Implementing the Primary Curriculum

A Teacher's Guide

Kate Ashcroft, David Palacio

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9780750705929
• eBook ISBN: 9781135715625
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Giving an overview of the whole of the curriculum, this book specifically identifies key features of the required and optional curriculum. The editors give practical examples for implementing new requirements into the teacher's daily workload.

Section 1

Introduction

1 Introduction to the Primary School Curriculum

Kate Ashcroft and David Palacio

Introduction and Overview

To many people outside education, and perhaps yourself if you are just about to begin your course of initial teacher training, the terms the primary school curriculum and the National Curriculum for primary schools mean the same thing. However, to people more closely involved with schools the two terms are, for a number of reasons, quite distinct. In focusing on the primary school curriculum (sometimes called the whole curriculum), rather than the National Curriculum, one purpose for this chapter is to make explicit the differences that exist between the two. In doing so, this book should serve not only as a guide to the major features and key ideas underpinning the (whole) primary curriculum but also as a guide to how each subject comprising the National Curriculum may be implemented in a typical primary school classroom.

The nature of the primary school curriculum and the climate in which schools function changed quite dramatically following the passing of the Education Reform Act in 1988. Not only was the National Curriculum introduced by this Act but schools became much more publicly accountable for their actions and for the ways in which they have deployed the resources made available to them; for example, the governing body of a school and the parents of the pupils attending that school were given increased rights and responsibilities regarding the curriculum. You might like to compile a more comprehensive list of the changes that have occurred since the passing of the 1988 Act and the ways in which schools have changed to accommodate these new circumstances (the implications of these changes are considered more fully in a later enquiry task in this chapter, see p. 8). Because of all the changes that have occurred to the educational system and the impact these have had on schools, this book should prove to be essential reading not only for anyone who is new to teaching but also for anyone who is returning to teaching after a break away from a primary school classroom.

We suspect that most people are aware that schools are required by law to teach the National Curriculum. However, the National Curriculum is not the only component of the curriculum which all publicly funded (often referred to as maintained) primary schools have to include as part of the education they offer. Providing some form of religious education has been a legal requirement of all maintained schools—secondary as well as primary—since the 1944 Education Act. Therefore, in this book you will find, in addition to a full consideration of the National Curriculum, a discussion of the recently introduced curriculum guidelines for religious education together with consideration of some of the major issues which emerge when schools attempt to implement these guidelines. At this point, pause for a moment and consider: if both the National Curriculum and religious education are required by law, why is not religious education part of the National Curriculum?

The total primary school curriculum is much wider than what is termed the Basic Curriculum—the teaching of the National Curriculum and religious education. In fact, one key objective which underpinned the recent review of the National Curriculum (Dearing, 1994) was to slim down the statutory curriculum so as to enable schools to devote more time to providing a curriculum which is broader than that which has to be taught by law and one which is more responsive to the needs and interests of individual schools and children. (As a consequence of the Dearing Review, the estimated time that primary schools can devote to non-National Curriculum work amounts to the equivalent of one day per week.)

You will wish to consider what you might include in this ‘optional’ part of the curriculum. One obvious suggestion might be to introduce new material or new experiences which enable you to teach aspects of the National Curriculum in greater depth and/or breadth than is required by law (practical suggestions of what this might be are provided in the chapters of this book). Another possibility, perhaps more imaginative than the previous one, is to introduce subjects/areas of experience which do not come within the present National Curriculum for primary schools; for example, a modern foreign language and aspects of dance and drama. Including additional subjects, or aspects of them, should not only enable you to broaden the subject base of the curriculum, but it should also enable you to offer new and more innovative ways to teach the existing curriculum: for example, you might consider teaching some science work through drama. Adopting approaches such as those outlined in this paragraph, and others mentioned throughout this book, should enable you to enhance and enrich the (National Curriculum) experience of the children in your class.

