Every school needs an effective assessment system in order to evidence their assessment of pupils’ progress, to keep parents informed, to enable governors to make judgements about the school’s effectiveness, and to inform Ofsted inspections. The Department for Education suggests a set of core principles to underpin effective assessment systems within schools. The first of these calls for “meaningful tracking of pupils towards end of key stage expectations in the [national] curriculum ….”. How is the national curriculum designed to enable tracking in this way?
Link to national curriculum framework document. The school curriculum comprises all learning and other experiences that the school plans for its pupils. The national curriculum forms one part of the school curriculum; it sets out programmes of study defining the content for those subjects that should be taught to all pupils (see table below).
Structure of the national curriculum
Schools must make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) and are free to include other subjects or topics of their choice in planning and designing their own programme of education.
Within the national curriculum, the programme of study for English contains requirements – attainment targets – for spoken language that apply to all years. Pupils should be taught to:
- listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers
- ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge
- use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary
- articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions
- give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings
- maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments
- use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas
- speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English
- participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates
gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s) - consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others
- select and use appropriate registers for effective communication.
The programme of study for English also contains separate, progressive, sets of attainment targets for Year 1, Year 2, Years 3&4 and Years 5&6 covering, for each of these groups:
- reading – word reading
- reading – comprehension
- writing – transcription (spelling & handwriting)
- writing – composition
- writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation
As an example of how the attainment targets develop from Year 1 through to Year 6, the table below shows their progression for ‘writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation‘.
| Year 1 | Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English Appendix 2 by:
Use the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 in discussing their writing |
| Year 2 | Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English Appendix 2 by learning how to use both familiar and new punctuation correctly (see English Appendix 2), including full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, question marks, commas for lists and apostrophes for contracted forms and the possessive (singular)
Learn how to use:
Use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 in discussing their writing. |
| Years 3&4 | Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English Appendix 2 by:
Indicate grammatical and other features by:
Use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 accurately and appropriately when discussing their writing and reading. |
| Years 5&6 | Develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English Appendix 2 by:
Indicate grammatical and other features by:
Use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 accurately and appropriately in discussing their writing and reading. |
Similarly, the programme of study for mathematics contains separate, progressive, sets of attainment targets – in this case for each of Years 1 to 6 – covering the topics shown below:
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 | |
| Number – number and place value | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Number – addition and subtraction | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Number – multiplication and division | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Number – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division | Y | |||||
| Number – fractions | Y | Y | Y | |||
| Number – fractions (including decimals) | Y | |||||
| Number – fractions (including decimals and percentages) | Y | Y | ||||
| Measurement | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Geometry – properties of shapes | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Geometry – position and direction | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Statistics | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Ratio and proportion | Y | |||||
| Algebra | Y |
The programme of study for science also contains separate, progressive, sets of attainment targets for each of Years 1 to 6 covering the topics shown below:
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 | |
| Working scientifically | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Plants | Y | Y | Y | |||
| Animals, including humans | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Everyday materials | Y | |||||
| Seasonal changes | Y | |||||
| Uses of everyday materials | Y | |||||
| Rocks | Y | |||||
| Light | Y | Y | ||||
| Living things and their habitats | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Forces and magnets | Y | |||||
| States of matter | Y | |||||
| Sound | Y | |||||
| Electricity | Y | Y | ||||
| Properties and changes of materials | Y | |||||
| Earth and space | Y | |||||
| Forces | Y | |||||
| Evolution and inheritance | Y |