The government’s vision for delivering the new national curriculum Jim Magee

1. The government’s vision for delivering the new national curriculum Jim Magee

2. Aims of my presentation • To set out the government’s approach to delivery: • less prescription • system leadership • ITE, CPD and teaching materials • raising awareness • assessment • …providing a sense of what’s being done by government, and what by others

3. Vision for delivery “…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

4. Delivering the vision: less prescription • 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 and 4 • Fuller for key stage 1-2 maths and English, but so important • disapplication – giving schools chance to prepare by adapting curriculum in 2013/14

5. Delivering the vision: system leadership • 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 • National College Fellowship Commission

6. Delivering the vision: system leadership • 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

9. Delivering the vision: curriculum change • National college have developed online resources to help schools plan curriculum change: • how good is your current • curriculum? • what makes a great curriculum? • how can learning be organised? http://www.education.gov.uk/nationalcollege/leadingcurriculumdevelopmentresource

10. Delivering the vision: ITE/materials/CPD • 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 – NCETM has a range of support • science – national STEM centre has new materials • computing – recently announced £2m for additional master computer teachers • ‘expert groups’ have been looking at the challenges of the new curriculum for ITE and serving teachers and how they might be addressed. computingandgeographyexpert groups have already published their work. • subject associations and publishers developing new materials

11. Delivering the vision: raising awareness there’s a need to raise 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, Teachit, SLT chat and through our media channels

12. Assessment reforms • We propose to replace the existing 5 A*-C including English and maths floor standard measure with a progress measure based on pupils’ average scores across a suite of 8 qualifications. • The 8 qualifications counted in the measure will be English, mathematics, 3 further English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects, and 3 other high value qualifications – EBacc, other academic, arts or vocational. • We will calculate progress using a value added method, using KS2 English and maths results as a baseline. • A school will be below the floor standard if pupils make half a grade less progress than expected across their 8 subjects.

13. 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 • September 2015: first teaching of new GCSEs in English and mathematics • May 2016: first new key stage 2 tests and whatever baselineassessment is decided after consultation • Summer 2017: first new GCSEs assessed in English and mathematics

14. Links – sources of support • 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/national_curriculum_2014/default.aspx • NCETM: https://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/40775 • STEM: www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/primaryscience • Computing expert group: https://sites.google.com/site/primaryictitt/ • Geography expert group: http://geognc.wordpress.com • Sport funding: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/financialmanagement/b00222858/primary-school-sport-funding