The National Curriculum was first introduced in 1988 and then slimmed down in 1995. It was introduced to raise standards and to provide children with a broad and balanced curriculum. The newly revised curriculum, introduced in September 2000, is a further development of this.
The National Curriculum was designed to take children through their school life from the ages of 5 to 16. It was developed so that:
• you will be able to understand what your child is doing at school
• your child will be able to learn from a broad range of subjects
• the teacher will be able to track what children have already done, assess their standard and also work out where help might be needed
The newly revised curriculum takes this a step further. Still concerned with raising standards, it is designed to:
• give the whole community a clearer picture of the skills and knowledge that children will collect as they work their way through school
• meet the individual needs of the child and to build on the best of local cultures and traditions
• involve all of us as partners in learning
• be flexible enough for teachers to be able to develop and mould it to the needs of the individual
By using the National Curriculum, your child should be able to:
• develop literacy and numeracy skills
• extend their creativity
• improve the standard of their work
The new curriculum stresses the importance of equal opportunities and of valuing ourselves and those around us.
A major part of the school curriculum, the National Curriculum is taught throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
About this Guide
This guide has been designed to provide you with a simple look at the National Curriculum and how it affects your child. It examines the subjects that will be covered at the different stages of schooling, the terms you may hear, and the way in which your child will be tested and assessed. There are also a number of suggestions of ways in which you might help your child.
The Revised National Curriculum – what's changed?
The changes to the National Curriculum for 2000 have not been as wide and varied as many people expected. Similar in many ways to the previous National Curriculum, some of the main changes and developments have been:
• to bring English and Mathematics in line with the work children are doing in the
National Literacy Strategy and in the National Numeracy Strategy
• to slim down a number of subjects
• to increase the importance of Information Technology across all the subjects studied at school
• to introduce more guidelines on Citizenship and PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education)
KEY STAGES
The National Curriculum is split into four stages. These are known as Key Stages, and they cover school work between the ages of five and sixteen. Children are assessed at the end of each Key Stage. During each stage, your child will have to cover a number of different subjects. You may hear these stages mentioned if you talk to the school about your child's progress.
Key Stage 1 (5—7 years): English, Mathematics, Science, Design and Technology, ICT (Information and Communication Technology), History, Geography, Art and Design, Music, PE (Physical Education)
Key Stage 2 (7—11 years): English, Mathematics, Science, Design and Technology, ICT (Information and Communication Technology), History, Geography, Art and Design, Music, PE (Physical Education)
Key Stage 3 (11—14 years): English, Mathematics, Science, Design and Technology, ICT (Information and Communication Technology), History, Geography, Art and Design, Music, PE (Physical Education), Modern Foreign Languages, Citizenship (from August 2002)
Key Stage 4 (14—16 years): English, Mathematics (from August 2001), Science (from August 2001), Design and Technology (from August 2001), ICT (Information and Communication Technology), Modern Foreign Languages (from August 2001), PE (Physical Education, from August 2001), Citizenship (from August 2002)
JARGON
When teachers talk to you about your child's education, you may hear certain words or phrases with which you are not familiar. Here are some key ones.
Year Groups
Most of us will remember when we were in "Mr. Smith's" class or the "third form." Nowadays most schools have renamed their classes: Reception is the first year at school, followed by Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, etc. up to Year 11 for sixteen-year-olds. A six-year-old will be in Year 1, a thirteen-year-old will probably be in Year 8.
Foundation Stage
This starts when children are three and goes on until they are in the Reception class, the last year of this stage. When children go into their second class (Year 1) in the infants, they start covering The National Curriculum, although this may vary according to your local authority. Your child may have part-time schooling or even stay at home during the Foundation Stage.
Baseline Assessment
This takeries of observations of a range of planned activities.
Programmes of study
The National Curriculum provides Programmes of Study, which set out what your child should be taught during each Key Stage. These provide teachers with a basis for planning lessons and setting objectives.
Attainment Targets
Each curriculum subject is divided into sections. The expected standards in these sections are called Attainment Targets (ATs). For example, Science at Key Stage 1 is split up into:
• scientific enquiry
• life processes and living things
• materials and their properties
• physical processes
National Curriculum Tests
National Curriculum Tests are assessments of your child's progress at the end of each Key Stage. These can be by teacher assessment, by specially designed tasks and tests, or by a combination of the two. English and Mathematics tests are carried out at ages 7, 11 and 14, and Science tests are carried out at ages 11 and 14. At Key Stage 4, the main forms of assessment are national qualifications.
A number of practice tests and home-learning books are available in most high-street bookshops. View the links page for further infornation.
National Literacy Strategy (NLS)
The NLS is closely related to the National Curriculum for English at Key Stages 1 and 2. It provides a detailed framework for teaching the reading and writing aspects of the Programme of Study to primary school children.
National Numeracy Strategy (NNS)
The NNS is fully aligned with the Programme of Study for Mathematics. It provides a detailed basis for teaching Mathematics at Key Stages 1 and 2.
The Core Subjects
ENGLISH ~ MATHS ~ SCIENCE
The Other Subjects
DT / ICT / Histoy / Gegraphy / ART / Musit / PE + RE / Sex ED / PSHE + Citizenshi
TESTING
During their school career, children will be tested and assessed in key subjects. At ages 7, 11 and 14, children take National Curriculum Tests in English and Mathematics. They are also tested in Science at ages 11 and 14. These tests show how well the pupils in your child's school are doing compared with others elsewhere in the country.
There is no pass or fail in these tests. Along with the teacher's assessment, they are designed to show you how well your child is doing.
When will my child have to take these tests?
Your child will probably sit these tests in May. Key Stage 1 children also carry out tasks for assessment in the first six months of the year (January to June).
For younger children, the tests only last about 3 hours altogether. For 11-year olds, they take around five hours in total, and for 14-year olds, about eight hours. The tests are spread over several days.
How is the assessment carried out?
In addition to the tests, a longer-term assessment is carried out by your child's teacher. This helps build up a picture of how your child is progressing. Don't be surprised if the teacher tells you that your child is doing better in the classroom than he or she did in the tests. Children at a primary level are assessed in the three core subjects (Mathematics, English and Science), whilst those at secondary level undergo a wider assessment across a larger number of subjects.
Your child's report
Schools must give you a report that tells you how your child is progressing. You will then have an opportunity to talk with the teacher. The report includes your child's National Curriculum Test results and the teacher assessment results for that year. You should also receive information showing how the school has performed this year compared to last year's combined National Curriculum Test scores. Older students will get a report that includes any public exam results. The tests children take when they are 14 help teachers estimate how they will perform at the end of Key Stage 4.
What do the different levels mean?
Each subject has levels. These describe what children working at each level should be able to do. So children working at level 3 in Mathematics should be able to use decimals, recognise negative numbers when working with temperature and money, and add and subtract mentally using two digit numbers.
Children aged :
5 to 7 are usually expected to be working between levels 1 and 3. At the age of 7, they are usually at level 2.
7 to 11 are usually working between levels 2 and 5. Most children at the age of 11 are working at level 4.
11 to 14,are usually working between levels 3 to 7. Most children are at levels 5 or 6 by the time they are 14.
Information on levels can be obtained from your child's school or by logging on to www.nc.uk.net or www.parents.dfee.gov.uk
League Tables
Tables showing the results of the National Curriculum Tests are usually published in the newspapers. These tables enable you to compare how your child's school is performing compared to other schools, both locally and nationally. It is important to remember that all sorts of things can affect the scores, such as locality, social mix and even school size.
