In 2013 the government announced plans to overhaul the national curriculum. For most children, these changes took effect from September 2014, but children in Years 2 (now Year 3) and 6 (now Year 7) followed the previous programmes of study until September 2015 in English, maths and science as Standard Assessment Tasks and Tests (SATs) in these subjects hadn’t changed.

The Curriculum at St Joseph’s The new 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England is now firmly in place. We have been planning for its introduction since We have been using Curriculum 2014 in full since September 2015 and partly since September 2014, most of your children have been taught to it for the last 18 months.

Why the big curriculum change? The main aim is to raise standards. Although the new curriculum is intended to be more challenging the content on the whole is actually slimmer than previous curriculum content, focusing on essential core subject knowledge and skills such as essay writing and computer programming. This is true in all areas except History which now has a more prescriptive content.

So what’s gone and what’s been added?

ENGLISH YEAR 1YEAR 2YEAR 3 & 4YEAR 5 & 6 What’s gone?  Chronological & non- chronological texts  Requirement to write non- narrative text  Typing skills What’s gone?  Specific mention of group work and discussion  Use of syntax & context for reading unfamiliar vocabulary  Use of different presentational features  Word processing What’s gone?  Identifying presentational features of broadcast texts  Explicit mentions of drama (except performing scripts)  Use of layout, graphics & font for presentation  Keyboard/typing skills What’s gone?  Specific mention of working in groups  Specific mention of dramatic skills  Creating multi-layered texts What’s new?  Reading of phonically-suitable texts  Reading words with contractions  Reading words with regular endings Making inferences from texts  Learning and reciting poetry  Re-reading own writing to check for sense  Using capital letters for proper nouns  Name the letters of the alphabet  Spell the names of the days of the week  Adopt a suitable writing position  Form capital letters and digits 0-9  Practise handwriting letter ‘families’ What’s new?  Sooner use of phonics without overt blending  Contemporary & classic poetry Reciting poetry  Evaluating & proof-reading own writing  Increased use of subordination  Higher expectations of spelling, including from dictation  Required introduction of joined writing What’s new?  Recognise different forms of poetry  Prepare poetry for performance  Using fronted adverbials  Increased requirements for spelling & grammar  Evaluate, edit & proof-read own writing What’s new?  Preparing poetry for performance  Learning poems by heart  Formal presentations about reading  Précising long passages of writing  Greatly detailed grammar specifics

MATHEMATICS Year 1Year 2Year 3 What’s gone?  Data handling/Statistics  No specific requirement to describe patterns  No specific requirements to describe ways of solving problems or explain choices What’s gone?  Rounding two-digit numbers to the nearest 10  Halving/doubling no longer explicitly required  Using lists/tables/diagrams to sort objects What’s gone?  Specific detail of problem-solving strategies (although the requirement to solve problems remains)  Rounding to nearest 10/100 now Yr 4  Reflective symmetry now Yr 4  Converting between metric units now Yr 4  No requirement to use Carroll/Venn diagrams What’s new?  Counting & writing numerals to 100  Write numbers in words up to 20  Number bonds secured to 20  Use of vocabulary such as equal, more than, less than, fewer, etc. What’s new?  Solving problems with subtraction  Finding/writing fractions of quantities (and lengths)  Adding two 2-digit numbers  Adding three 1-digit numbers  Demonstrating commutativity of addition & multiplication  Describing properties of shape (e.g. edges, vertices)  Measuring temperature in °C  Tell time to nearest 5 minutes  Make comparisons using = symbols  Recognise £ p symbols and solve simple money problems What’s new?  + tens or hundreds to 3-digit numbers  Formal written methods for +/-  8 x tables replaces 6 x tables  Counting in tenths  Comparing, ordering, +/- fractions with common denominators  Indentifying angles larger/smaller than right angles  Indentify horizontal, vertical, parallel and perpendicular lines  Tell time to the nearest minute, including 24-hour clock  Roman numerals to 100  Know the number of seconds in a minute, the number of days in each month, year and leap year

