The National Curriculum A guide for parents

The National Curriculum is a framework used by all maintained schools to ensure that teaching and learning is balanced and consistent. It sets out:

the knowledge, skills and understanding required in each subject standards or attainment targets in each subject - teachers can use these to measure your child's progress and plan the next steps in their learning how your child's progress is assessed and reported the subjects taught

National Curriculum subjects EnglishMathsScience Design and technology Information and Communication Technology (ICT) HistoryGeography Art and design Music Physical education

Schools also have to teach religious education, though parents have the right to withdraw children for all or part of the religious education curriculum. In addition, schools are advised to teach personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship, together with at least one modern foreign language.

National Curriculum levels At Key Stages 1, 2, and 3, the National Curriculum is accompanied by a series of eight levels. These are used to measure your child's progress compared to pupils of the same age across the country.

All schools assess pupils’ progress during the school year, though some make more frequent use of the National Curriculum levels than others. You'll receive information about the level your child has reached at parent-teacher evenings and in their school reports.

Your child will be formally assessed at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2. At the end of Key Stage 1, the teacher’s assessment of your child’s progress will take account of their performance in several tasks and tests in English and maths. At the end of Key Stage 2, your child will take national tests in English, maths and science. You will be sent their test results and their teacher’s assessment of their progress. By the end of Key Stage 1, most children will have reached level 2, and by the end of Key Stage 2 most will be at level 4.

The Primary Framework for literacy and mathematics The Primary National Strategy is a set of tools for primary schools, aimed at helping them to raise standards – and to deliver the National Curriculum more effectively. The Primary Framework for literacy and mathematics is a central part of the strategy. While the focus is on literacy and numeracy, schools can use the approaches it recommends to support teaching, learning and assessment across the whole curriculum.

As well as reading and writing, literacy involves the development speaking and listening skills. The framework encourages teachers to use a variety of approaches to teaching literacy. It recommends regular, dedicated literacy lessons, but recognises that pupils can also develop literacy skills while they learn about other subjects in the curriculum.

The framework encourages teachers to put a greater emphasis on using ‘phonics’ (teaching your child to recognise the sounds of parts of words). It also stresses the part you play as a parent in helping your child to develop their literacy skills.

Developing maths skills The framework recommends a daily maths lesson, providing guidance for schools on how to develop pupils’ mathematical thinking and number skills.

As with literacy, schools are encouraged to use a variety of approaches. Published in October 2006, the latest version of the framework puts more emphasis on mental maths and recommends that children should start learning their times tables earlier than they had been doing.

The strategy also sets out a suite of catch-up programmes designed to help pupils in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 who have fallen behind. Parents are encouraged to get involved in developing their child’s numeracy skills as much as possible

Teacher assessments Your child’s teacher will carry out regular checks on their progress in each subject as a normal part of their teaching. At the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 they will carry out a formal “teacher assessment”, indicating which National Curriculum level best describes your child’s performance in each area of learning.

'End of key stage' tests At the end of Key Stage 1, the teacher’s assessment of your child’s progress will take account of their performance in English and maths, measured by tasks and tests that are administered informally.

At the end of Key Stage 2, your child will take national tests in English, maths and science. Your child will not take a national test at the end of Key Stage 3. At the end of Key Stage 4 they will probably sit exams for GCSEs and/or equivalent qualifications.

The tests won’t give you a complete picture of how your child is doing at school – they provide a “snapshot”, showing how they performed in selected parts of a subject on a particular day. But schools can use the test results as an independent measure of how they, and their pupils, are doing compared to standards across the country.

The Shape of Things to Come A major review of the primary curriculum (The Rose Review) A major review of the primary curriculum (The Rose Review) recommends that the primary curriculum is organised into the following six areas of learning: Understanding English, communication and languages Mathematical understanding Scientific and technological understanding Historical, geographical and social understanding Understanding physical development, health and wellbeing Understanding the arts.

Literacy, numeracy and ICT should form the new core of the primary curriculum. Schools should continue to prioritise literacy, numeracy and ICT as the foundational knowledge, skills and understanding of the primary curriculum, the content of which should be clearly defined, taught discretely, and used and applied extensively in each area of learning.

Primary schools should make sure that children’s spoken communication is developed intensively within all subjects and for learning across the curriculum. In so doing, schools should capitalise on the powerful contributions of the performing and visual arts, especially role play and drama.

Primary schools should continue to build on the commendable progress many have made in teaching decoding and encoding skills for reading and spelling through high quality, systematic phonic work as advocated by the 2006 reading review4 as the prime approach for teaching beginner readers.

Every Child Matters be healthy; stay safe; enjoy and achieve; make a positive contribution; and achieve economic wellbeing.

Assessing Pupil Progress APP is a process of structured periodic assessment for mathematics, reading and writing. It supports teachers by promoting a broad curriculum and by developing teachers’ skills in assessing standards of attainment and the progress children have made. It involves 'stepping back' periodically to review pupils' ongoing work and relate their progress to National Curriculum levels, and provides information to help teachers plan for the next steps in children's learning