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See also statistics on national curriculum test results A summary of the revised English curriculum for England, 2006
Set texts
English 21- the future direction of the curriculum (2005-2015)
Shakespeare test for 14-year-olds
A summary of the revised English curriculum for England, 1999
Primary
In September 2006,
reforms of the way children are taught the three Rs in primary
school came into force. There was a renewed emphasis on improving children's
listening and speaking skills. Teachers were also be expected to return
to a back-to-basics method of teaching children to read, using synthetic phonics. The decision to focus the teaching of reading on synthetic
phonics came
after recommendations from Jim Rose.
The measures were produced in response to ministerial
concerns that primary pupils' attainment in maths and English,
having increased steadily since the introduction of the literacy
hour in 1998 and a numeracy framework in 1999, had hit a
plateau, still leaving more
than 20% of children trailing.
The curriculum said that children should be able to write their name by the age of
five, compose simple sentences using capital letters and full
stops by six, and write compound sentences and use question
marks and commas to separate items on a list by seven. By
eight they should be able to use commas to mark clauses and
use the possessive apostrophe.
Primary teachers will be expected to plan fewer lessons in advance and respond to pupils' progress instead, under the updated primary framework launched in October 2006. Teachers will map out topics to cover for several weeks but prepare only two lessons in advance. Once these are complete, teachers will be expected to review pupils' progress and plan the next two lessons in response to their understanding of the areas covered. The 1,600-page framework also recommends that elements of the curriculum are taught earlier. The measures, which were distributed to schools in October
2006, were accompanied by an investment of £230 million
of professional support for primary head teachers and subject
heads in schools.
Secondary
A government test in functional skills, aimed at proving school-leavers worth to employers, for children as soon as they start secondary school, was piloted from September 2007. The certificate tells employers that individuals have achieved the basic standards in literacy, numeracy and information technology in their first year at secondary school.
The functional skills test, which will sit alongside GCSEs, and ministers have said that no child should be able to progress towards an A* to C grade pass in maths and English without achieving basic functional skills. There will be a full national roll-out of the English and ICT tests in September 2009 and maths from 2010.
A review of the 11 to 14 curriculum was promised for 2007 (for more information visit http://www.qca.org.uk/. Jim Knight, the schools minister, said that the government would take strong steps to ensure standards rose, including almost £1 billion extra for personalised learning to stretch the brightest and help the less able, making phonics the prime approach to boosting reading at primary school, and improving the key stage three curriculum.
In February 2005, the Telegraph reported that secondary schools were to be given new Government guidelines
to improve children's reading in response to evidence that
pupils were reading the same books in different years.
The QCA expressed
concern that the range of texts taught in schools was too narrow, in December 2005, it said that children were losing the "reading stamina" required to finish whole books because their English lessons now relied on short extracts. Students no longer studied a rich range of literature but are forced instead to read the same short stories from anthologies year after year.
The same novels were being taught to pupils as they progress
through schools, according to the watchdog. Officials from
the authority, who spoke to teachers and local authority English
advisers about the diet of reading in schools, found that
a number of books were read "across several years".
They also said that, in secondary schools,
teenage fiction was replacing
classroom classics.
A Christmas Carol and The Diary of Anne Frank were taught at the end of primary school and often repeated in the first few years of secondary school. Between the ages of 12 and 14, the national curriculum becomes more prescriptive, specifying that children should be reading Shakespeare, drama by important playwrights and novels and poetry by writers published before and after 1914.
In reality, however, the authority found that "a relatively limited range of fiction" was read in class and that the books chosen were often written specifically for an adolescent audience. While old favourites, such as Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce and Robert Westall's The Machine Gunners, were still used by many teachers, the authority said "an orthodoxy was emerging around newer texts".
In August 2006, Alan Johnson, the education secretary, said that a prescribed list of classic authors including Trollope, Dickens and Austen would remain in the curriculum for 11 to 14 year olds, provoking a backlash from his own advisors. Mr Johnson overruled senior figures in the QCA and teachers' representatives by pre-empting the result of an ongoing consultation. The QCA had not prescribed any writers except Shakespeare in its new draft KS3 English curriculum, saying simply that literature studies should include "stories, poetry and drama written before, during and after the 20th century.
In 2005 national curriculum guidance at primary levels specified
that pupils must read significant children's authors, long-established
children's books and good quality modern poetry. The QCA
found that primary school children spent a number of years
concentrating on titles such as The Butterfly Lion by Michael
Morpurgo, The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, and Bill's New Frock,
by Anne Fine. A Christmas Carol and The Diary of Anne Frank were
taught at the end of primary school and often repeated in
the first few years of secondary school.
English 21, was an initiative launched by the QCA in February 2003 to stimulate discussion about
the future direction of English in the 21st century. The project was an opportunity to express
views and discuss a wide range of English-related issues,
to generate ideas and prompt further discussion about how
English should develop as a subject over the next decade. Areas for discussion included:
- The place of creativity and imagination and how to provide
an inspiring curriculum
- How much emphasis there should be on the "nuts and
bolts" of language
- The impact of the digital age on reading and writing
- The significance of English as a global language
- What all children should study and what might be optional,
especially for students aged 14-19
- What kinds of assessment will be best for students in
2015
Following the English 21 inquiry, in which more than 5,000 teachers, parents, pupils, employers, writers and local authorities were asked for their views on what the curriculum should look like in 10 years' time, a report called Taking English Forward was published in November 2005. It painted a picture of "mundane" lessons, with teachers under pressure to rely on routines and structures and lacking time to be creative.
