Topic Snapshot | Curriculum for Wales | Thinking Scaffold

A pre-planning thinking scaffold to support intentional curriculum design.
This one-page snapshot is designed to sit between choosing a topic and writing your medium-term plan.
It supports teachers to pause and think intentionally before planning — strengthening clarity, coherence and progression without adding workload.
Rather than jumping straight into activities, this scaffold helps you define:

• Key concepts underpinning the topic
• Meaningful AoLE connections (including relevant Statements of What Matters)
• Prior knowledge and foundations
• Pupil voice and interests
• Lines of inquiry to drive thinking
• How understanding will deepen across the unit
• Assessment for progression

This resource includes two versions:

1. A guided version with prompts to support thinking
2. A clean version with the same structure but without prompts, allowing more space for detailed notes

This means you can choose whether you’d prefer scaffolding or maximum writing space — while keeping the intentional structure intact.

This is not a full planning template. It is a focused thinking tool — designed to organise ideas, strengthen curriculum intent and ensure progression is considered from the outset.

Whether your school uses shared concepts, inquiry questions, or topic-based planning, this snapshot is flexible and adaptable to your structure.

Ideal for:

• Class teachers refining a new topic
• Middle leaders supporting planning discussions
• Schools reviewing curriculum coherence
• Staff meetings focused on intentional design