Primary curriculum design has been in sharp focus in recent years. After leading on curriculum design and effective subject leadership for 24 years across multiple schools, Emma has written the handbook for both the complex thinking which underpins primary curriculum design and provided the practical models to make it work. There is much advice out there for primary schools but much is often dominated by voices not trained or experienced in primary practice. Emma outlines the unique considerations needed for designing and implementing a rich, high-quality curriculum which serves our youngest learners - a blend of academic thinking, educational research, the wisdom of decades of primary experience and a true love of the unique nature of primary. Primary curriculum design is a unique knowledge domain of its own and Emma explains and explores how this knowledge and the thinking around it needs to be championed and implemented through both academic and child development lenses. Rooted in experience, underpinned by successful approaches implemented in hundreds of schools - curriculum design in primary is complex and nuanced but it can also be 'Simplicitus'.
Emma Turner has been a primary teacher for 24 years. She has been a class teacher, assistant headteacher, deputy headteacher and one half of one of the UK's first and youngest all-female co-headships back in 2009. She has been a consultant for the national strategies and is currently the Research and CPD lead for Discovery Trust based in Leicestershire across 15 schools. She has written three previous books on education - 'Be More Toddler', 'Let's Talk about Flex', and 'The Extended Mind In Action'. She co-hosts the John Catt Podcast 'Mind the Gap' with Tom Sherrington and regularly speaks at national and international events about leadership and curriculum design. She has trained hundreds of primary schools in effective subject leadership and curriculum design and provides school improvement support both locally and nationally. She regularly guest lectures within ITE and ECF and has a special interest in the development of early career teachers. Emma is the DfE regional lead for the East Midlands and Humber on flexible working and a member of the DfE specialist advisory group on flexible working. Emma is also a fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and Ambassador for the global equality collective. In her spare time she is a keen runner and is self-titled chaos coordinator of her three young children.
