New curriculum 2014

[coldfingersandtoes]

my kids school has inset days coming up during which they are discussing the new curriculum coming in september 2014, Does anyone know what this new curriculum is or what changes there are going to be, I can't find any info on it anywhere

[sittingbythepoolwithenzo]

Marking my place, because I really should read the links before our next governors' meeting.

So, DS1, who is currently year 5, will learn the new curriculum from september, but will be assessed on old style Sats in 2015? It's the levels I can't get my head around. We've been nagged and nagged about progress levels, have data coming out of our ears.

[rollonthesummer]

Don't OfSTED use levels to performance manage schools? How on earth can they make judgements about progress and attainment between schools without some sort of nationally agreed benchmarks.I suspect this hasn't been thought through at all.

I completely agree.

[PiqueABoo]

@sittingbythepoolwithenzo

No, in principle the current Y5 are supposed to stick with the old curriculum in Y6 because they'll still be doing ye olde SATs in summer 2015.

Assuming it turns up in time, the first use of the new Secondary Readiness assessments (of the new curriculum) will be in summer 2016.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

The old curriculum was disapplied for the current year 3 and 4 from Sept 2013. Schools can choose which version of the curriculum to teach this school year. Every other year group should still be using the old curriculum and year 2 and 6 will be assessed on the old style sats.

From Sept 2014 the new curriculum will apply to years 1, 3, 4 and 5 for the school year 2014-2015. Years 2 and 6 (current year 1 and 5) will still follow the old curriculum and will sit the old style SATS in May 2015.

From Sept 2015 all years should be using the new curriculum and years 2 and 6 will be assessed on the new curriculum in May 2016.

[PiqueABoo]

"How on earth can they make judgements about progress and attainment between schools without some sort of nationally agreed benchmarks. "
--

Unless you're lucky Ofsted often seem to judge a primary school on horribly broken 'analysis' of KS2 result data these days, with the actual inspection being a bit of a charade. They can pull the same trick just as easily with Secondary Readiness results in future.

[mrz]

There will be nationally agreed benchmarks - the New National Curriculum

[mammadiggingdeep]

The 'secondary ready' benchmark is actually akin to a level 5 now. Currently the national average is 4b at end of KS2.

The term 'secondary ready' doesn't sit well with me to be honest. If children don't reach the mark on the scale to be deemed 'secondary ready' (think its a scale of 100)...then many children will go to secondary school
With the damaging notion that they're 'not ready'...that they didn't meet the grade and that they're already behind.

[PiqueABoo]

I got the impression they want the threshold roughly where the floor standard is now (4B). There was some talk from out masters of the bottom 16% failing Secondary Readiness, a percentage which is approximately -1 standard deviation for a normal distribution i.e. mathematically neat.

[PiqueABoo]

PS: I spat quite a lot of venom here and there when they revealed "secondary ready". As you remarked, it's an appalling label that will doubtless have children at secondary school thinking they're not fit to be there.

[mammadiggingdeep]

Well...at a borough conference for middle leaders recently we were told it will be equivalent to a level 5. I hope to god that you're right and it stays at a 4. However, my experience of politicians mucking about with things and my cynical side thinks all of this change will be a chance for them to change the goal posts without it being completely transparent.

Lets all hope not... :(

[rollonthesummer]

That's bonkers (why am I not surprised!?)
Will the children leave knowing they are secondary ready or unready? That will do wonders for their self-esteem.

[mammadiggingdeep]

Oh yes....another gem is that the parents (so children too prob) will be told where the child comes within the class, os a percentile. I believe that everybody should know where pupils are performing in relation to the national average but why within the class?? Progress should be about that individual not a direct comparison to her peers.

[PiqueABoo]

"we were told it will be equivalent to a level 5"
--

Really?

It might have increased a little last year, but in 2012 only 27% got an L5 in both English and maths.

Having just revisited the subject the threshold they were flinging around when they released the consultation paper with Secondary Readiness was 85% pass, 15% fail (1% less than what I thought it was earlier).

Gove et al might be insane, but I can't imagine them expecting schools to turn that 27% into 85%, picking a threshold that will label roughly 2/3 of children as not-ready.

[PiqueABoo]

"where the child comes within the class"
--

We'll see when they publish the final assessment stuff , but I've tripped over a couple of claims that the deciles and the ranking proposals might not see the light of day.

Meanwhile, if I want to know where Y6 DD sits in the class ranking I just ask her. The children compare their scores in all tests, especially for those SATs practice papers.

