5 steps to create an inclusive and challenging curriculum 

Donna Lee, Headteacher of Nettlesworth Primary School, County Durham

Designing a curriculum that is both inclusive and challenging is essential for ensuring every learner thrives. At Nettlesworth Primary School, we’ve worked hard to create an approach that raises expectations for all while celebrating diversity and individual strengths. Here’s our five-step plan, with practical examples from our journey.

Step 1: Start with a clear vision

An inclusive and challenging curriculum begins with a shared vision. Define what ‘inclusive’ and ‘challenging’ mean in your context. For us, inclusivity means every child feels valued and supported, regardless of ability, background, or need. Challenge means providing opportunities for deep thinking and problem-solving. Our school aims to provide all children with a well-planned and balanced education taking full account of national curriculum statutory requirements. Within the bounds of this we also provide for individual children’s special needs which may require more challenging work or additional help. We ensure there is a whole-school commitment and a clear focus to providing for more able, gifted and talented pupils. We provide pupils with a wide range of experiences and opportunities individualised to their personal needs and interests. Parents are closely involved in the education of their child and are consulted about their provision. 

Example: We held an inset day looking at developing our curriculum further to meet the individual needs of our children where staff and governors contributed ideas. Pupils created posters in a whole-school workshop showing what ‘challenge’ looks like in their learning –many highlighted resilience and curiosity rather than just ‘hard work.’ This helped us shape a vision that everyone understood and owned.

Step 2: Audit and adapt your curriculum

Once your vision is clear, review your curriculum through the lens of inclusivity and challenge. Ask:

Does every subject offer opportunities for higher-order thinking?

Are resources and texts representative of diverse cultures and perspectives?

Do we provide scaffolds for those who need support without capping expectations?

Example: During our curriculum audit, we made sure there were opportunities planned for the ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas confidently to a range of audiences; the ability to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using historical evidence from a range of sources; and the ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry. In maths, we added reasoning challenges to every lesson – such as ‘Explain why this method works’ –to deepen understanding.

Step 3: Embed differentiation and personalisation

Adaptive teaching isn’t about giving ‘more work’ to some and ‘less work’ to others. It’s about designing tasks that allow multiple entry points and varied outcomes.

Example: In Year 4 science, when exploring electricity, pupils could choose how to present their findings: a diagram, a written explanation, or a short video. This allowed all learners to access the challenge while showcasing their strengths.

Step 4: Foster a culture of high expectations

Curriculum design alone won’t create challenge unless it’s supported by a culture that values effort, resilience, and growth.

Example: We use growth mindset and games values to celebrate pupils who take risks and learn from mistakes. In maths, learn from each other and share our learning – pupils share an error they made and explain what they learned from it. This normalises mistakes and encourages reflection. Parents are involved too: we run workshops on growth mindset so the message continues at home.

Step 5: Review, reflect, and refine

Creating an inclusive and challenging curriculum is an ongoing process. Schedule regular reviews using data, observations, and feedback.

Example: Each term, we hold curriculum review meetings where staff share successes and challenges. Recently, feedback showed pupils wanted more collaborative tasks, so we introduced ‘Think-Pair-Share’ and group problem-solving in maths. We also use NACE’s audit tools annually to benchmark progress and set new goals.

Final thoughts

An inclusive and challenging curriculum isn’t about doing more; it’s about doing better. By following these five steps – vision, audit, differentiation, culture, and review – you can create a learning environment where every child feels included and inspired to achieve their best.

About the author

Donna Lee is committed to the highest standards of teaching and learning and believes that all children deserve teachers who believe in them and have high expectations of all. She has been an Inclusion Coordinator for over 25 years; inclusion and individualised learning were the focus for an MA in Special Educational Needs and NPQH. Donna believes you work in partnership with parents to develop a school where no one fails; every child leaves having identified a talent, a skill, an intelligence through which they can become whatever they want to be. She shares this belief and expertise through network meetings and conferences throughout the North East. 

In 2013-2014, Donna led Nettlesworth Primary School as Acting Deputy Headteacher in obtaining the NACE Challenge Award for the first time. She then became Headteacher of the school in January 2018, immediately leading the team through an Ofsted inspection, where they continue to be a good school. She has also led the school through NACE re-accreditation assessments in July 2018, July 2021 and 2024 – now as a NACE Ambassador School.  

With the future of education uncertain and the landscape forever changing, it is vital that we continue to aim high and hold high aspirations for all our children. The emphasis on more able, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, is quite rightly a priority for us all. 

It is our purpose to create the very best education system, using research and pedagogical principles, which will improve the life chances of our children. This will enable them to cope with the demands of the higher level of knowledge, skills and understanding required of them. 

Seeking opportunities for deeper learning

The emphasis on preparing our children to achieve greater depth has been a major focus. After one year of “life without levels”, we now have an idea of how we can provide more opportunities and targets for those who can achieve this greater depth. We have focused on our more able in many ways, looking for opportunities within the curriculum to help them remain engaged and enthusiastic, whilst being able to demonstrate the depth of knowledge and skills they have acquired.

There has been a focus on greater-depth writing for all, maths mastery, and developing the reasoning skills of our more able, particularly girls who lack confidence in their own ability. We have not forgotten within this the more able across the curriculum, including PE and philosophy. 

Developing expertise across our teaching team

We appointed a more able leader to plan, deliver and monitor the thoughts and achievements of our more able children, working alongside our middle leaders and teachers to identify barriers and gaps and how we can overcome them together. 

This has fed into our CPD, which also involves our support staff, so that everyone is clear on the expectations we hold and how to support the children’s learning. We are also part of Aquinas Multi-Academy Trust; a network of more able leads in each academy works together to positively influence teaching and learning across the trust.

We have focused on the use of questioning and the techniques we use in philosophy for children to enable an enquiry-based and analytical approach to learning. Teachers plan their questions and the opportunities they provide in lessons for the children to ask questions.

Working towards the NACE Challenge Award, a framework to map out the best way to support our more able, has provided clarity and structure. Alongside research and best practice in other schools, we are able to plan and implement proven strategies, which will enhance the learning of all our children.

This blog post is based on an article first published in the summer 2017 edition of the NACE Insight newsletter. To view past editions of Insight, log in as a NACE member.