National Curriculum Changes
The first few slides in this presentation will inform you of the changes to the curriculum in the core areas. There have been many more changes in other subjects and these can easily be checked by doing a google search for National Curriculum 2014 changes. Parts of this document I have taken from the web site The School Run which is a good starting pint for up-to-date information. The link is at the bottom of the page. The new curriculum was introduced in September 2014 for all year groups except for Years 2 and 6 who continued with the old curriculum for that year. This year will see the introduction of new tests for pupils and I give example of these. There is a link if you want to check the whole package. This year also sees the end of National Curriculum levels. This means every school can use their own way of measuring progress and attainment. Our own conversion chart from levels to a new points based system is at the end. At the end of Year 6 you will be given a raw score for your child’s achievement with 100 being the average rather like in a standardised score. Our main aim has been to ensure pupils remain confident in their learning which is why we have gone for a system which we believe enables pupils to see the progress they are making so they can see their improvement. In evitable this presentation will give only an indication of the changes. If you have a question please feel to ask me when you see me but I am afraid I won’t be able to do this via email due to time constraints. http://www.theschoolrun.com/primary-national-curriculum-2014
English changes • Stronger emphasis on vocabulary development, grammar, punctuation and spelling (for example, the use of commas and apostrophes will be taught in KS1) • Handwriting is expected to be fluent, legible and speedy • Spoken English has a greater emphasis, with children to be taught debating and presenting skills
Maths changes • Five-year-olds learn to count up to 100 (compared to 20 under the old curriculum) and learn number bonds to 20 (up to 10 in the past) • Simple fractions (1/4 and 1/2) are taught from KS1, and by the end of primary school, children should be able to convert decimal fractions to simple fractions (e.g. 0.375 = 3/8)
• By the age of nine, children are expected to know times tables up to 12x12 (10x10 by the end of primary school under the old curriculum) • Calculators are not to be used at all in tests to encourage mental arithmetic
Science Strong focus on scientific knowledge and language, • rather than understanding the nature and methods of science in abstract terms Evolution taught in primary schools for the first time • Non-core subjects like caring for animals have been • replaced by topics like the human circulatory system
Will the 2014 primary curriculum involve any new tests? The Department for Education has also overhauled the format and content of SATs taken in Year 2 and Year 6 to reflect the new curriculum. These will be taken for the first time in May 2016. You can check out some example papers on the DfE's website. There will also be a new grading system, replacing the previous national curriculum levels. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-test-frameworks
Key Stage 1 Tests The questions in the English reading tests will be linked to a specific area of the national curriculum. These areas are listed in the test frameworks. Tests could include age-appropriate fiction, non-fiction and poetry from a variety of origins and traditions, covering, over time, a wide range of text types, forms and purposes. The final texts in the test booklets will be more demanding than current texts for both key stage 1 and key stage 2. Questions written for the reading test will clearly depend on the texts that are selected.
There is a focus on comprehension in the new national curriculum and there will therefore be a higher percentage of comprehension questions in the new assessments. The key stage 1 test will consist of two test components: Paper 1: this paper combines texts and questions. This will also include a list of useful words and some practice questions for teachers to introduce the contexts and question types to the pupils. Paper 2: the reading booklet and answer booklet are separate in this paper. Both reading papers will contain a mixture of fiction and non- fiction texts.
The key stage 1 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test is designed to assess grammar, punctuation, language strategies, handwriting and spelling. Language strategies refer to those parts of the content domain that relate to words and word building, such as the use of prefixes and suffixes.
The test will consist of three components. Paper 1: a short written task based on a stimulus and prompt. This component is designed to assess sentence structure and sentence grammar, punctuation and handwriting. The task will be introduced by the teacher. It will involve some teacher-led discussion. Each task will be accompanied by guidance on how to conduct the teacher- led introduction. This will be task specific as some tasks may need more teacher-led discussion than others. Paper 2: made up of two sections. The first section will be a set of contextual, or themed, questions. The questions may be presented in a variety of ways, as indicated by the following sample questions. For example, the questions may take pupils through a story, or pupils may be presented with a block of text and associated questions. The second section will be a set of short answer, stand-alone questions. Both the contextual and short answer sections will use a variety of question types, which will reflect the range of the cognitive demand scales. Paper 3: a spelling task. This will use pictures and/or dictated sentences as prompts.
The key stage 1 mathematics test will consist of two components. Paper 1: an arithmetic paper. This will comprise of a practice question and a number of questions which will be linked to national curriculum areas such as number, calculations and fractions. Paper 2: assesses pupils’ ability to apply mathematics to problems and to reason. The test will contain a mixture of contextualised and context-free questions, and real life and abstract problems. Language will be appropriate to key stage 1; word length will be kept to a minimum for accessibility reasons.
Changes to KS2 SATs in 2016: what parents need to know In the summer term of 2016, children in Year 2 and Year 6 will be the first to take the new SATs papers. These tests in English and maths will reflect the new national curriculum, and are intended to be more “rigorous”. There will also be a completely new marking scheme to replace the existing national curriculum levels. At the end of Year 6, children will sit tests in: Reading • Maths • Spelling, punctuation and grammar • These tests will be both set and marked externally, and the results will be used to measure the school’s performance (for example, through reporting to Ofsted and published league tables). Your child’s marks will be used in conjunction with teacher assessment to give a broader picture of their attainment.
Key Stage 2 Reading The reading test will be a single paper with questions based on three passages of text. Your child will have one hour, including reading time, to complete the test. There will be a selection of question types, including: • Ranking/ordering, e.g. ‘Number the events below to show the order in which they happen in the story’ • Labelling, e.g. ‘Label the text to show the title of the story’ • Find and copy, e.g. ‘Find and copy one word that suggests what the weather is like in the story’ • Short constructed response, e.g. ‘What does the bear eat?’ • Open-ended response, e.g. ‘Look at the sentence that begins Once upon a time. How does the writer increase the tension throughout this paragraph? Explain fully, referring to the text in your answer.’
The test will last for one hour, to include reading time, and will consist of a selection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts, with an accompanying answer booklet. Questions will be roughly in order of difficulty. The paper will be scored out of 50 with final raw scores being converted into a scaled score, with 100 representing the expected standard. There will be no extension (i.e. Level 6 equivalent) paper.
Key Stage 2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test The grammar, punctuation and spelling test will consist of two parts: a grammar and punctuation paper requiring short answers, lasting 45 minutes, and an aural spelling test of 20 words, lasting around 15 minutes. The grammar and punctuation test will include two sub-types of questions: • Selected response, e.g. ‘Identify the adjectives in the sentence below’ • Constructed response, e.g. ‘Correct/complete/rewrite the sentence below,’ or, ‘The sentence below has an apostrophe missing. Explain why it needs an apostrophe.’
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