From consultation to classroom � the renewed primary curriculum

							   From consultation to classroom –
   the renewed primary curriculum




October 2009
Publishers’ seminar 9th December 2009
The story so far…
• Children’s Plan released December 2007
• Independent review of the primary curriculum by Sir Jim
  Rose began January 2008
• Sir Jim’s final report to Secretary of State published 30
  April 2009
• Public consultation on a range of curriculum reform
  proposals held May-June 2009
• Reports on the consultations provided to the DCSF at
  the end of September
The primary curriculum consultation
• Over 1000 formal               • Over 3000 education
  responses                        specialists, parents and
   • School workforce –            young people shared
     teachers, headteachers        their thoughts and ideas
     and support staff             at:
   • Teacher unions and groups      • Conferences, focus groups
   • Subject associations             and seminars
   • Academics                      • Partners’ education events
   • Special interest groups        • Meetings with communities
   • National associations            of interest
   • Parents, children and
     young people
What we learned
• Strong support for the aims, essentials and areas of
  learning
   • Many thought the new curriculum had more flexibility and less
     prescription
• Support was strong across all interest groups
   • Sometimes for different reasons
• Some areas had less support or provoked a range of
  responses
   • Physical development, health and wellbeing
Aims of the curriculum
• The aims of the
  primary curriculum
  are to enable all
  children to become:
   • successful
     learners
   • confident
     individuals
   • responsible
     citizens
The essentials for learning and life
• The essentials are
  embedded
  throughout the
  whole curriculum
   • literacy, numeracy
     and ICT capability
   • learning and
     thinking skills,
     personal and
     emotional skills
     and social skills
Areas of learning
What’s in an area of learning
• Each area of learning has a common format and
  includes:
   • an importance
     statement
   • essential knowledge
   • key skills
   • cross-curricular
     studies
   • breadth of learning
   • curriculum
     progression
What happens next
• The revised national curriculum website goes live at the
  end of January, featuring
   •   The new primary curriculum
   •   Proposed statutory curriculum content
   •   Online tools to support curriculum design
   •   Case studies on specific aspects of the curriculum
• Curriculum design guidance and a handbook is being
  prepared for circulation to all schools early in 2010
• The DCSF is setting up an implementation support
  programme
Resources for learning
• Embedding the essentials – how to ensure the literacy,
  numeracy and ICT are progressive and challenging
• Essential knowledge - focus on the big ideas
• Essential skills – a common process across areas of
  learning
• The challenges for teaching ICT – embedding, teacher
  confidence, pace of change, new technologies
• Linking learning – coherence,
• Personalisation and flexibility – 1-to-1, catch-up, gifted
  and talented, child initiated learning and play.
• Memorable learning experiences