Delivering the new national

curriculum

BETT Leaders Summit, 23 January

Jim Magee, Assistant Director, DfE

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Aims

To discuss the three strands of the government’s approach to

delivery within a school-led system:

system leadership

teaching materials

communications – raising awareness

…providing a sense of what’s being done by government,

and what by others

Overall approach

“…But what really matters is that this is a new approach to

education, one that gives head teachers and schools far

greater freedom. How they implement the national

curriculum is down to them.

There will be no new statutory document telling teachers

how to do their job. No national strategies telling teachers

everything that they have to do. No national roll-out. This is

a huge cultural shift.”

Elizabeth Truss, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (education

and childcare) Speech at: http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/speeches/a00222888/felcom

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Recap on the review

new national curriculum sees government setting

out the ‘what’ (at a high level) – making sure that

pupils grasp the concepts – and not the ‘how’

shorter programmes of study setting out core

content – especially in foundation subjects and key

stage 3

fuller for key stage 1-2 maths and English, but so

important

1. System leadership

Moving to a school-led system a key feature of the

government’s policy – less well reported

real expansion of system leaders across England:

• 355 teaching schools, 299 alliances, with c.20

schools per alliance

• over 800 national support schools (NLEs)

• Over 2000 LLEs

Schools Direct – major shift in delivering ITE

announced £2m to help teaching schools to support

schools in their alliance and beyond to plan for

change

aiming for geographical coverage, some proposals

working with hundreds of schools

focus on primary, mathematics, English, science,

computing and languages

supporting change management – auditing

strengths, identifying materials

Supporting the new curriculum

2. Teaching resources

This curriculum makes new demands of teachers’ subject

knowledge

schools’ needs will differ and it is for them to identify their areas

for development

government is focussing investment in priority areas – maths,

science, computing

‘expert groups’ have been looking at the challenges of the new

curriculum for ITE and serving teachers and how they might be

addressed

subject associations and publishers developing new materials:

http://www.besa.org.uk/home, http://www.publishers.org.uk/;

Good CPD guide: http://goodcpdguide.com/

Curriculum change

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National college have developed online resources to help

schools plan curriculum change:

http://www.education.gov.uk/nationalcollege/leadingcurricu

lumdevelopmentresource

o how good is your current curriculum?

o what makes a great curriculum?

o how can learning be organised?

Reena Keeble on leading change in her school:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trfAzeifaIY

Mathematics high expectations consistent with age-related expectation in high performing

jurisdictions e.g. Singapore and Massachusetts

multiplication tables – up to 12x12 by end of year 4

fractions – harder content on calculations, including multiplication and

division, by end KS2

formal written methods e.g. long division

NCETM new micro-site: https://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/40851

Mathematics Education Strategic Hubs (MESH) – 30 teaching school led hubs,

supporting others in their area

Debbie Morgan (NCETM): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4aDZEZaF_A

Andrew Carter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSMkgNu3ptw

Helen Drury:

http://community.tes.co.uk/national_curriculum_2014/b/mathematics1/archive/2013/1

2/13/secondary-maths-in-the-national-curriculum-by-dr-helen-drury.aspx

English

Greater emphasis on grammar, spelling and punctuation and higher

expectations of spelling at an earlier age

Focus on fundamentals of spoken and written word and reading and

understanding a wide range of books and poetry

Expert group: National Literacy Trust hosting a free planning tool:

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/schools_teaching/curriculum

Phonics programmes and resources

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/pedagogy/phonic

s/b00198579

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/pedagogy/a0019

1791/match-funding-for-systematic-synthetic-phonics-products-and-training

article from James Clements:

http://community.tes.co.uk/national_curriculum_2014/b/english/archive/2013

/12/05/english-in-the-national-curriculum-by-james-clements.aspx

Science

more precision, introduced in line with high performing

jurisdictions

focus on core fundamentals of science

coherence in working scientifically from key stage 1 to 4

STEM centre: www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/primaryscience

Expert group materials: http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/stem-

in-context/support-for-science-ITE

Pauline Hoyle podcast:

http://community.tes.co.uk/national_curriculum_2014/b/science/archi

ve/2013/12/05/watch-pauline-hoyle-on-the-science-curriculum.aspx

Computing much greater focus on practical experience of programming and

understanding the fundamental principles of computer science.