National Curriculum documents are, quite often, written in a style that can make them difficult to understand, particularly if you are new to teaching the National Curriculum (such as a student beginning a course of initial teacher education), or if you are an interested lay person, such as a parent or a school governor. Furthermore, the use of familiar words but with meanings which differ from their everyday usage, or unfamiliar technical words which have no meaning outside of the subject, makes these documents more difficult to understand. Because of these problems, the authors of this book, and especially the authors of chapters which deal with individual subjects of the National Curriculum, have tried to clarify meaning and suggest practical ways in which you can turn National Curriculum words into classroom action. In this sense, the book can be read in its entirety, thus giving you an immediate overview of the primary curriculum, perhaps re-reading chapters as and when necessary. Alternatively, you might like to use the book for reference purposes and perhaps gain a fairly detailed insight into just one chapter at a time. Used in this latter way, the relatively short chapters should enable you to gain a detailed understanding of a subject in a single session. We hope that this book will provide you with an accessible starting point in the process of developing further your professional knowledge and understanding of the contemporary primary curriculum. More than this, we hope that reading this book and undertaking the various enquiry tasks will lead directly to your increased effectiveness in the classroom.

Enquiry Task

If you are new to the primary curriculum and how it may be implemented, especially the National Curriculum, one of the first tasks you will have to undertake is to make yourself familiar with the terminology which surrounds it. Another early task will be to get to know the names of some of the new, and not so new, organizations that have responsibility for the curriculum and what their actual responsibilities are.

Find out what the following terms mean and how they relate to each other:

• Key Stage

• R and Year 5

• Programme of Study

• Profile Component

• Attainment Target and Level Description

• Assessment Weighting

• Ten Level Scale

• Basic Curriculum

• National Curriculum

Find out the full name of the bodies represented by the following abbreviations:

• SCAA

• TGAT

• OFSTED

• HMI and HMCI

• NCC and SEAC

What is the function of each body, and what are their responsibilities regarding the primary curriculum?

To find out answers to any of the above questions talk to an experienced teacher or consult a book (for example, Ashcroft and Palacio, 1995). Finding answers to each of these questions will not only aid your understanding of the primary curriculum but it will also enable you to come to a better, and quicker, understanding of the contents of this book.

Content and Structure of the Book

This book has been written with the intention of helping people who are having to implement the whole primary curriculum: the overall style is, therefore, practical in orientation. This notwithstanding, we nevertheless wanted the book to put forward a consistent and explicitly stated educational philosophy. This philosophy—the reflective practitioner approach to teaching and learning, which is explained more fully in a later section of this chapter—underpins the enquiry tasks you will find in every chapter. More importantly, perhaps, the reflective practitioner approach to teaching and learning can serve to guide you during all stages of your work with children.

Enquiry tasks serve an important function in that we hope they will take you beyond mere factual knowledge of the primary school curriculum. By focusing on your developing understanding of key ideas which underpin the curriculum and the ways that these ideas may be put into effect in the classroom, it is our intention that enquiry tasks will aid your overall awareness and understanding of the primary curriculum. More importantly, through a process of reflection and action we hope that these tasks will take further your own practical theory of teaching and learning, and thus increase even further your effectiveness in the classroom.

The sixteen chapters in this book are divided into three sections. Apart from this first chapter, which in addition to serving as an introduction to the whole book begins the process of taking further your understanding of the various elements of the primary curriculum, the other chapter in Section 1 introduces you to issues associated with the primary school curriculum when considered from a whole school perspective. Each chapter in Section 2 takes one subject of the National Curriculum and considers in some depth practical issues associated with the teaching and learning of the subject. Section 3 goes beyond the National Curriculum; the first chapter describes current thinking in religious education whilst two further chapters explore ways in which the curriculum may be enriched through work in dance, and in drama: the final chapter in this section returns to whole school issues by way of a discussion of curriculum implications for the teaching of children with special educational needs.

The chapters in all three sections:

• explore the values and assumptions which underpin the way that the ‘subject’ under discussion has been defined;

• include enquiry-based tasks as described earlier in this section;

• contain a bibliography together with a short, usually annotated, reading list designed to take further your understanding of the primary school curriculum;

• provide, where appropriate, suggestions as to how you might use the one-day-per-week equivalent that is free from National Curriculum work to broaden, deepen and enrich children’s learning experiences.

The chapters in Sections 2 and 3 discuss practical matters concerned with the teaching and learning of the subject under consideration. Areas covered i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Section 1 Introduction
• Section 2 The Subjects in the National Curriculum
• Section 3 The Whole Curriculum
• Notes on Contributors
• Index