National Curriculum 2014

After an intensive period of drafts, consultations and reviews the new National Curriculum is almost upon us. The final primary curriculum framework was published last September with the expectation that all maintained primary schools in England will begin teaching the new curriculum from September 2014.

However, because the new national tests will not be available until 2016, the introduction of the new curriculum will be less than straightforward for schools. In fact, schools face up to three years of upheaval as some cohorts are taught the new curriculum while others continue to be taught the old curriculum (as determined by whether or not pupils will be assessed against the old or new curriculum in the key stage tests). For detailed information on how each year group will be affected by the curriculum change please refer to our New Curriculum Roll-out Schedule.

In spite of the tight timetable, Schofield & Sims has been involved in a series of subject briefings with the Department of Education. These sessions have provided our editors and authors with valuable insights into the changes and have enabled us to publish a number of brand new resources, fully aligned to the new curriculum, ahead of September 2014. These include:

• Sound Phonics – a systematic phonics resource, fully compatible with Letters and Sounds
• English Skills – a programme of differentiated practice to develop pupils' literacy skills at Key Stage 2
• Whole-School Spelling – a structured scheme for Years 1 to 6 giving pupils extensive practice in using their phonic knowledge to spell words
• A Time to Speak and a Time to Listen – an anthology and Teacher's Guide providing ideal opportunities for discussion and for reading aloud and performing poetry.

Later this year we will be publishing two further series, also fully aligned to the new curriculum:

• Written Calculation (September 2014) – graded practice in all aspects of written calculation that pupils need to master by the end of Key Stage 2
• First Comprehension (September 2014) – a downwards extension of the award-winning Key Stage 2 Comprehension series, for use at Key Stage 1.

In addition to the new publications mentioned above, revised editions will also be available for the following titles over the course of this year and next:

• Key Stage 2 Comprehension (September 2014)
• Mental Arithmetic (January 2015)
• Understanding Maths (January 2015)
• Understating English (January 2015)
• Understanding Science (January 2015)
• KS1 and KS2 English Revision Guides (September 2015)
• KS1 and KS2 Maths Revision Guides (September 2015)
• KS1 and KS2 Science Revision Guides (September 2015).

During the period of curriculum transition between now and 2016, we would ask that schools recognise that the phased nature of the introduction of the new curriculum poses as many problems for publishers as it does for them, particularly in the case of revision and assessment materials which necessarily must be tied to the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 national assessments set in any given year. It is for this reason that revised versions of the some titles, such as revision guides and practice papers, will be held back until the new tests are introduced in 2016.

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