School curricula have adapted a lot since the introduction of the 2014 curriculum in England. In devolved nations there have also been big changes and international schools, of those using the UK curriculum as a starting point, there have been many adaptations also. 

The Department for Education (DfE) expects schools to make a curriculum which suits their students and setting, and which provides a broad and balanced education for all learners, with appropriate support or differentiation as appropriate for particular groups of learners. 

The DfE also expects schools to publish certain information about their curriculum online and ensure parents have the URL to visit and find out more. Ofsted will usually check through the website in advance of a visit to look at the school curriculum information alongside their policy checks.

(We can even detect these patterns of behaviour on our school websites, and offer real time “Early Warning Alerts” when Ofsted are taking a peek, so get in touch if you’d like to learn more about that!)

In regards to curriculum the DfE states that maintained schools must publish:

• the content of your school curriculum in each academic year for every subject – this includes mandatory subjects such as religious education, even if it is taught as part of another subject or subjects, or is called something else
• the names of any phonics or reading schemes you’re using in key stage 1
• a list of the courses available to pupils at key stage 4, including GCSEs
• how parents or other members of the public can find out more about the curriculum your school is following

A curriculum gallery is a great way to make your curriculum stand out and capture the attention, and imagination, of your website visitors. The curriculum gallery makes it easy to find and navigate the information, as well as helping to promote the courses on offer at your school – whether that is for the Early Years or all the way up to ‘A’ Levels and BTEC courses. 

We enjoy helping schools to design the right curriculum gallery for them as there are so many choices to make which can personalise the layout, design, and further information for each school or college. Our team are really proud of the many galleries we have made so far, and we know that schools are increasingly looking to revamp their own curriculum pages to make something more accessible and visually appealing for website visitors. A really good layout can even support staff in school, especially those who may be covering a colleague’s lessons for a while or taking on a new subject. 

Prospective parents and students often have a really good look through the curriculum and course offering of a new school or college and the curriculum gallery can work really hard for you so that they have all of their questions answered. We have compiled some great examples of this below so that you can see what might suit you, and hopefully see that the possibilities are pretty endless so if you do not see the layout you want here then get in touch and we can make your own bespoke option!

St Mary’s Grammar, Margherafelt

St Mary’s Grammar, Margherafelt have added their curriculum pages into the Departments section of their website, as you can see from the link above. 

Their gallery displays the courses on offer and a click of any of the curriculum shields will reveal a pop-up box with some more information, and a link to further information on a more detailed curriculum page. This visually-appealing menu, with the gallery designing tying in well with their school branding and logo, also saves you from having lots of pages in the menu navigation – which reduces the ‘clutter’ visitors find when they start navigating through the site.

Leigh Primary School 

Leigh Primary School have opted for a circle design for their curriculum ‘buttons.’ Each button has the subject name and then when you hover over them the words are replaced with an illustration to represent each subject. The buttons are designed to fit in with the style and design of the whole website and school branding with the watermarked leaf effect continuing throughout the site. 

Rather than have a pop-up description of the subject, when you click on any of the buttons on the Leigh Primary School curriculum gallery you are taken directly to a full page of information on that subject. 

Lurgan College

Lurgan College has opted for a more ‘corporate’ style design for their curriculum gallery, with the clean lines and sharp edges and corners. This design is also in keeping with the overall website design and school branding, which is a common request for schools as most want the curriculum gallery to sit seamlessly on the page. Lurgan College have opted to include their curriculum gallery on their homepage which makes this adherence to the design themes even more important to ensure it sits beautifully within the full site. 

We are especially proud of the design of the Business Studies button and each of the bespoke illustrations for the subjects. A pop-up is revealed when you click on a subject, and the ‘Read More’ button directs you to more detailed pages on the curriculum for each department. 

Thornhill Primary

At Thornhill Primary School you can see that they have chosen to use images rather than ‘clipart’ style illustrations for their buttons. This is a really striking option for your curriculum gallery and there are lots of beautiful, high resolution, copyright-free images which can be sourced to create this impact. 

Rather than have a pop-up box with further information about each subject, Thornhill has opted to link to a page which has an embedded PDF with further information, as you can see below. This really helps to reduce workload when the curriculum changes, and can give subjects the option to change the PDF each term if required to reflect the most current curriculum. This approach is mirrored across the Focus Academy Trust which gives consistency and also ensures that centrally created curriculum documents can be easily rolled out to multiple schools. 

Parrs Wood 6th Form College

Parrs Wood have chosen high-quality images for their curriculum gallery, also, and are showcasing their courses across all levels and post-16 options. Rather than a simple pop-up paragraph of information they have also added more information which really promotes each subject for their prospective students and also current students who are at the stage where they need to pick their options for further study. 

You can see in the example below that they are really ‘selling’ their courses and also their school. Adding artwork from students and links and embedded videos in each pop-up adds a multimedia style and creative element to a visually stunning curriculum gallery. 

We hope you have enjoyed seeing these examples, and we encourage you to click through to the school sites to see even more ideas. You have, hopefully, also seen a variety of options and can see that we are able to work with you to make your curriculum gallery work for everyone within your school community. 

Get in touch to find out more and we can talk about your individual school needs.