Christ the King Primary School

Transcription

1 Christ the King Primary School Pupil Attainment and National Curriculum Changes a guide for parents 2015

2 Changes in the National Curriculum In 2013 the government announced plans to overhaul the National Curriculum. For most children, these changes took effect from September 2014, but children in Years 2 and 6 will follow the existing programmes of study until September 2015 in English, Maths and Science. Why the big curriculum change? The main aim is to raise standards and has been inspired by what is taught in the world s most successful school systems, including Hong Kong, Singapore and Finland, as well as in the best UK schools. The Government believe that it has been designed to produce productive, creative and well educated students. Although the new curriculum is intended to be more challenging, the content is actually slimmer than the current curriculum, focusing on essential core subject knowledge and skills such as essay writing and computer programming. Do all primary schools follow the new curriculum from 2014? Academies and free schools do not have to follow the new curriculum, but at Christ the King we have decided to do so. Quotes from National curriculum and assessment from September 2014: information for schools As part of our reforms to the national curriculum, the current system of levels used to report children s attainment and progress will be removed from September 2014 and will not be replaced. By removing levels we will allow teachers greater flexibility in the way that they plan and assess pupils learning. The programmes of study within the new National Curriculum set out expectations at the end of each key stage and schools are free to develop a curriculum relevant to their pupils that teaches this content. The curriculum must include an assessment system which enables schools to check what pupils have learned and whether they are on track to meet expectations at the end of the key stage and to report regularly to parents.

3 Key Facts about the new National Curriculum Schools are free to choose how they organise their school day, as long as the content of the National Curriculum programmes of study is taught to all pupils. By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programmes of study. The new National Curriculum identifies what to teach but not how to teach. The new National Curriculum does not have levels of attainment, but expectations at each banding. Literacy title has been replaced by English. ICT title is replaced by Computing In Maths there will be a greater emphasis on arithmetic, and the promotion of efficient written methods of long multiplication and division. There will also be a more demanding content in fractions, decimals and percentages. In Science there is a stronger focus on the importance of scientific knowledge and language and a greater emphasis on the core scientific concepts underpinning pupils understanding. For the first time primary aged children will learn about evolution and inheritance. The English programmes of study will embody higher standards of literacy. Pupils will be expected to develop a stronger command of the written and spoken word. Through the teaching of phonics pupils will be helped to read fluently. The study of languages is compulsory in Key Stage 2. We are studying Spanish The current ICT curriculum is replaced with a new computing curriculum with a much greater emphasis on computational thinking and practical programming skills. It is essential to distinguish between the statutory National Curriculum and the whole school curriculum. All schools must provide a curriculum that is broadly based, balanced and meets the needs of all pupils. Academies and Free Schools have the freedom to depart from the National Curriculum. All schools must teach religious education at all key stages and we follow the God Matters programme In other subjects and key stages there is a greater amount of time and flexibility for schools and teachers to design their curriculum and lessons by focusing only on the essential knowledge to be taught in each subject.

4 A Summary of Changes English Maths Science Subject Design Technology Computing Languages What s New Stronger emphasis on vocabulary development, grammar, punctuation and spelling (for example, the use of commas and apostrophes will be taught in KS1) Handwriting( not currently assessed under the national curriculum) is expected to be fluent, legible and speedy Spoken English has a greater emphasis, with children to be taught debating and presenting skills. Five-year-olds will be expected to learn to count up to 100 (compared to 20 under the current curriculum) and learn number bonds to 20 (currently up to 10) Simple fractions (1/4 and 1/2) will be taught from KS1, and by the end of primary school, children should be able to convert decimal fractions to simple fractions (e.g = 3/8) By the age of nine, children will be expected to know times tables up to (currently by the end of primary school) Calculators will not be introduced until near the end of KS2, to encourage mental arithmetic. Strong focus on scientific knowledge and language, rather than understanding the nature and methods of science in abstract terms Evolution will be taught in primary schools for the first time Non-core subjects like caring for animals will be replaced by topics like the human circulatory system Design and Technology has become more important in the new curriculum, setting children on the path to becoming the designers and engineers of the future More sophisticated use of design equipment such as electronics and robotics In KS2, children will learn about how key events and individuals in design and technology have shaped the world. Computing replaces Information and Communication Technology (ICT), with a greater focus on programming rather than on operating programs From age five, children will learn to write and test simple programs, and to organise, store and retrieve data From seven, they will be taught to understand computer networks, including the internet Internet safety will be taught in primary schools A modern foreign language or ancient language is now mandatory in KS2. Children will be expected to master basic grammar and accurate pronunciation and to converse, present, read and write in the language