MATHEMATICS Year 4Year 5Year 6 What’s gone?  Specific detail on lines of enquiry, representing problems and find strategies to solve problems and explaining methods  Using mixed numbers (moved to Y5)  Most ratio work moved to Y6  Written division methods (moved to Y5)  All calculator skills removed from KS2 PoS  Measuring angles in degrees (moved to Y5) What’s gone?  Detail of problem-solving process and data handling cycle no longer required  Calculator skills moved to KS3  Probability moves to KS3  Several elements are now expected to be covered in lower KS2, e.g. decimals/fractions knowledge, points in the first quadrant; parallel/perpendicular lines What’s gone?  Detail of problem-solving processes no longer explicit  Divisibility tests  Calculator skills move to KS3 PoS  Rotation moves to KS3  Probability moves to KS3  Median/Mode/Range no longer required What’s new?  Solving problems with fractions and decimals to two decimal places  Rounding decimals to whole numbers  Roman numerals to 100  Recognising equivalent fractions  Knowing equivalent decimals to common fractions  Dividing by 10 and 100 (incl. with decimal answers)  Using factor pairs  Translation of shapes  Finding perimeter/area of compound shapes  Solve time conversion problems What’s new?  Understand & use decimals to 3dp  Solve problems using up to 3dp, and fractions  Write %ages as fractions; fractions as decimals  Use vocabulary of primes, prime factors, composite numbers, etc.  Know prime numbers to 20  Understand square and cube numbers  Use standard multiplication & division methods for up to 4 digits  add and subtract fractions with the same denominator  multiply proper fractions and mixed numbers by whole numbers  deduce facts based on shape knowledge  distinguish regular and irregular polygons  calculate the mean average What’s new?  Compare and ordering fractions greater than 1  Long division  4 operations with fractions  Calculate decimal equivalent of fractions  Understand & use order of operations  Plot points in all 4 quadrants  Convert between miles and kilometres  Name radius/diameter and know relationship  Use formulae for area/volume of shapes  Calculate area of triangles & parallelograms  Calculate volume of 3-d shapes  Use letters to represent unknowns (algebra)  Generate and describe linear sequences  Find solutions to unknowns in problems

YEAR 2YEAR 6 Teacher AssessmentSATsTeacher AssessmentSATs English reading 2 papers 1 overall score English reading 1 paper 1 score English writingEnglish grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 1 – spelling Paper 2 – questions 1 overall score English writingEnglish grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 1: short answer questions Paper 2: spelling 1 overall score Mathematics paper 1 - arithmetic Paper 2 – reasoning 1 overall score Mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic Paper 2: reasoning 1 overall score Science

Teacher assessment KS1 and 2 This is reported as:  working towards expected standard  working at the expected standard  working at greater depth within the expected standard SATs KS1 and KS2 This is reported as a scaled score: “scaled scores help test results to be reported year to year,” despite variations in the tests themselves. “for KS1 (and KS2) tests a scaled score of 100 will always represent the 'expected standard’. “A pupil’s scaled score will be based on their raw score.... The total number of marks a pupil receives in a test.”

KEY STAGE ONE ENGLISH - WRITING EXPECTED STANDARD The pupil can write a narrative about their own and others’ experiences (real and fictional), after discussion with the teacher:  demarcating most sentences with capital letters and full stops and with some use of question marks and exclamation marks  using sentences with different forms in their writing (statements, questions, exclamations and commands)  using some expanded noun phrases to describe and specify  using present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently  using co-ordination (or / and / but) and some subordination (when / if / that / because)  segmenting spoken words into phonemes and representing these by graphemes, spelling many correctly  spelling many common exception words*  spelling some words with contracted forms*  adding suffixes to spell some words correctly in their writing e.g. –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, – ly*  using the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join letters in some of their writing  writing capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower case letters  using spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters.

KEY STAGE TWO ENGLISH - WRITING EXPECTED STANDARD The pupil can write for a range of purposes and audiences (including writing a short story):  creating atmosphere, and integrating dialogue to convey character and advance the action selecting vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect the level of formality required mostly correctly  using a range of cohesive devices*, including adverbials, within and across sentences and paragraphs  using passive and modal verbs mostly appropriately  using a wide range of clause structures, sometimes varying their position within the sentence  using adverbs, preposition phrases and expanded noun phrases effectively to add detail, qualification and precision  using inverted commas, commas for clarity, and punctuation for parenthesis mostly correctly, and making some correct use of semi-colons, dashes, colons and hyphens  spelling most words correctly* (years 5 and 6)  maintaining legibility, fluency and speed in handwriting through choosing whether or not to join specific letters.