Secondary Curriculum Reform

Lynn Maidment

Putting things into perspective

Evaluating the curriculum:

When considering whether the curriculum has sufficient breadth and balance and the extent to which it meets the needs, aptitudes and interests of pupils inspectors should note the following:

A curriculum with breadth and balanced in a maintained school is likely to consist of the NC subjects, RE and a variety of other courses and programmes. Where a school does not provide the NC and RC, inspectors will need to fully explore the school’s reasons. For academies, inspectors should check the curriculum requirements set out in the academy’s funding agreement.

The rationale for reform

The rationale for reform was set out clearly in the evidence provided in the White Paper:•As a country, we must learn from the world’s best-performing education systems so that we perform to our full potential.•Within our schools, we must re-focus our efforts to close the gulf between education attainment of the rich and the poor which remains too wide.•We must do more to equip our children and young people for a rapidly changing world which is both more international and more competitive than ever before.

In February 2013, the Secretary of State announced that, following the evidence gathered through the Government’s public consultation on reforming Key Stage 4 qualifications, GCSEs will be comprehensively reformed so that young people have access to qualifications which match and exceed those of the highest performing jurisdictions. The Secretary of State also wrote to Ofqual, the examinations regulator, setting out his policy for the development of new GCSEs. The letter asked Ofqual to develop revised regulatory requirements for the new qualifications with regard to that policy.

A comprehensive overhaul

Meeting the challenge

By:

•disapplying the curriculum for one year in most subjects in order to give schools a chance to revisit their curriculum philosophy and approach

•engaging and enthusing staff, governors, parents and students in the project of curriculum reform. This means building confidence and skills at school level to drive curriculum development.

•helping students and parents see what makes their school distinctive and how the curriculum is tailored directly to them.

•building on the best. What counts is what works. We need a systematic approach to learn from effective practice to enable more children to achieve more.

•aligning the system. This means ensuring qualifications

are rigorously quality assured and school accountability for

pupil success is clearly identified in inspection terms.

Literacy challenges

• According to the Chief Inspector for schools one in five children do not achieve the expected literacy levels by the end of primary school – 100,000 pupils last year alone – rising to one in three pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. One in seven adults, as many as five million people, lack basic literacy skills.

• The problem is evidenced by an Ofsted, Moving English Forward which has found that while in many schools English teaching is effective and pupils make good progress, standards in English are not high enough and, since 2008, there has been no

overall improvement in primary pupils’ learning.

Key areas for improvement in primary and secondary education

Three key areas in primary and secondary mathematics in schools in England need to be improved:

•Firstly, not enough is being done to help pupils catch up who fall behind early. The 10% who do not reach the expected standard at age 7 doubles to 20% by age 11, and nearly doubles again by age 16.

•Secondly, inspection evidence shows that pupils in lower ability sets and younger pupils received the weakest teaching. Inspectors regularly saw outstanding and satisfactory teaching, and sometimes inadequate too, within an individual school.

•Thirdly, lots of the brightest pupils do not fulfil their potential when they get to secondary school. 37,000 of the highest attaining primary school pupils got no better than a grade C at GCSE in mathematics last year. Schools which routinely enter students early for GCSE mathematics are hindering their ability to reach the highest grades.

Time for change.Reforming school accountability

• School grading is being reformed in order to encourage higher expectations for every student.

• Existing league tables have focused almost exclusively on how many children achieve a C pass in five GCSEs including English and maths.

• This deceptively simple measure contains three perverse incentives:

1. It encourages schools to choose exams based on how easy they are to pass, rather than how valuable they are to the student.

2. It causes a narrow concentration on just five subjects, instead of a broad curriculum.

3. And it focuses teachers’ time and energy too closely on just those pupils on the C/D borderline, at the expense of their higher or lower achieving peers

Time for changeBalance and meaning

The proposed changes to school accountability are intended to result in a more balanced and meaningful accountability system, with two new measures:

• the percentage of pupils in each school reaching an attainment threshold in the vital core subjects of English and maths;

• and an average point score showing how much progress every student makes between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4.

• The average point score measure will reflect pupils’ achievement across a wide range of eight subjects.

