National Curriculum

National curriculum

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The school curriculum comprises all learning and other experiences that each school provides for its pupils. This includes the national curriculum, religious education, collective worship, sex and relationship education and careers education.

The school curriculum has two aims:

· To provide opportunities for all pupils to learn and achieve          

· To promote pupils' spiritual, moral social and cultural development and prepare all pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.

  

Within the school curriculum, the national curriculum secures for all pupils, irrespective of social background, culture, race, gender, differences in ability and disabilities, an entitlement to a number of areas of learning. It serves to develop knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes necessary for their self-fulfilment and development as active and responsible citizens. It also makes expectations for learning and attainment explicit to pupils, parents, teachers, governors, employers and the public, and establishes national standards for the performance of all pupils in the subjects it includes.

Teachers can modify, as necessary, the national curriculum programmes of study to provide all pupils with relevant and appropriately challenging work at each Key Stage. The National Curriculum requires teachers to have due regard to the three principles that are essential to developing a more inclusive curriculum. These are:

· Setting suitable learning challenges          

· Responding to pupils' diverse learning needs          

· Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils

The current version of the national curriculum took effect from August 2000, adding a new element, Citizenship, which became statutory from 2002. Programmes of study are statutory in all Key Stages, apart from at Key Stage 4 where revised programmes of study became statutory from August

2001 in

Mathematics, Science, Design and Technology (D&T), Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) and Physical Education (PE).  From September 2004, MFL(modern foreign languages) and D&T (design and technology) ceased to be statutory for KS4 students; they now have an entitlement to study these subjects if they wish.