Consultation on the reform of the National Curriculum in England
The Department for Education have launched a consultation on the reform of the National Curriculum in England.
This consultation sets out the Government’s plans to reform the National Curriculum in England and follows a review of the National Curriculum (launched January 2011) with the aims to:
– Ensure that the new National Curriculum embodies rigour and high standards and creates coherence in what is taught in schools
– To ensure that all children are taught the essential knowledge in the key subject disciplines
– Beyond that core, to allow teachers greater freedom to use their professionalism and expertise to help all children realise their potential.
The consultation document outlines plans to replace the current ICT curriculum with a new computing curriculum. It states that this would have a greater emphasis on computational thinking and practical programming skills to help ensure that England retains a competitive edge in the digital economy.
The new computing curriculum is a change from the current non statutory ICT curriculum. While e-safety is represented in the new KS1 and KS2 curricula, it is not represented in the current wording for the changes to the KS3 curriculum. The UK Safer Internet Centre will be responding to this consultation seeking to ensure that the provision of e-safety in the curriculum remains a priority, and features firmly in both the primary and secondary curricula.
The consultation document is available at – https://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/consultations/a00221262/reform-national-curriculum
Please note that responses to the consultation should be submitted to the DfE. Any questions about the consultation should be addressed to NationalCurriculum.CONSULTATION@education.gsi.gov.uk
This consultation closes on 16th April 2013.