Best intentions.Reform of GCSEs

•The qualifications will be linear, with all assessments normally taken at the end of the course. Examinations will test extended writing in subjects such as English and history, have fewer bite-sized and overly structured questions, and in mathematics and science there should be a greater emphasis on quantitative problem-solving.

•Internal assessment and the use of exam aids will be kept to a minimum and used only where there is a compelling case to do so, to provide for effective and deep assessment of the specified curriculum content.

The centrality of your curriculum

When reporting, inspectors must consider:• the extent to which the education provided by the school

meets the needs of the range of pupils at the school, and in particular the needs of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs.

• Narrowing the gap in literacy and numeracy in primary schools• Raising aspiration• Improving the quality of teachers and teaching• Narrowing the gap in GCSE attainment at secondary schools• Ensuring pupils develop key strengths, including resilience and well-

being, to support high aspiration• Narrowing the gap in the proportion of pupils not in education,

employment and training (NEET)• Narrowing the gap in university graduation• Successively competing on a world class stage• Addressing issues of poor/inappropriate curriculum design an

Education at the crossroads.Taking account of the challenges

Taking account of the challenges

• EBacc effect - rising numbers of pupils opting to do geography and history. Entries up by 19.2% and 16.7% respectively. (2013 results)

• Revisions to the National Curriculum• Reforms to GCSEs and A levels• Rising educational standards across the developed world• Pressures of a world class economy • Changes to vocational qualifications• New regulatory procedures to be introduced• Confusion caused by apparent continual change• Calls for schools to publish curriculum details on line

“A constantly changing and turbulent environment” 2013

• Record numbers taking single sciences

• Entries for languages at their highest levels for 5 years

• The rapid pace of change

• Lack of faith in A level reforms

• De-coupling of AS from A2 exams

• AS down in entries by 0.4% this summer. Can it remain as a co-teachable option?

• University entry eased this year with the trade up option for ABB students will address recruitment but what about widening participation?

• Trends show a move towards apprenticeships and opportunities in leading companies are being explored as alternatives to university

Subject to approval

• Subject to the approval of Parliament, it is the government’s intention that the final version of this framework will be published in the autumn of 2013, and that the elements that require statutory force will come into effect for the majority of year groups from September 2014. For pupils in year 2, year 6 and year 10, the new English, mathematics and science programmes of study will be introduced from September 2015; and for pupils in year 11 the programmes of study for these subjects will be introduced from September 2016.

The EBacc

• As well as English and maths the Average Points Score will measure how well pupils perform in at least three subjects from the English Baccalaureate - sciences, history, geography, languages - and Computer Science, and in three additional subjects, whether those are arts subjects, academic subjects or high quality vocational qualifications.

• By measuring average point scores rather than a single cut off point, the new measure will also ensure that the achievement of all students is recognised equally, including both low attainers and high fliers.

Incentivising schools

• This measure will incentivise schools to offer a broad, balanced curriculum, with high quality teaching and high achievement across the board. It will also affirm the importance of every child enjoying the opportunity to pursue the English Baccalaureate subjects.

Key principles

• A key principle of our reforms is that the statutory National Curriculum should form only part of the school curriculum, not its entirety. Each individual school should have the freedom to shape the whole curriculum to their particular pupils’ aspirations and priorities - a freedom already enjoyed by the growing numbers of Academies and Free Schools as well, of course, as schools in the independent sector.

A more ambitious curriculum?

“With sharper accountability, a more ambitious curriculum and world class qualifications, I believe we can create an education system which can compete with the best in the world - a system which gives every young person, regardless of background, the high quality education, high aspirations and high achievement they need and deserve.”

The Secretary of State for Education

Developing whole school strategies: Reading and writing

6.3 Teachers should develop pupils’ reading and writing in all subjects to support their acquisition of knowledge. Pupils should be taught to read fluently, understand extended prose (both fiction and non-fiction) and be encouraged to read for pleasure. Schools should do everything to promote wider reading. They should provide library facilities and set ambitious expectations for reading at home. Pupils should develop the stamina and skills to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation. They should be taught the correct use of grammar. They should build on what they have been taught to expand the range of their writing and the variety of the grammar they use. The writing they do should include narratives, explanations, descriptions, comparisons, summaries and evaluations: such writing supports them in rehearsing, understanding and consolidating what they have heard or read.

