“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure” – a quote accredited to Confucius dating back some 2500 years. So the idea of preparation being an essential component of success is nothing new. Likewise, the phrase you “have to learn to walk before you can run” may have been with us since the 15th century. Both sayings sound so obvious that it is suprising to have any one credited with saying them at all – all development is incremental and builds on what has gone before if it is going to last. The same applies to teaching and learning, hence the need for curriculum sequencing. Successful learning at any point builds on what is already know and lays the foundations for future learning to come; the sequence of learning is structured in a way to facilitate this. Or so it should be.

The lastest Ofsted Framework, in place since 2019, has put a spotlight on the curriculum and sequencing is part of this. Ofsted do not change their focus without reason, their focus drives change in schools and acadamies where change is necessary. I can only conclude that change must have been necessary for Ofsted to change their focus. And so, since 2019, evidence of effective curriculum sequencing has informed judgements made about the quality of education. And rightly so: good schools have always recognised the impact effective curriculum sequencing has on student outcomes and see Ofsted’s focus on this being long overdue. However, what goes unsaid is any reference to the timing of when this change to the framework was made.

It is no coincidence that the launch of the new Ofsted Framework came in the autumn following the first complete set of reformed 9-1 GCSE results. Reformed GCSEs had been introduced on a rolling program since 2015, starting with English and mathematics. The purpose of GCSE reform was to “improve standards by making courses harder and to increase differentiation by making the top grades rarer”.  Keep in mind that outcomes are impacted on by curriculum sequencing: Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) lay the preparatory foundations for success at GCSE. The Key Stage 3 curriculum students of the GCSE reform era experienced was to prepare them for the pre-reformed GCSE.

Actually, that comment about the Key Stage 3 curriculum is not strictly true. The curriculum was more in a state of transition from what it was to what it was eventually going to be. The latest version of the national curriculum was launched in 2014. Schools handled the introduction of the new curriculum in different ways but, for students going into Year 9, curriculum change saw them spending their final year of Key Stage 3 following a new curriculum in advance of starting their reformed GCSE having previously followed the old curriculum. This created an enormous amount of work for school staff in terms of sequencing so to ensure the students were not disadvantaged by decisions made beyond their control. To further exacerbate this, the changes made to the curriculum for Year 9 were temporary as there was a need to respond to the ongoing impact of curriculum change on preceding year groups. It was the cohort that started Year 9 in 2018 that were the first to experience a completely reformed curriculum sequence, as they were the first cohort to have taken the reformed statutory tests at Key Stage 2 in 2016 (although having experienced a reformed upper Key Stage 2 education). This cohort completed Year 9 in 2019, the year the new Ofsted Framework was launched. This cohort were those who took their GCSE examinations this year.

Sequencing matters. What comes before will, and does, impact on success. At the risk of sounding cliched, the curriculum is a journey and one that spans a young persons entire education. Effective sequencing depends on knowing the start and end of the journey, from 5 years old (or younger) to 18 (or older). Changing the start or end point during the journey is to disrespect the sequencing that has gone before and damaging to the potential of what might have been. When Ofsted ask about sequencing, it is worth keeping this in mind. It is the current Year 8, the cohort who started their year in Reception back in 2014 who, when they sit their GCSEs in 2026, who will be the first to have experienced an entirely uninterrupted sequence from start to end (global pandemic impact aside…).