Primary Education: Curriculum

(asked on 3rd March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department takes account of attainment outcomes at (a) secondary and (b) further education level the development of the curriculum for key stages 1 and 2.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 9th March 2020

The Department introduced a more ambitious, knowledge-rich national curriculum in England in 2014, as well as more rigorous GCSEs from 2015, putting us in line with the highest-performing education systems in the world.

By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study. In developing the curriculum for each key stage, the knowledge and skills to be taught for each subject were carefully sequenced, to ensure a coherent approach that takes account of prior knowledge. This allows teachers to plan the school curriculum for each subject so their pupils are equipped for successful transition to the next phase of education, whether this is in the move from primary to secondary, or the move from secondary to further education.

In the case of primary English, mathematics and science, the programmes of study were sequenced in more detail on a year-by-year or two-year basis. The GCSE content requirements for each national curriculum subject were also carefully sequenced to build on key stage 3 and align with key stage 4 programmes of study. The independent regulator, Ofqual, has put processes in place to ensure that it is no harder for a student to obtain a grade 7, 4 or 1 in the new GCSEs than it was to achieve a grade A, C or G in the unreformed versions.

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