What is a scheme of work?
By Ryan Mwangi, founder · Last updated
A scheme of work is a teacher's plan for a whole term. It is a table with one row per lesson, and each row says which week the lesson falls in, what it teaches and how the learning will be checked.
LessonSmith drafts one against your own term dates. The demo includes 3 schemes of work, once, with no account and no card.
What does a scheme of work mean in teaching?
It is the document that turns a syllabus into a timetable of lessons. Wikipedia's article on the scheme of work calls it a plan that outlines all the learning to be covered over a set period, usually a term or a school year, and describes it as an interpretation of a specification or syllabus.
In practice that means you take the topics the curriculum lists for the term, count your teaching weeks, and decide which lesson handles which topic. Do it once, the week before school opens, and you stop asking yourself on a Sunday night what Tuesday's lesson is about.
How is it different from a syllabus and a lesson plan?
They are three sizes of the same plan. The syllabus says what must be taught, the scheme of work says when, and the lesson plan says how.
| Document | Who writes it | What it covers | What it says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syllabus or curriculum design | The ministry, curriculum body or exam board | A whole course or year | What must be taught |
| Scheme of work | The teacher or the department | One term, sometimes a year | Which lesson teaches what, and in which week |
| Lesson plan | The teacher | One lesson | What happens minute by minute in that lesson |
What should a scheme of work include?
Most schemes carry the same eight columns, whatever the form calls them. Your school or ministry may prescribe its own headings and order. Where it does, use that form.
| Column | Why it is there |
|---|---|
| Week and lesson | So you can see at a glance whether you are ahead or behind. |
| Strand and sub-strand (or theme and topic, or unit) | Ties the lesson to a place in the curriculum document. |
| Learning outcomes | What learners should be able to do when the lesson ends. |
| Learning experiences | What learners will do, in a phrase or two. |
| Key questions | The question the lesson answers. |
| Resources | The textbook pages and materials, so you can gather them before the week starts. |
| Assessment | How you will check the learning: oral questions, an exercise, observation. |
| Remarks or reflection | Filled in after teaching. This is where you record a lesson that was missed or needs repeating. |
What does a scheme of work look like?
Four rows from a Grade 7 Mathematics scheme, written for this page with five of the eight columns so it fits a screen. Week 4 is the mid-term break, which gets a row of its own so the lesson count stays honest.
| Week | Lesson | Strand and sub-strand | Learning outcome | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 3 | 1 | Fractions: comparing fractions | Order three fractions with different denominators | Oral questions, exercise |
| Week 3 | 2 | Fractions: adding with the same denominator | Add two fractions with the same denominator, such as 3/8 + 2/8 | Written exercise |
| Week 3 | 3 | Fractions: adding with different denominators | Add two fractions by first finding a common denominator | Exit questions |
| Week 4 | None | Mid-term break | None | None |
The third row is the lesson worked through in full in the guide to writing a lesson plan, so you can see one row grow into forty minutes of teaching.
What is a scheme of work called in other countries?
The name changes with the system. A teacher in Ghana writes a scheme of learning, one in South Africa follows an annual teaching plan, and one in the United States writes unit plans.
| Curriculum | Where | What the document is called |
|---|---|---|
| CBC / CBE | Kenya | Scheme of work |
| NERDC curriculum | Nigeria | Scheme of work |
| CAPS | South Africa | Annual teaching plan |
| The standards-based curriculum | Ghana | Scheme of learning |
| The National Curriculum | England | Scheme of work |
| Common Core and NGSS | The United States | Unit plan |
| CBSE and NCERT | India | Unit plan |
| The Australian Curriculum | Australia | Unit plan |
| FGOS/FOP | Russia | Calendar-thematic plan |
| The International Baccalaureate | International schools | Unit planner |
| Cambridge International | International schools | Scheme of work |
How do you write a scheme of work?
Start from the calendar, because the calendar is the part you cannot change. Then fill the weeks.
Count your real teaching weeks
Write down the term's opening and closing dates, then strike out the mid-term break, exam weeks and public holidays. A 14-week term is often 11 weeks of teaching.
List the term's topics in teaching order
Take them from the curriculum document for your grade, and put anything a later topic depends on first.
Give each topic its lessons
Share the lessons out by how hard each topic is, and leave the last teaching week for revision. One row per lesson.
Fill each row, then keep it open
Outcome, activity, resources, assessment. Leave the remarks column blank and write in it every week; a scheme nobody updates is wrong by week five.
Can AI write a scheme of work?
Yes, as a draft you then correct. The slow part of a scheme is the arithmetic of weeks and the typing of sixty rows, and software is good at both. It does not know which topics your class found hard last term.
LessonSmith's scheme of work generator counts the weeks from your term dates, puts break and exam weeks in as rows, and plans one lesson per teaching day, up to five a week. It reads your curriculum PDF or your notes on what the term covers, and you make your changes in the Word file it exports.
Questions
What is the difference between a scheme of work and a lesson plan?
A scheme of work covers a term in one table, with one row for each lesson. A lesson plan covers a single lesson in detail: the introduction, the activities, the timing and the assessment. You write the scheme first, then each lesson plan from its row.
Who prepares a scheme of work?
Usually the subject teacher, before the term starts. In some schools the department writes one scheme per subject and grade and every teacher of that class follows it. Head teachers and inspectors often ask to see it.
How long should a scheme of work be?
As long as the term. A 13-week term with five lessons a week is 65 rows, less any break and exam weeks. Each row is short, a line or two per column.
Is a scheme of work the same as a unit plan?
They do the same job with a different boundary. A scheme of work is cut by time, usually a term. A unit plan is cut by topic and runs for as many weeks as the unit needs. Schools in the United States, India and Australia mostly say unit plan.