Developing whole school strategies: Literacy and numeracy

•Employers, universities and colleges are dissatisfied with school leavers’ literacy and numeracy, with 42% of employers needing to organise additional training for at least some young people joining them from school or college (CBI survey, 2012). •The GCSE is, and will remain, the primary qualification taken by young people and used by them as evidence of their literacy and numeracy.

•Young people who do not achieve a pass at 16 in English language

and mathematics will be expected to continue to study those post-16.

Moving forward

• New GCSEs will be made available in English language, English literature, mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, combined science, geography and history for first teaching from September 2015. The first examinations in these subjects would then take place in the summer of 2017.

• Other subjects may be in a position to move to the new approach by September 2015 as well, while changes to remaining subjects should follow as soon as possible after that. The aim is for that to happen for all subjects for first teaching in September 2016.

• Equal asked to begin work immediately on revising the regulatory requirements for GCSEs so that schools can have at least a year to prepare for teaching these new qualifications, and proposals for the new subject content are being developed.

National Curriculum assessment

To give teachers more freedom over their teaching, we will:

•introduce a slimmed-down NC for 5- to 16-year-olds to be taught in maintained schools from 2014

To improve literacy standards early so all pupils develop their enjoyment of reading and are able to access the rest of the curriculum, we will:

•make sure all pupils take a statutory phonics screening check at the end of year 1 to identify those that need additional support

•from 2013, introduce a second phonics screening check in year 2 for pupils whose results were below the level expected in the year 1 check

Brave new world…2016

For a typical 16-18 year old as compared to 2010:•More challenging specs.•Changes to tiered papers and early entries•Final exam rather than resists and modules•New grading structures•Limited access to exam aids•Considerable changes to internal assessment procedures •Need to achieve appropriate levels of English and maths or continue study beyond 16•Defined programmes of study at 16-19•Differently structured GCSEs and A levels•Revisions to vocational educational qualifications•Review of exams appeal process•Will have been taught languages at Key Stage 2•Enhanced focus on maths, science and English•Exam marking taking account of spelling, punctuation etc.

GCSE & A level changes

To make sure school leavers are better prepared for life after school, we will:•Reform GCSEs to provide a strong foundation for further academic and vocational study•increase the involvement of universities in the design and development of more rigorous A levels•encourage more 16- to 18-year-olds to take up mathematics and science subjects

Assessment procedures

To raise standards for all children, we will:•introduce grammar, punctuation and spelling tests from 2013 for all pupils at the end of key stage 2

To give schools greater freedom, we will:•remove the current system of national curriculum levels so that schools have the freedom to design their own assessments against the new national curriculum

Autonomy and diversity

The increasing diversity and autonomy of schools and the decisions they make about the curriculum may present some contradictions. Inspectors will need to make a professional judgement about the appropriateness of the curriculum with respect to the specific circumstances

of the school.

Ofsted. Subsidiary guidance

Out with the old in with the new. Disapplication

• The teaching of all national curriculum subjects will remain compulsory, but schools will be able to choose to either follow the existing programmes of study or adjust them to support transition to the new national curriculum. The regulations that make this possible came into force on 1 September 2013.

• The majority of the NC is being disapplied from September 2013 for one year for most subjects to give all schools the freedom to change what they teach in order to prepare for the new NC,. New statutory programmes of study will be introduced for all subjects from 2014 ( 2015 for KS4 English, maths and science)

• At KS4 English, maths and science the freedom will last for

two academic years because the new NC will be taught from

2015/16 for those pupils.

Did the secondary curriculum need to change ?

•Do you think a year is long enough to prepare for the changes suggested? What training and resources will be needed?•What do you think of the fact that some GCSEs are changing the following year?•How will changes to the primary curriculum affect your KS3?•How would your department respond if the primary assessment suggestions carried over into KS3?•Do you think the new curriculum might lead to enhanced cross curricular work?•What are the main challenges of the new curriculum for your school or department?•How will the removal of NC levels affect your schemes of work and resources?•What is your school/department thinking about how it will monitor performance and report to parents without NC levels?•Would you expect to get additional budget for the KS3 or

GCSE changes?