems to be a general confusion between the 3 stages so that some schools medium term plans are really nothing more than long term plans with a bit more waffle in them and then again other schools medium term plans are more like short term plans which have too much detail !!

Lets take a look at a few to see what I mean

This medium plan is in fact a short term plan in so far as it contains too much detail about every session. In order to make it fill the space on the sheet the teacher has waffled away with such phrases as “explain to children that we are going to carry out an experiment to…..” This sort of detail at Medium term level really creates an avalanche of work for you  as you have to repeat this format for all units of work in all subjects – complete overkill and totally unnecessary.

This school has developed a format for medium term planning unit by unit. This tries to make it look more professional by including curriculum references, learning opportunities, assessment opportunities and cross curricular links. This format is a total nightmare and complete overload for teachers. Imagine filling this in completely for each unit and each subject. In this case I am sure that it would not be completed properly or completely. Again too much detail at medium term level.

This “medium term ” plan shows a lesson by lesson format…is there any need to say more!…totally misguided.

Ok so we have looked at incorrect medium term planning – now lets look at some good examples and pull out what we would expect to see at this “Medium Term stage”

I have put this in with more detail so that you can read what is happening a little easier. It is a very good example of how to plan “medium Term”.

GPS means Grammar Punctuation and Spelling and  quite recent introduction to the curriculum

Lets look at what is shown and see what is gives us.

• It is in a clear format with subjects down the side and weeks of the term across the top – easy to access and see what is happening when. (The termly weeks usually follow a pattern Autumn – 15 weeks…Spring – 12 weeks…Summer – 12 weeks. In my experience you can usually allow 2 weeks in every term for other things and interruptions happening. So a 12 week term you would plan for 10 weeks. If you plan for the whole 12 weeks you will not be able to complete the topic areas).
• The area of the subject being covered each week is clearly stated at the top of each section e.g Multiplication and division, Measurement, Writing non fiction text.
• Further detail of what is involved in the coverage that week is given underneath…briefly and concisely.
• The time allowed for this area of the curriculum is stated…3 weeks or 2 weeks or 6 lessons
• Links to the National Curriculum documentation are simply stated. This may not be an exact statement but paraphrased (as you get more confident you will be able to paraphrase these without reference to the document itself which will speed things up)
• This approach is concise, achievable and realistic – it does not overload staff with unnecessary and useless paperwork.

A good example, I think, of Medium term planning and would occupy approximately 3 or 4 pages to cover the whole curriculum  for the term.

You will notice that there are no wanderings into Short term planning areas….we have moved from Long term overview in to medium term detail that is all. There is no information about how each area is going to be taught and this is how it should be.

I would expect Headteachers to ask for copies of both Long Term Plans and Medium Term plans from all members of staff  at the beginning of each term – I would, so be prepared!

In my next article we will look at how we translate this into Short term planning or sometimes called Personal Planning.

Don’t forget – successful teachers are organised !

Charles