New Primary Curriculum Programmes of Study for English, mathematics and science

Update: National Curriculum Review - ACME Questionnaire
Wednesday, 20 June 2012

The consultation questionnaire on the draft primary mathematics National Curriculum is now available online. The deadline for responses is 18 July 2012.

Original article:

Education Secretary Michael Gove has today set out the draft Primary National Curriculum Programmes of Study for English, maths and science.

The draft Programmes of Study published will be subject to an informal consultation so they can be widely discussed. The Department for Education will consider the public debate and re-draft the programmes before re-publishing them later in the year for formal consultation. The final programmes will be introduced in primary schools from September 2014.

The drafts include the following:

Higher standards in maths

  • Pupils will be expected to be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions in primary school so they can progress to more advanced topics like algebra when they go to secondary school. These four operations are not in the current primary curriculum. The proposed change is consistent with expectations in the high-performing education jurisdictions of Singapore and Hong Kong.
  • By age nine, pupils should know their times tables up to 12x12. This is in line with expectations in the high-performing jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Currently pupils only need to know up to 10x10 by the end of primary school.
  • By age seven, pupils should know “number bonds” up to 20. These are simple addition and subtraction facts that pupils should be able to recognise and use instantly (eg 9+9=18 or 16-7=9).

Higher standards in science:

  • There will be a greater focus on the acquisition of scientific knowledge with new content on the solar system, speed and evolution.
  • There will be an increased focus on practical scientific experiments and demonstrations, similar to the approach taken in Alberta and Massachusetts.

Higher standards in English:

  • Pupils will be taught to read fluently through systematic phonics. There will be a much stronger emphasis on reading for pleasure.
  • There will be a focus on spelling – for instance, there will be a list of words that all children should be able to spell by the end of primary school. There is currently no such list in the National Curriculum.
  • There will be a focus on grammar – for instance, children will be expected to understand how to use the subjunctive and correct use of the apostrophe – for example, not using it to indicate plurals such as “I went to buy some apple’s” or using “it’s” as a possessive.
  • There will be an expectation that pupils master formal English through poetry recitation, debate and presentation.

ACME and the NCETM are working together to facilitate discussion with the community to bring in subject expertise in an open and transparent way to inform the public consultation.

ACME plans to make use of the NCETM portal to facilitate discussion, according to the following schedule:

  • an ACME discussion forum https://www.ncetm.org.uk/community/1024 on the NCETM portal will be open for a specified time for members of the community to debate relevant issues about the programmes of study
  • a simple online questionnaire will be available for those who wish to submit their comments direct to ACME and the NCETM
  • ACME will also hold two meetings in central London at which attendees will be asked their comments and views. The dates for these are 18 June and 3 July
  • two online seminars will be held for those unable to make the face-to-face meetings, and we will ask people to express an interest in participating in this when registration for all these events opens in a few days. The dates for these are the evenings of 27 and 28 June
  • following this process, ACME and the NCETM will work on providing consolidated feedback to the Department for Education based on thoughts gathered through this consultation.

Find out more about contributing to the consultation.

Additionally, there will be a consultation later this summer on our plan to introduce foreign languages from age seven at the start of Key Stage 2. There will be no other changes to the structure of the Primary Curriculum. The Government will maintain the requirement for the teaching of art and design, design and technology, geography, history, ICT, music, and physical education across all the primary years.

Education Secretary Michael Gove also announced today that the current system of levels and level descriptors will be removed and not replaced.

The draft Programmes of Study for English, maths and science can be downloaded here. These apply to England only.



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