5 Changes in Reporting to Parents and Carers As a result of the new National Curriculum we have reviewed our policy and practice. We want to make information available to parents on a more frequent basis. This term we are trialling mid-year progress reviews in Years 2 and 6, which, if successful, we aim to roll out to years 1, 3, 4 & 5 next year. These inform parents of the progress being made towards end of year targets. Please remember that as these are mid-year reports, we would not expect children to have achieved their target at this point in the school year. Targets are set for the end of each academic year and achievement of the children s targets will be reported in the summer term written report. If your child is not on course to meet their targets, the class teacher will share this with you and what we can all do to make sure they get back on track. In the summer term there will be summative written reports for every child, including any end of Key Stage Attainment information as well as a parent consultation evening. To further develop the ways in which we report to parents, we are investigating a number of new initiatives this year. These include: Making Annual Reports available online via our tracking system from Termly written progress reviews with updates for parents about their child s progress and learning dispositions If, as a parent or carer, you have any requests or suggestions about how we can improve our communication about children s learning and progress please contact Mrs Tickel, Mrs Sparks or Mrs Lord, or the school office marked for the attention of the Senior Leadership Team.

6 Assessment At Christ the King the tracking of every child s progress is on-going both in lessons and through teacher assessments and testing. For the most part this will not change as we need to assess what our children understand in order to plan our lessons. However, the way in which judgements are measured has changed with the removal of Levels. We currently use a tracking system, School Pupil Tracker Online, to support us in the tracking of pupil progress and will continue to do so. The removal of levels has meant that we needed to revise our practice to ensure that we continue to have a clear understanding of what a child can do; what they are learning and what their next steps need to be, without reference to levels. Our new system We have adopted a system which combines tracking points and assessment codes to enable us to maintain our rigorous tracking procedures (see tables) Most children would be expected to be: at the first tracking point for their year group at the end of the Autumn term (e.g. Y3 T16) at the second tracking point for their year group at the end of the Spring Term (Y3 T17) and at the final tracking point for their year group at the end of the Summer Term (Y3 T 18) Each stage is equivalent to 1 tracking point so the expectation is for children to make 3 tracking points progress each year. We have sub-divided the tracking points to half points on our tracking system in order to be able to track progress in smaller steps. In order to meet the new Age Related Expectations (ARE), children are expected to make at least 3 Tracking Points per year. For some children, depending on their starting point, they may have targets that expect them to make more than 3 Tracking Points in a year. It is important to know that the new Age Related Expectations are significantly higher than in our previous curriculum. For example Year 1 pupils are expected to meet targets that were previously expected of year 2 children. This means that all schools nationally are faced with the challenge of demanding more than the intended 3 tracking points in order to raise attainment from the old expected levels to the new Age Related Expectations (ARE).

7 The Tracking System Expectations Tracking Point EYFS Curriculum Key Stage 1 Nursery 1 Nursery 2 Reception Year 1 Year 2 Au Sp Su Au Sp Su Au Sp Su Au Sp Su Au Sp Su 22-36E 22-36D 22-36S 30-50E 30-50D 30-50S 40-60T 40-60E 40-60D ELG Almost Met 40-60S ELG Met T10 T11 T12 T13 T14 T Level W1 W2 WC WC+ WB WB+ WA WA+ WT 1C- P Scales EAL P1i P1ii P2i P2ii P3i P3ii P4 EAL1 P5 P6 P7 EAL2 P8 PT EALT EYFS Profile Emerging Expected Exceeding 1C 1C+ 1B 1B+ 1A 2C- 2C 2C+ 2B Lower Key Stage 2 Upper Key Stage 2 Key Stage 3 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Au Sp Su Au Sp Su Au Sp Su Au Sp Su Au Sp Su Au Sp Su Au Sp Su Expectations T16 T17 T18 T19 T20 T21 T22 T23 T24 T25 T26 T27 T28 T29 T30 T31 T32 T33 T34 T35 T36 Above KS3 Tracking Point Level 2B+ 2A 3C- 3C 3C+ 3B 3B+ 3A 4C- 4C 4C+ 4B 4B+ 4A 5C- 5C 5C+ 5B 5B+ 5A 6C-