From ages 11 to 14, pupils will be taught how to code and use a

range of programming languages to help solve computer

problems

extended Master Computer Teachers programme

Computing at school (CAS) network

http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/

recently announced £1.1m scheme for

supporting primary teachers

http://www.codecademy.com/schools/curriculum

expert group resources:

– https://sites.google.com/site/primaryictitt/ – https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbW

FpbnxwcmltYXJ5aWN0aXR0fGd4OjE2ZTMyM2Y1NTM0ZjdiNTE

– https://sites.google.com/site/primaryictitt/home/research

History

chronological approach across key stages 2 and 3

new periods at key stage 2

key skills to be developed within historical knowledge

Free expert group materials to be available at: www.history.org.uk

National Archives:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/victorians/ViewSection.aspx

Free school trips: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/education

First World War battlefield tours:

http://www.ioe.ac.uk/research/87073.html

Holocaust programmes – two students from every school/sixth form

college in England to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau

Geography

greater clarity on locational knowledge

more content on human and physical geography

greater emphasis on fieldwork

expert group materials:

– range of overview pieces, on pedagogy and thinking

geographically

– guidance on locational, map work, fieldwork

available at: http://geognc.wordpress.com

Languages

new requirement to teach foreign languages in primary schools at

KS2

new content on translation at KS3

literature at KS3 – more explicit reference to reading literary texts

grammar and vocabulary at KS3

Linda Dupret: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKPcpJtfKhI

Expert group overview of materials to be hosted at www.all-

languages.org.uk

Free materials, e.g.

– Mandarin: http://ciforschools.wordpress.com/teaching-

materials/primary-materials/

– Japanese:

http://www.jpf.org.uk/language/primaryjapanesecampaign.php

Design and technology

Pupils to be taught a variety of approaches to the design,

e.g. biomimicry

increase in the level of sophistication in the use of

electronics

cooking now compulsory at KS3, and wider range of

content

DATA and expert group have produced:

– annotated guide to the KS 1-3 programmes of study

– and six principles for guiding and evaluating practice,

with examples and questions to prompt reflection

– both of these tools are available at

https://www.data.org.uk/for-education/curriculum/dt-

national-curriculum-for-england-2014/

Music

Greater focus on music-making and for activities to be

undertaken musically

Greater emphasis on encouraging pupils to progress to

the next level of musical excellence

More emphasis on listening with discrimination to high

quality live and recorded music

Music hubs

http://www.musicmark.org.uk/about-our-members/music-

services-directory

Expert group materials due to go live at:

www.teachingmusic.org.uk

PE/sport More emphasis on being physically active in PE and on competitive sport

Dance introduced to key stage 3 for the first time

Strengthening opportunities for activities outside of school, for example links

between school and community/club sports (supported by, for e.g. the

Satellite Clubs programme)

Expert group materials on the AfPE website:

http://www.afpe.org.uk/advice-on-new-national-

curriculum

Primary sport premium (information, examples and

useful links to organisations):

https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/getting-more-

people-playing-sport/supporting-pages/school-pe-and-

sport-funding

Art and Design

stronger focus on the teaching of drawing from an early

age

new emphasis on knowing about the historical

development of art through a greater emphasis on

teaching about great artists and designers

new open-source expert group materials will be on the

subject association’s site: www.nsead.org

Citizenship

Greater focus on political systems and UK government

Requirement that all children should have the

opportunity to perform voluntary work in their community

Personal financial education

free materials at: http://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/resources

free personal financial education materials at:

http://www.pfeg.org/

established an expert group on citizenship – more to

follow

3. Raising awareness

We’re raising awareness of:

the curriculum reforms themselves

what’s already available to support teachers – there’s

quite a lot out there

schools that have already introduced elements of the

new curriculum, such as those in the maths mastery

network

we are going where teachers go – TESonline, Guardian,

SLT chat and through our media channels

REFERENCE LIBRARY: www.gov.uk/dfe/nationalcurriculum - final PoS and links to

funded resources

DIRECT

COMMS

SHOWCASE AND AMPLIFY OTHERS’ WORK

COMMERCIAL: publishers, conference organisers, membership orgs (e.g. Scholastic,

Govnet, The Key)

+ Flickr, Itunes,

Slideshare, Linked

In, media

FACILITATE / SUPPORT OTHERS TO

COMMUNICATE

Tweet-meets

Supersharers

Other

subject

communities

Expert groups

Public Twitter

lists

ASCL,

NAHT, NGA

Subject

associations

Bloggers

and

tweeters

Playlists

RTs

Reposts

+ NCTL channels

#NCready?

Aggregators

Looking ahead

September 2014: first teaching of national curriculum,

except years 2 and 6 for English, mathematics and

science, and key stage 4 EMS

May 2015: final key stage 2 tests based on previous

curriculum

May 2016: first new key stage 2 tests and whatever

baseline assessment is decided after consultation

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Links and contact details

National curriculum contacts:

Jim.magee@education.gsi.gov.uk

Gillian.machin@education.gsi.gov.uk

Vince.jubb@education.gsi.gov.uk

National curriculum information sheet:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-

curriculum-and-assessment-information-for-schools

DfE TES page:

http://community.tes.co.uk/national_curriculum_2014/b/default.

aspx

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