Derbyshire
County Council
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Secondary Update
Autumn 2013
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Derbyshire
County Council
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Context-Changes Summer
2013
 Ofqual letter published July 2013: Forewarned of
several differences with GCSEs this summer. For
example:
 There were more entries this year from students in Year
10 or earlier years (students being entered early, before
the end of Key Stage 4).
 Entries for International GCSEs1 (IGCSEs) increased
significantly this summer.
 Some students, particularly in maths, entered for more
than one qualification in the same subject, either with the
same exam board or with different exam boards.
 Changes were made to the GCSE science suite to
make these qualifications more challenging.
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Derbyshire
County Council
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Context-Changes Summer
2013
 iGCSE English language entries rose from 18,000 in
2012 to 78,000 in 2013
 Science - new GCSEs are designed to be more
challenging, because “the previous syllabuses did not
adequately test the subject content and were not
sufficiently demanding.”
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Derbyshire
County Council
Aims
Children and Younger
Adults Department
To build a curriculum vision for the
Derbyshire family of schools
To brief governors on the new
national curriculum’s aims and
programmes of study
To support change management
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Derbyshire
County Council
New National Curriculum
Children and Younger
Adults Department
 New statutory secondary national curriculum,
including programmes of study and attainment
targets for all subjects at key stages 3 and 4,
except key stage 4 English, mathematics and
science, which will follow after a public
consultation on their draft programmes of
study.
 These are to be taught in all maintained
secondary schools in England from September
2014. English, mathematics and science for
key stage 4 will be phased in from September
2015.
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Derbyshire
County Council
New National Curriculum
Children and Younger
Adults Department
 The national curriculum is just one element in
the education of every child. There is time and
space in the school day and in each week,
term and year to range beyond the national
curriculum specifications. The national
curriculum provides an outline of core
knowledge around which teachers can develop
exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the
development of pupils’ knowledge,
understanding and skills as part of the wider
school curriculum.’ page 6
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New National Curriculum
Derbyshire
County Council
Children and Younger
Adults Department
 First Aim: “The national curriculum provides pupils with an
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introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be
educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been
thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of
human creativity and achievement.”
Subtle shift from skill based curriculum to knowledge based.
No major changes to statutory subjects
KS3: Core – En, Ma, Sci; Foundation - Art, Citizenship,
Computing, DT, Languages, Geog, Hist, Music, RE, SRE
KS4: Core – En, Ma, Sci, Citizenship, Computing, PE, RE,
SRE
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Derbyshire
County Council
Key stage 4 entitlement
areas
Children and Younger
Adults Department
 The arts (comprising art and design, music, dance, drama
and media arts), design and technology, the humanities
(comprising geography and history) and modern foreign
language are not compulsory national curriculum subjects
after the age of 14, but all pupils in maintained schools
have a statutory entitlement to be able to study a subject in
each of those four areas.
 The statutory requirements in relation to the entitlement
areas are:
 schools must provide access to a minimum of one course in
each of the four entitlement areas
 schools must provide the opportunity for pupils to take a
course in all four areas, should they wish to do so
 a course that meets the entitlement requirements must give
pupils the opportunity to obtain an approved qualification.
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Derbyshire
County Council
Assessment
Children and Younger
Adults Department
New KS1 and 2 tests start for
Y2 and Y6 children in 2016
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Derbyshire
County Council
Assessment Proposals
Children and Younger
Adults Department
 national curriculum levels removed and not
replaced
 schools determine their own approach to
formative assessment and progress tracking
 end of KS2 SATS to be more demanding with
an expectation that 85% pupils achieve and
are considered “secondary ready.” 85% will be
a floor standard
 baseline to measure progress maybe from YR
or from KS1 dependent on outcome of
consultation
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Derbyshire
County Council
Timeline
Children and Younger
Adults Department
Start of term 2014 Curriculum and
qualifications
First teaching of the new
national curriculum. Excluding
KS4 English, maths and
science which starts in 2015
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Other Changes – Post 16 En
and MA
Derbyshire
County Council
Children and Younger
Adults Department
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Over one third of all young people leave post-16 education each year without
having a GCSE A*-C in English and maths - in 2011 to 2012, 44% did not
achieve this in both subjects.
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From 2014 students who have not achieved an A*-C GCSE in these subjects by
age 16 will continue to study towards achieving them as a part of their 16 to 19
study programmes. This requirement will be enforced by making the study of
English and mathematics a condition of the student place being funded from
September 2014.
 Where a student does not have a GCSE A*-C, they must take either:
- English and mathematics GCSEs or i-GCSEs (including level 1/level 2 certificates)
that count towards the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) measure in KS4 performance
tables
- functional skills and free-standing mathematics qualifications registered with Ofqual,
as a stepping stone to GCSE study
- English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) qualifications registered with
Ofqual, as a stepping stone to GCSE study
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Derbyshire
County Council
Changes to Performance
Tables
Children and Younger
Adults Department
 The performance tables for 14-16 year olds so
that from 2014, will:
 include only qualifications judged against a
rigorous new set of characteristics to be truly
equivalent to a GCSE;
 count all qualifications as equivalent to no
more than one GCSE.
 These reforms apply to all qualifications
achieved by pupils completing Key Stage 4 in
2014 (those currently in Y11), including
qualifications which are taken early.
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