[PastSellByDate]

Very interesting discussion especially in light of the fact that it seems the government wants to drop NC Levels and have schools independently determine how to mark pupils: e.g. discussion on implications from NfER: www.nfer.ac.uk/about-nfer/news/losing-levels-must-not-mean-a-return-to-localism-in-assessment-warn-experts.cfm

but because the national curriculum link posted didn't have programmes of studies by subjects - I thought for interested parents out there - this link may be of help: www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum - if you scroll down you can see the new content by subject area of the national curriculum.

Personally NC Level 4 in maths as our school interprets it is barely knowing your times tables, struggling to mutliply 2 digits by 1 digit, no vertical methods of addition/ subtraction/ multiplication/ division and definitely no division (including inverse multiplication). From my perspective as a parent and with a brother teaching primary in the US - this means that effectively English children with 2 full school years more than US children end up behind most US children by age 10/11 (end Y6 UK/ end Grade 5 US).

I also think that boredom in class is a very dangerous thing. Moving too slowly, not applying calculation skills to new and more challenging problems, not regularly practicing skills - all leads to a serious malaise/ bad attitude toward maths. Ask any pupil at DDs school what they think about maths and they say they hate it. The only one who doesn't in Y6 is my DD1 who went off plan and learned maths through mathsfactor & now algebra school at home. She adores maths and hopes to be a mathematician or use math, perhaps in science (a Brian Cox fan), when she grows up.

As a parent I can't help but wonder if the school had been more proactive about maths, had embraced more of the things available on-line (games, tutorials, homework schemes that mark for the teacher, enrichment activities like the wonderful Cambridge NRICH maths website etc...) would there be 30 pupils saying they love maths.

So as a lowly parent - yes I know it means upping the game - but I think it's truly worth it - albeit based on my experience of a small backwater in the English primary school system.

[tiredbutnotweary]

Past - how old was your DD when you started mathsfactor? Were you already concerned about the school's methods?

My yr1 DD really disliked & struggled with maths (the struggling feeds the dislike) and I've invested in a variety of iPad apps as gameification seems a great in - that and games with multiple dice. Now she is really starting to enjoy maths and even asks to play one particular game repeatedly. However I have wondered if a more structured programme like MF is a good investment in the longer term - it really sounds like it was for your DD?!?

[tiredbutnotweary]

And thank you Past, for that link which answered my previous question up post. Namely that NC levels (or criterion- referenced assessments) were preceded by norm-referenced assessments, where the pass marks for the level awarded changes depending on what scores each cohort gains.

[PastSellByDate]

Hi tiredbutnotweary -

DD1 adored numbers in nursery and happily counted even and odd numbers with me up the road as we walked to the park. She could count to 20 no problem leaving nursery and recognised numbers. Year R we mentioned that other schools had children from her nursery doing actual problems but were told the school policy was not to deal with 'real numbers' until Y1/ Y2 when they start the national curriculum. We had maths puzzles/ games as homework in Year R - they were enjoyable and did sometimes include counting (like snakes & ladders) but didn't really progress things.

Year 1. We had barely any homeworks - maybe 10 in total for the entire year. All were pattern colouring work - so beads or cars that you had to colour in different patterns using 2 or 3 colours. We again raised our concern and said that friends from nursery at other schools were getting formal maths work but were told at St. Mediocre (as we affectionately call this school) they work on underlying understanding of numbers first and then work with more traditional methods we'd recognise later. We were assured things would pick up in Y2.

At the start of Y2 DD1 got her first proper maths homework - with actual problems - 10 + 2, 13 + 3, etc... She really really loved it. I wrote in the workbook that DD1 really enjoyed this homework and said I hoped we could get more like it. (I very definitely didn't mean right now - but meant next homework). I went into school a few days later and the teacher came out into the school yard and shouted at me about how busy she is and how she doesn't have time to be creating homeworks to please me. I was furious but DH said it was probably just a misunderstanding so he went in to explain that we weren't asking for extra work just that we liked that DD1 was working with actual numbers and would like to see more homeworks like that. He also got an earful of abuse from the teacher.

We had meetings with the teachers and the HT who supported the teachers and informed us we were too demanding and needed to understand that DD1 was just a little bit dim. We then opted to go with mathsfactor - which coincidentally was starting up at that time and I happened to read about in a magazine someone left on the train. We've never looked back.

