Curriculum and Assessment Developments at Key Stages 3 and 4

Introduction and Key Issues

Since the introduction of the National Curriculum, the subject of English has been the focus of seemingly continuous review, scrutiny and revision by official bodies. Student teachers now beginning their training will be engaging with the fifth version of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4, a renewed Framework for the Teaching of English that now covers both secondary key stages, the teaching of new GCSE criteria from 2010, the introduction of Functional Skills tests and, in the wake of the demise of the national tests, new arrangements for the assessment of pupils at Key Stage 3. In this context, we, as tutors, face a number of critical issues.

In one sense, we have a clear responsibility - both to satisfy the demands of the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) Standards and, more importantly, to empower our student teachers - to ensure that our cohorts leave our courses with the requisite knowledge of the various statutory and non-statutory curriculum and assessment documents. This knowledge is key as student teachers see how their placement schools choose to interpret and implement central policy.

In another sense, it is, I think, important that student teachers get some sense of how we have got to where we are and some view of the 'theoretical' and 'political' dimensions that underpin policy. This is crucial as student teachers develop their own sense of themselves as teachers of English, refining their own theoretical and philosophical positions as practitioners. It is highly likely that as they enter their careers, these student teachers will see further, and possibly frequent, change; if they are not to run the risk of blowing this way and that on the wind of centrally driven curriculum change it seems essential that they take a critical and questioning stance to change, rooted in an understanding of where such change comes from, and how it relates to their own philosophy of English teaching. While it is possibly wholly right that time in schools may be dominated by the challenges of getting to grips with the practical implications of curriculum and assessment documents, this only goes to emphasise the importance of our courses making use of taught sessions to encourage student teachers to develop knowledge that enables them to approach such documents with an informed and critical eye.