National Curriculum

Information about National Curriculum

The National Curriculum was introduced into England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as a nationwide curriculum for primary and secondary state schools following the Education Reform Act 1988. Notwithstanding its name, it does not apply to Independent Schools, which by definition are free to set their own curriculum, but it ensures that state schools of all Local Education Authorities have a common curriculum.

The Education Reform Act 1988 requires that all state students be taught a Basic Curriculum of Religious Education and the National Curriculum.

The purpose of the National Curriculum was to ensure that certain basic material was covered by all pupils. In subsequent years the curriculum grew to fill the entire teaching time of most state schools.

Principal Aims

There are two principal aims to the National Curriculum:

Aim 1: The school curriculum should aim to provide opportunities for all pupils to learn and to achieve.
Aim 2: The school curriculum should aim to promote pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and prepare all pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.

Compulsory Subjects

Key Stages 1 and 2

At Key Stage 1 (ages 5-7) and Key Stage 2 (Ages 7-11) all pupils in state education are required to study:

English (often taught as Literacy)
Mathematics (often taught as Numeracy)
Science
Information Technology often called ICT.
History
Geography
Art and Design
Music
Design Technology
Physical Education
Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)

In Wales, pupils are additionally required to study:

Welsh

The government proposes that by 2010, all pupils in Key Stage 2 will have 'an entitlement' to learn a modern foreign language [1].

Also, many schools provide a Sex Education programme. This must be an agreed policy of the individual school, and parents may withdraw their children from any such lessons.

Although schools are required to offer some form of Religious Education, which varies depending on the status of the school, it does not form a part of the National Curriculum.

Key Stage 3

At Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14) all students in state education are required to study:

A programme of Sex Education should also be provided in accordance with local policy. In Wales, pupils are additionally required to study:

Welsh

Key Stage 4

At Key Stage 4 (ages 14-16) all students in state education are required to study:

and undertake a programme of work-related learning. Schools must provide religious education for all pupils, although parents can choose to withdraw their children. In Wales, pupils are additionally required to study:

Welsh

National Curriculum Assessment

Main article: National Curriculum assessment

Assessments are carried out at three ages: seven (school year 2, at the end of Key Stage 1), eleven (Year 6, the end of Key Stage 2) and fourteen (Year 9, the end of Key Stage 3). Some aspects of subjects are teacher-assessed, whilst others involve sitting an examination paper. The results are considered when school and LEA performance league tables are being compiled, but they do not lead to any formal qualification for the candidates taking them. Many schools find them a valuable introduction to public examinations, before the relative importance of GCSEs.

The exam-based assessments, National Curriculum Tests, are referred to as SATs (Standard Attainment Tests). This was their title when they were being developed in the 1990s and there is no connection with the American university-entrance examination of the same name.

External links

Concerning Assessment

Motto
Dieu et mon droit (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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Motto
Cymru am byth (Welsh)
"Wales forever"
Anthem
"Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau"
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The Union Flag is the official flag used by the government to represent Northern Ireland. The former official flag, the Ulster Banner, continues to be used by groups (such as some sports teams) representing the territory in an unofficial manner (see Northern Ireland flags issue).
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Primary education is the first stage of compulsory education. It is preceded by pre-school or nursery education and is followed by secondary education. In North America this stage of education is usually known as elementary education.
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Secondary education is the final stage of compulsory education, preceded by primary education and followed by higher education. It is characterised by transition from the typically compulsory, comprehensive primary education for minors to the optional, selective tertiary,
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Public education is education mandated for or offered to the children of the general public by the government, whether national, regional, or local, provided by an institution of civil government, and paid for, in whole or in part, by taxes.
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The Education Reform Act of 1988 is widely regarded as the most important single piece of education legislation in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland since the 'Butler' Education Act 1944. Scottish education legislation is separate from that of the rest of the UK.
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An independent school is a school which is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operation and is instead operated by tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the investment yield of an endowment.
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Local Education Authority (LEA) is the part of a local council, or local authority (LA), in England and Wales that is responsible for education within that council's jurisdiction.
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worldwide view of the subject.
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Religious Education is the term given to the aspect of education concerned with religion.
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Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving (as it may) perceived non-physical eternal verities (or even abilities) involving humankind's ultimate nature, often contrasts with the earthly, with the material, or with the
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moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim.
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Social refers to human society or its organization. Although the term is a crucial category in social science and often used in public discourse, its meaning is at times vague, suggesting that it is a fuzzy concept.
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Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate,") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significant importance.
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Key Stage 1 is the legal term for the two years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 1 and Year 2, when pupils are aged between 5 and 7.
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Key Stage 2 is the legal term for the four years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6, when pupils are aged between 7 and 11.
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English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S., Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, South Africa, and the Middle East, among other
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literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to read, write, listen, and speak. In modern contexts, the word refers to reading and writing at a level adequate for communication, or at a level that lets one understand and communicate
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Mathematics education is a term that refers both to the practice of teaching and learning mathematics, as well as to a field of scholarly research on this practice. Researchers in maths education are in the first instance concerned with the tools, methods and approaches that
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The National Numeracy Strategy began as the National Numeracy Project in 1996, led by a Numeracy Task Force in the United Kingdom.

It set about addressing perceived weaknesses in the teaching of mathematics, particularly at primary school.
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Science education is the field concerned with sharing science content and process with individuals not traditionally considered part of the scientific community. The target individuals may be children, college students, or adults within the general public.
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Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.
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History is the study of the past, focused on human activity and leading up to the present day.^[1] More precisely, history is the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race ^[1]
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Geography - (from the Greek words Geo (γη) or Gaea (γαία), both meaning "Earth", and graphein (γράφειν) meaning "to describe" or "to write"
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Art education is the area of learning that is based upon the visual, tangible arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc and design applied to more practical fields such as commercial graphics and home furnishings.
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Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music.

In elementary schools, children often learn to play instruments such as keyboards or recorders, sing in small choirs, and learn about the elements of musical sound and history of music.
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Design and Technology (also D&T, D.T, or Craft and Design in Scotland) is a National Curriculum academic subject of the UK educational system that can be taken at all levels from primary school upwards.
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In most educational systems, physical education class, also called physical training (PT) or gym, though each with a very different connotation, is a course in the curriculum which utilizes learning in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains your name
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Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) is an element of the state school curriculum in England. Also known as "PACE" in some schools, it is a subject that many secondary teachers find difficult to teach because it has not had the status of an examinable subject.
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