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Curriculum, assessment and qualifications

 
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NAHT is working to ensure that the curriculum supports the learning, progress and success of all pupils. NAHT supports the principle that a broad and balanced curriculum promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

NAHT is campaigning to: 

Support schools to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for their pupils

  • Challenge the government policy, including EBacc, which may narrow the curriculum
  • Enable and support schools to successfully deliver statutory Relationships, Sex and Health Education
  • Lobby for improvements to government policy which supports schools to deliver inclusive education and fulfil their responsibilities under the public sector equality duty
  • Support schools to deliver effective careers education for all pupils
  • Support schools to deliver high-quality Religious Education to all pupils
  • Provide guidance, materials and information to support schools in educating pupils about environmental issues.

Ensure a valid and proportionate approach to statutory assessment in primary schools

  • Lobby the government to reconsider the introduction of the multiplication tables check
  • Lobby the government to ensure changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage and Early Learning Goals are appropriate and relevant for the early years sector
  • Influence the development and implementation of the reception baseline assessment
  • Support members to implement the new statutory assessment for pupils with SEND
  • Identify and challenge the STA over any impact on members of the contract change to deliver statutory assessment in the primary phase
  • Engage with the STA to influence changes and improvements to statutory assessment including moderation and maladministration
  • Campaign for KS2 SPAG to be made non-statutory and oppose any additional statutory testing in the primary phase
 

Ensure the KS4 and KS5 qualification framework and examination system is fit for purpose

  • Press the government, Ofqual and exam boards to ensure that reformed qualifications, both academic and vocational, meet the needs of all pupils and schools
  • Explore the issue of grade reliability, identifying solutions and improvements which are supported by members and pressing the government and Ofqual for appropriate action
  • Inform members of the latest developments in secondary assessment through engagement with Ofqual, JCQ and awarding organisations. 

Multiple Concerns: NAHT members' response to the multiplications tables check pilot

NAHT conducted a survey of members who had taken part in the pilot to understand their experiences of implementing the check in their school - read our report on the survey, Multiple Concerns: NAHT members' response to the multiplications tables check pilot

NAHT has not supported the introduction of the multiplications tables check (MTC) to the whole cohort of Year 4 pupils, arguing that this test is unnecessary and won't tell schools anything that they don't already know about their children. 

Our survey data provides evidence to support this position, finding that: 

  • 94% of respondents said the test did not tell them anything that they didn't already know about their Year 4 children's recall of multiplication tables;
  • 85% of respondents reported that administering the MTC increased or significantly increased workload;
  • only 5% of respondents believed that this increase in workload was beneficial for children's learning. 

NAHT has written to the secretary of state for education, expressing our lack of support for the full implementation of the test for all Year 4 pupils this year. We have also met with DfE and STA officials to share our findings and press for the test to be scrapped.

Read the full report Multiple Concerns: NAHT members' response to the multiplications tables check pilot.

Read our press release on the Multiple Concerns report.

First published 06 September 2019

First published 20 September 2019
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