DD1 has finished arithmetic school and is about 2/3rds the way through algebra school - she's really liked that it has been taught by a woman (helped her to see girls could be good at maths - which was one of my aims) - we have been thrilled with the outcome. She has incredibly secure and methodically learned calculation skills and understands number patterns clearly (better than me in some cases). She's on track for a strong NC L5 at KS2 SATs and they will also sit her for L6 SATs paper in Maths. So fantastic outcome - BUT... and this is where my blood pressure gets out of control - she's now streets ahead of her contemporaries in her class many of whom were way ahead of her at the end of KS1 - AND THAT'S JUST WRONG. I'm glad we were in a position where parting with £14.99 a month wasn't a huge issue as a family - but it frankly is ridiculous that parents have to pay for their children to learn maths outside of school. Post 11+ it's now clear that many parents heavily invested in tutors, workbooks, text books in maths and did a lot of home support of maths to get good results.

This is ostensibly a 'GOOD' school according to OFSTED. However, the show they put on for the inspection and in the run up to inspection with all sorts of improvements in the curriculum/ Virtual learning envirnoment support etc... were phenomenol. They've all been dropped now - no more My MATHS. No more MOODLE. No more Spanish as MFL in KS2. Y6 is now entirely only maths/ english and practice SATs tests - the class is split in two - those clear to pass (NC L4 or higher) and those still struggling to achieve NC L4. The upper group are now being taught by the Y2 teacher.

Something is very wrong in the system.

However I just keep telling myself 6 more months and she's free of the place.

[tiredbutnotweary]

Wow!

Thanks so much for sharing Past. I do wonder how many of the level 5 & 6s are a result of parental support, be it their own, even if that's just to provide access to resources or via tutoring. I know some parents on MN claim to do nothing with their high achieving children (L5 & 6s) & whilst that's likely to be literally true for some I suspect the definition of nothing might vary.

Like you say, perhaps if the other children in the class had the same input as your DD maybe there would be more level 5s & 6s. I certainly feel that way about my own DD's reading - the more they do the easier it becomes, the more they enjoy it and the more they want to do!

[Runoutofideas]

Would the new curriculum explain why our yr 4s seem to suddenly be being pushed very hard in maths? DD this week has done long multiplication and long division, which I remember being taught in yr 6, and only then because I needed to know it for a private school entrance exam....Have things changed so much in a relatively short amount of time?

[PiqueABoo]

Well it all sounds simple, more-is-more and why not steam ahead, but Singapore is in first place in the global rankings and:

"In Year 2 (age 6-7) the PNCM [our lovely new flawed maths curriculum - Ed.] requires that students are taught to mentally add and subtract two digit numbers. This skill requires students to mentally manipulate numbers using the base 10 number

In Singapore students are taught the base 10 number system in their Year 2 (age 7-8) and are not expected to be able to mentally add and subtract two digit numbers until their Year 3 (age 8-9)"

[PiqueABoo]

"Have things changed so much"
--
It hasn't changed that much. Some is clearly about making it more joined up with secondary where e.g. they have L5 algebra that didn't exist in primary L5. Some is there to please ermm.. 'traditional' Tory voters e.g. increasing the extent of times-tables from 10x10 to 12x12, ye olde long division, Roman numerals etc.

Long division in Y4 sounds like a bad idea.Might be wrong, but IIRC the prescription is "by the end of Y6". A lot of informed folk think the curriculum is a bit of a mess and lots of primary schools will mess up. For instance this forensically detailed survival guide attempting to mitigate some of the trouble: education.lms.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DMG_4_no_3_2013.pdf

[YoullNeedATray]

Long division and long multiplication in year 4?!

My more able year 4s have been introduced to the 'chunking' method of division as an extension activity. They were confidently partitioning for division.

They still use Grid method for multiplication though, but they are working with decimals and up to 4 digits by 3 digits :-D

[Runoutofideas]

I just asked dd1 about chunking for division and she had no idea what I was talking about! Must be a case of different schools, different methods. DD is at a standard state primary just turned academy, so not sure if that has any bearing on it?
She is confident with the long multiplication but struggles with the long division - probably unsurprisingly!

[jobbingteacher]

I would be surprised if many schools ditch levels until they are certain how Ofsted are going to judge progress and thus the school. Most schools have built hugely complicated assessment structures around levels and invested much time, effort and money in doing this, mainly to satisfy Government and Ofsted agendas on standards. It's all a bit smoke and mirrors though so until the smoke clears on this new goal-post change - let's wait and see!!