Many employers and universities were unhappy with teenagers' competence at reading, writing, speaking and listening. Those involved often highlighted the "four Cs" - competence, creativity, cultural understanding and critical skills. To improve cultural understanding the report said England's literary heritage should not be seen as a "static and fixed" list of texts, but be updated to include work from various traditions, including those of young people from ethnic minorities. Critical skills were seen as vital to success in all aspects of life, including at work - for example, the ability to check the validity and origin of material on the internet.
Following English 21, the QCA has proposed a range of ideas for the renewal of English teaching:
* boost creativity: poets, writers, actors and journalists to be brought into the classroom
* new courses and qualifications in creative writing to increase competence
* speaking and listening to be a priority for pupils of all ages
* eight and nine year-olds to be taught keyboard skills
* boost cultural understanding
* texts from a wide range of cultures to be used in classrooms
* reading and writing texts on screen also to be included
* to help develop critical skills: more flexible qualifications with a greater range of choices
Taking English Forward is at www.qca.org.uk
In October 2003 moves began to replace the Shakespeare test
in the English tests for 14-year-olds. The Shakespeare
test had been widely condemned by English teachers as "ludicrous
dumbing down". The test, introduced in May 2003 by the QCA, was mocked because pupils could gain
more than half marks without showing any knowledge of the
play concerned.
Officials initially defended the test as "rigorous"
but then the new QCA chief sided with the complainants and
ordered a rethink. The QCA is sent questionnaires to English teachers in
350 secondary schools to ask what they believe should be in
the revised test. There was be no replacement paper available
until 2005.
Primary
The biggest changes within the programmes of study were at
primary level. The primary programmes of study were revised
to ensure alignment with the National Literacy Strategy. In reading, infants would first concentrate
on using phonics to decode words. At junior level, non-fiction
played a much bigger part in the list of compulsory materials
and detailed grammar was introduced much more explicitly than
ever before at primary level. The curriculum required
seven-year-olds to begin to learn the functions of word classes
(academic speak for parts of speech) such as nouns, verbs
and adjectives, and understand clauses, phrases and connectives
(joining words and phrases).
Speaking and listening were more explicit with an emphasis
on drama, role play, discussion and public speaking. The curriculum stressed that schools which implemented both
the literacy and numeracy hours would be fulfilling their statutory
duty to deliver the maths and much of the English curriculum. Most schools have done this. All non-core programmes of study were slimmed down and made more flexible to try to create more time for literacy and numeracy.
In September 1999, after protests by traditionalists, David Blunkett ordered that compulsory lists of classic authors and poets be restored to the National Curriculum for September 2000. The QCA had hoped to increase flexibility by allowing teachers to choose which classic authors were taught. For the first time, after a request from teachers for more guidance on non-fiction, the English Curriculum also contained a list for 11 to 14-year-olds of recommended non-fiction writers. This was despite international research published in 2000, which showed that in Swiss schools, where teachers are free to choose texts, pupils acquire language skills at a faster rate than their English peers. The research by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said lower ability English 14-year-olds were three years behind their Swiss peers in language development.
Summary of changes at different key stage 1 and 2:
Key Stage 1
Pupils should learn to read and write independently and with enthusiasm. They develop confidence as speakers, make relevant contributions and learn how to listen to others attentively. They use language to explore imaginary worlds and their own experiences.
Key Stage 2
Pupils should learn to adapt their speech and writing according to context, purpose and audience. They read a range of texts and respond to different layers of meaning in them. They explore language in literary and non-literary texts and learn how language works.
Secondary
At secondary level, pupils were required to practise a wider
range of writing skills including imaginative, descriptive,
analytical and persuasive writing.
In September 1999, after protests by traditionalists, David Blunkett ordered
that compulsory lists of classic authors and poets be restored
to the National Curriculum for September 2000. The QCA had hoped to increase flexibility
by allowing teachers to choose which classic authors were
taught.
For the first time, after a request from teachers for more
guidance on non-fiction, the English Curriculum also contained
a list for 11 to 14-year-olds of recommended non-fiction writers. This was despite international research published in 2000, which showed that in Swiss schools, where
teachers are free to choose texts, pupils acquire language
skills at a faster rate than their English peers. The research
by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research,
said lower ability English 14-year-olds were three years behind
their Swiss peers in language development.
The national curriculum required all 14-year-olds to read and be tested on a Shakespeare play. The only pupils exempted are the lowest tenth of the ability range. At GCSE, about a quarter of all marks in English (often referred to as English language) were allotted to questions about literary texts.
Summary of changes at different key stage 3 and 4:
Key Stages 3 and 4
In KS3, pupils' repertoire in writing and speaking
extends to formal and public registers. They develop their
ability to evaluate language in use. They study classic and
contemporary texts and explore social and moral issues. During KS4, pupils learn to respond with confidence to the
language and demands of academic study and of the workplace.
They use and analyse complex features of language. They read
many types of text efficiently and make articulate, perceptive
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