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 responses School workforce – teachers, headteachers and support staff Teacher unions and groups Subject associations Academics Special interest groups National associations Parents, children and young people Over 3000 education specialists, parents and young people shared their thoughts and ideas at: Conferences, focus groups and seminars Partners’ education events Meetings with communities of interest

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