Changes to the National Curriculum

NAS15840 said:

I can't answer on your first point, but on this one yes they can, legally anyone can criticise any part of government policy of which the National curriculum is a component. The curriculum though is less about how things are taught and more about what is taught, that it must cover certain subjects and elements within those subjects. There is guidance from various parts of the government on certain teaching trends (think the decade long obsession with phonics and the current obsession with fractions over decimals), though not all schools are bound by these.

The National Curriculum covers both subject content and methods of teaching. It even restricts the textbooks which are used and prevents schools from using 'third party' books even if they cover the same material. This point regarding textbooks has been raised by people from communities where English isn't the first language in that children would benefit from bi-lingual textbooks but schools are prohibited from buying them from unapproved publishers and the approved publishers are not interested in creating them.

What children with ASD need is changes to teaching and possibly changes to the testing system, although in the interest of everyone being on a level playing field and the results needing to be comparable then everyone does have to take the same exam in the end.

There are four exam boards operating in England although some subjects are not offered by every one of them. Some children in independent schools or are home educated take IGCSEs. Therefore not everyone takes the same exam.

During the time when I was at secondary school every GCSE had a coursework module. The government was ideologically committed to coursework as they believed that it was fairer than all exam as well as the progressive approach to education.

In recent years coursework has been dropped from several GCSE subjects and they have reverted to being all exam.

My own experience was that the NAS defended coursework during the time when I was at secondary school although feelings from parents were mixed. What are the views of the NAS of the recent educational reforms to GCSEs? Do they just go along with the government or do they have anything critical to say?

Another change is that ICT has been scrapped and replaced by computer science. For those who don't already know, they are completely different subjects. Does the NAS have anything to say about this?

NAS15840 said:

I can't answer on your first point, but on this one yes they can, legally anyone can criticise any part of government policy of which the National curriculum is a component. The curriculum though is less about how things are taught and more about what is taught, that it must cover certain subjects and elements within those subjects. There is guidance from various parts of the government on certain teaching trends (think the decade long obsession with phonics and the current obsession with fractions over decimals), though not all schools are bound by these.

The National Curriculum covers both subject content and methods of teaching. It even restricts the textbooks which are used and prevents schools from using 'third party' books even if they cover the same material. This point regarding textbooks has been raised by people from communities where English isn't the first language in that children would benefit from bi-lingual textbooks but schools are prohibited from buying them from unapproved publishers and the approved publishers are not interested in creating them.

What children with ASD need is changes to teaching and possibly changes to the testing system, although in the interest of everyone being on a level playing field and the results needing to be comparable then everyone does have to take the same exam in the end.

There are four exam boards operating in England although some subjects are not offered by every one of them. Some children in independent schools or are home educated take IGCSEs. Therefore not everyone takes the same exam.

During the time when I was at secondary school every GCSE had a coursework module. The government was ideologically committed to coursework as they believed that it was fairer than all exam as well as the progressive approach to education.

In recent years coursework has been dropped from several GCSE subjects and they have reverted to being all exam.

My own experience was that the NAS defended coursework during the time when I was at secondary school although feelings from parents were mixed. What are the views of the NAS of the recent educational reforms to GCSEs? Do they just go along with the government or do they have anything critical to say?

Another change is that ICT has been scrapped and replaced by computer science. For those who don't already know, they are completely different subjects. Does the NAS have anything to say about this?