Transcript Curriculum Evening for Parents

Curriculum Evening for Parents
Wednesday 12th November
5.30pm – 7.30pm
What is the National Curriculum?
 The national curriculum defines the programmes of
study for key subjects in the maintained/state primary
and secondary schools in England. Fundamentally, it
sets out what your child is supposed to learn and
when.
Don’t forget the National Curriculum
isn’t everything…
School Curriculum
Organisation
of school day
RE
Core
subjects
Foundation
subjects
Methodology
Sex &
relationship
education
Core
knowledge
Local context
When content
is introduced
(within key
stage)
Why the change?
 The main aim is to raise standards. Although the new
curriculum is intended to be more challenging, the
content is actually slimmer than the previous
curriculum, focusing on essential core subject
knowledge.
 The idea is for children to ‘go further…at an earlier
age’
Introducing the changes
For 2014-2015
 This September years 1- 6 are now following the new
National curriculum for all foundation subjects.
 In years 1, 3, 4 and 5 the children are also following the new
National Curriculum for core subjects (English, Maths and
Science).
 In years 2 and 6 the children are following the Old national
Curriculum this year and will be assessed against this in
Summer 2015.
 Next year 2015-2016 (for the current year 5 and year 1) new
style SATs will be introduced to match the new curriculum.
English
 Phonics fast and first this change has already taken place in the
main with the instruction of the phonics test in year 1. The new
curriculum insists that all children should be taught to read using
this method above all others.
 Focus on the fundamentals There’s a much deeper focus on
learning grammar explicitly. The new curriculum contains a long
list of often complex grammatical concepts, punctuation and
spelling rules that children will have to identify and label as well
as use.
 Reading for pleasure Children should read widely, for pleasure
and for meaning.
 Recitation and debate It encourages children to organise their
thoughts and ideas for the purposes of debate, discussion,
explanation and narration.
Maths
 New Content: There's quite a lot of new content. This includes
long division at year 6, and an increasingly complex
understanding of fractions and decimals. Some content has
moved ‘down’ by one or two years, meaning children will be
expected to master some things earlier than they have before.
 Practice is key! The aims state that it is imperative to keep key
maths fundamentals, such as times tables and number facts, "on
the boil"
 There is a renewed emphasis on calculating and problem solving
with fractions and decimals and less on data handling (now
called statistics).
 The programme of study is set out on a year-by-year basis
 No Calculators. Further emphasis of the importance of mental
fluency and the use of efficient written methods in the four
mathematical operations.
Science
 Greater range of investigative activities. Working
scientifically encourages children to look for naturally
occurring patterns and relationships, observing
something change over time and classifying as well as
the good old fair test.
 More on identifying and naming living things
especially in KS1.
 Seasonal changes including day length in Y1.
 Basic digestive system for lower KS2
 Evolution and Inheritance in upper KS2.