Planning a curriculum map

A map is only as useful as the things it can point at. Load the framework your school works to — IB objectives, Cambridge learning objectives, CBSE learning outcomes — plus any standards, objectives or policies your school adds on top.

Each standard carries a code, a title and a version. The version matters: when a board reissues a framework, the old codes stay readable rather than being overwritten, so a map written against the previous version still makes sense.

A map is scoped to a programme, a grade and, optionally, a subject — so Year 7 Sciences and Year 7 Individuals & Societies are separate maps rather than one document with headings.

It starts as planned. Nothing that reads curriculum data will use it yet, which is what makes it safe to build a whole year's map over several weeks without half of it going live.

Units are ordered, so the sequence you intend is the sequence the map states. Each carries a title, a summary and its conceptual focus — the idea the unit rests on rather than the topic it covers.

Lessons sit under their unit, also ordered, each with its own objectives. This is the level where a map stops being a plan and starts being something a teacher can pick up.

• Order is explicit, not implied by when something was typed.
• A unit with no lessons is fine while you are drafting — the map simply says so rather than pretending to be complete.

A unit on the map can be linked to the real programme unit that delivers it — a PYP unit of inquiry, an MYP unit. Once linked, the map stops being a parallel document and becomes a view onto the units teachers are working in.

This is what lets a coordinator answer "is this actually being taught" without asking anybody.

Activating is the moment the map becomes the school's answer to what is taught in that grade and subject. Only one version of a map can be active at a time.

Changing an active map in place would rewrite what was taught. Instead, create a new version: it copies every unit and lesson forward, numbers itself in sequence, and starts as planned so you can edit it while the current version stays live.

All versions of a map share one lineage, so the history reads as one framework changing over time rather than as unrelated documents.