is there a website

[loosinas]

where i can find out the content of the curriculum for year 2 ? i have been getting lost on dept of education... just want to know broadly what my son is studying to be able to support him

As far as I know, schools are now obliged to share their yearly overview with parents.

My school made me write one before we broke up for summer so it can be on their website ready for the new academic year.

Hi loosinas:

Agree the DfE website is hopeless - given it's paid for with taxpayers money one wonders why it can't be friendly to parents. The obvious thing is to have some form of menu by school year so that parents can generall find out what should be taught and if this is a year when a 'big test' (SATs, GCSE, etc...) comes up.

Anyway - in the meantime can I direct you to Campaign for Real Education which has a summary for each area of the curriculum by year. One word of caution - this is a 'gold standard' curriculum so may well not be what your school is working to - however, as a parent, I think it is very useful to understand what in an ideal world your child should be taught (and have mastered) in Y2, etc... The other nice thing is this is written in relatively plain English - so isn't full of educational jargon.

Link here: www.cre.org.uk/primary_contents.html

Just select area of curriculum of interest.

HTH

That is only one group's idea about what the content should be. Having looked through the maths syllabus, there's no way that that what we teach. Column subtraction and bus stop division by year 3?! And numbers up to 1,000,000? My kids' heads would explode!

absolutely juniper904 - this is 'gold standard' and may not work or suit everyone.

What I would add that what you've quoted is what should be covered and mastered by end of Year 3 (so at the point they're rising to Year 4) - and I don't think it should cause their heads explode.

I agree that working with 1000s and 10,000s in column addition/ subtraction may be a stretch for many. But my brother is doing this kind of stuff with higher quartile second graders in Texas (which is the same age group = UK Year 3 but only after 2 or 3 semesters in formal education).

But yes juniper904 - our school also doesn't work to this and quite specifically was opposed to column addition/ subtraction - although notably all of the children in the top group were taught it at home or at Korean or Chinese Saturday schools (I hasten to add I'm not Korean/ Chinese - but do understand this extra teaching in maths in native language on Saturdays was in response to lack of maths emphasis/ homework in local schools). As one Indian friend recently explained why her husband wasn't taking a lectureship back in India - 'We can't move back even though it's a good position because our DD would be so far behind in school. Even with all the extra we try to do - there's no catching back up'.

I'm personally not surprised our school doesn't work to this - but I don't believe what Campaign for Real Education is describing is impossible - it's just not a priority.

Unfortuantely at 15 it is clear that this lack of emphasis (?effort) has major repercussions - the PISA study in 2010 clearly showed this (DfE comment here www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a0070008/secretary-of-state-comments-on-pisa-study-of-school-systems) and recent study shows that it's usually non-state school students who perform best at maths www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18722137 by age 15.

Now I'm not saying this all starts in Year 2 - but cummulatively, modest aspirations for maths attainment does appear to be reaping rewards.

By the way - for those who would like to talk about big numbers with KS1 children - can I recommend:

Can you count to a googol? by Robert E. Wells (available through amazon & major book stores). It's a great way to teach how to read/ say big numbers without children's heads exploding and helps to visualise the increasing geometric scale of huge numbers.

Robert E Wells writes a number of science/ maths books - all a lot of fun.

Some good teaching resources for his books here: www.albertwhitman.com/resources/BookResources/2/5/documents/aw510-08_robertwells_v22.pdf

HTH

thanks so much guys all really helpful xx