By TeacherPaddy · Last updated
1. Start with the curriculum
For each subject, find the part of the curriculum your class covers this term. If your school already has a Yearly Scheme, it tells you which strands and sub-strands belong to this term. Use the curriculum version your school uses now.
2. Count your teaching weeks
Take the term dates from your school's academic calendar (the dates change every year, so always use the current calendar from your school or the Ghana Education Service). Then remove the weeks without normal lessons: public holidays, the mid-term break, school events, revision and examination weeks. What is left is the number of weeks you can really teach.
3. Count your lessons
Your timetable tells you how many lessons each subject has in a week. Multiply by the teaching weeks to see how many lessons you have in total. This shows early whether the content will fit.
4. Map topics across the weeks
Spread the term's content across the teaching weeks, in the curriculum's order. Give bigger or harder topics more than one week, and keep related topics together. Write the result down as your Term Scheme of Learning.
5. Sequence the learning
Check that each week builds on the one before. Learners need place value before rounding, and equivalent fractions before comparing fractions. If a topic depends on another, teach the other first.
6. Plan resources
List the materials each week needs. Gather or make what you can before the term starts, and plan to share expensive items with colleagues. Local and recycled materials work well for many topics.
7. Plan assessment
Decide how you will check learning each week, and plan revision before mid-term and end-of-term assessments. Short weekly checks show who needs help long before the examination.
8. Review as you go
At the end of each week, compare what you taught with what you planned. Note what moved, and carry it into next week's weekly plan.
When the school calendar changes
Terms rarely go exactly to plan: a holiday is announced, an event takes a day, or a week is lost. When that happens, do not drop content silently. Move the affected week's content forward, combine two lighter weeks, or use the catch-up space you left. Update your scheme so it always shows the real plan.
How TeacherPaddy helps
TeacherPaddy uses your term dates and timetable to plan the term for you. You mark revision, examination and non-teaching weeks, and it spreads the curriculum across the teaching weeks in the Term Scheme, and turns each week into a Weekly Learner Plan when you are ready. If your dates change, you update them and plan from there. See the sample Scheme of Learning and pricing.