The Framework for secondary English supports departments in planning collaboratively to address the new programmes of study by adapting and revising current planning. Subject leaders can review planning in their department to identify priority areas for revising or rewriting. The Planning tool is available online to support this collaborative process.

Support and guidance on how to install and make the most of this facility, along with some frequently asked questions, are provided in the Related links and further guidance is also available from local authority consultants.

In order to ensure that all pupils are engaged in learning and make effective progress, planning needs to address the following questions:

• What is the progression in learning?
• What is the focus for learning?
• What are the learning outcomes?
• What is the sequence of learning?

These questions need to be addressed in the long, medium and short term – in overall schemes of work, in units of work and in the detailed planning of lesson sequences and other activities and experiences in which learning takes place. This area of the website exemplifies the principles and processes of planning, shows how the Framework assists planning, and provides case studies of planning in action.

The answers to a number of frequently asked questions have been provided and further guidance is available from local authority consultants.

Key principles

The downloadable document, Long-, medium- and short-term planning (28.47 KB) provides more detail on what the planning process entails and outlines the best features of the plans.

• The development of plans and schemes will be a mix of renewal, adaptation and refreshment of current schemes, and only where needed will include producing new and different ones. The process of planning collaboratively in the department is as important, if not more so, than the plan itself.
• The National Strategies does not recommend or seek to promote any standard ‘one-size fits all’ template or format for planning from the Framework for secondary English, though some examples are offered as the basis for discussion and comparison.
• The objective of any scheme or plan is not that the work serves the scheme, but that the scheme serves the work. Personalised, relevant and engaging experiences, progression of skills and knowledge, and the entitlement to a broad and varied range of contexts, activities and texts should be at the heart of any plan.
• Plans should help build pupils’ motivation and confidence, be relevant to their needs and link coherently to other learning, leading pupils to independence in English, across and beyond the curriculum.
• The process of developing successful plans needs to secure a shared understanding among teachers in the department of the plan’s purpose and how it links into learning as a whole.

The role of functional English (24.84 KB) provides advice on how functional English can support progression and success.