Draft new national curriculum

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moved
Posts: 3826
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:42 pm
Location: Chelmsford and pleased

Draft new national curriculum

Post by moved »

What do people think? Only primary available at the moment.

There is a link on the DfE website.

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/tea ... /sosletter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: Draft new national curriculum

Post by Amber »

This teacher and parent and higher education student of..education, thinks it's about time they left it alone for more than two consecutive years before tinkering with it yet again. A big step forward would be to chuck it all away and allow teachers to get on and teach, instead of coming up with constantly changing prescriptive lists of what 9 year olds need to know. Quite why England is so obsessed with curriculum in favour of pedagogy is a bit of a mystery to me. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Politics, that's all it is.
Manana
Posts: 710
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:22 pm

Re: Draft new national curriculum

Post by Manana »

Amber wrote:I think it's about time they left it alone for more than two consecutive years before tinkering with it yet again. A big step forward would be to chuck it all away and allow teachers to get on and teach, instead of coming up with constantly changing prescriptive lists of what 9 year olds need to know. Quite why England is so obsessed with curriculum in favour of pedagogy is a bit of a mystery to me. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
I quite agree! I qualified in 1997 and the changes that have taken place within Primary education in that time are immense. Very few of them for the better, too.

What happened to all the promises before the elections that politician wouldn't meddle and would just let schools get on with it?-pah!
stevew61
Posts: 1786
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: caversham

Re: Draft new national curriculum

Post by stevew61 »

Daft new national curriculum
That's what I saw as I sped read it. :lol:

Agree with to many changes to often but broadly infavour of a return to a more traditional curriculum.

looks like a typical mid-term popular vote-buying excercise
Looking for help
Posts: 3767
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:12 am
Location: Berkshire

Re: Draft new national curriculum

Post by Looking for help »

stevew61 wrote:Daft new national curriculum
:lol:
stevew61 wrote:looks like a typical mid-term popular vote-buying excercise
indeed :roll:
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Draft new national curriculum

Post by Guest55 »

I am horrified to see a return to MAKING children learn long division and long multiplication - these are 'dead end' methods that do not enhance understanding at all!

Grid method for multiplication is faster and extends brilliantly into algebra right up to A level ...

Short division would be the furthest I would go - who needs to divide decimals on a daily basis without a calculator? Encouraging children to estimate the answer is much more important.

I have seen Year 7 GS pupils not able to tell me whether 345 divided by 45 is larger than 10 or not!

I am concerned at how much notice will be taken of 'consultation' ....
Manana
Posts: 710
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:22 pm

Re: Draft new national curriculum

Post by Manana »

Guest55 wrote:Grid method for multiplication is faster and extends brilliantly into algebra right up to A level ...
Are you a secondary maths teacher, Guest55?

Would you encourage use of grid method for 11+ prep? I have been trying to persuade my y5 DS to do long multiplication as he tends to make less errors that when doing the grid method, where he ends up adding all the boxes up (eg 1600+ 1400+ 600+300+40+20+6+2) and making an error in his addition!!

I will have continue with getting his grid method accurate if consensus at secondary school is that this is 'better'!!
ourmaminhavana
Posts: 966
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:14 am

Re: Draft new national curriculum

Post by ourmaminhavana »

Amber wrote: it's about time they left it alone for more than two consecutive years before tinkering with it yet again. A big step forward would be to chuck it all away and allow teachers to get on and teach, instead of coming up with constantly changing prescriptive lists of what 9 year olds need to know. Quite why England is so obsessed with curriculum in favour of pedagogy is a bit of a mystery to me. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Politics, that's all it is.
Absolutely. I'm sure being able to spell 'zoology' will be life enhancing! Not to mention rote learning of poems which will probably be prescribed by 2014 too!!

Already very fed up with the nonsense words that my DD, 6, is having to pronounce to show she knows her phonics when she's already a competent reader!
Marylou
Posts: 2164
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:21 am

Re: Draft new national curriculum

Post by Marylou »

Guest55 wrote:I am horrified to see a return to MAKING children learn long division and long multiplication - these are 'dead end' methods that do not enhance understanding at all!
So relieved to see an expert agreeing with me! I had to help DS with some long division recently for his homework, and after Googling it to refresh my memory :oops: he asked what was the point as you could do the same some with a "simple" division...and I had to agree! The rule for our 11+ preparations was always to do the quickest sum possible to get the answer - no time for long division in a VR test!

Ultimately, if the object of doing any mathematical calculation is to come up with an answer, what is the point of doing it in such a roundabout way? (Other than to show that you can?)

I'm a bit concerned, though, as the Bucks 11+ is changing for 2014 entry and I'm worried that the horrors of long multiplication and division will be resurrected for the new test if they decide to adopt a more "traditional" approach. :roll:
Marylou
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Draft new national curriculum

Post by mystery »

Does anyone know when the new national curriculum will be implented and which cohorts of children it applies to? e.g. will a child who is already part way through primary school swap to the new curriculum and be examined on the new curriculum at the end of year 6?

I do think that it is possible to understand all the different methods of multiplication and division ....... they all have some meaning and are not "dead end" unless they are taught that way. For me the method with the least writing wins. For other people it could be a different method.

The grid method for long multiplication ..... well it's ok ..... but it would be possible for a child to grind their way through that without understanding it in the same way as they could with the compact method ......

Let's see:
25 x 42 = (20+5) (40+2) = 20 x 40 + 20 x 2 + 5 x 40 + 5 x 2 (this is effectively the grid method without a grid isn't it?) = 800 + 40 + 200 + 10 = 1050

or: 25
x 42
---
1000 (which is 40 x 25)
50 ( which is 2 x 25)
-------
1050
-------

What's so bad about that?

And long division is just all that chunking stuff done "right first time". If you've taught the understanding of the compact methods, I think they're great .... I gave a cheer that they are now compulsory!! It doesn't stop you doing the other stuff along the way does it?
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