English for Pupils With Diverse Backgrounds

1: A Framework for Diversity

QTS standard 2.2: the Values, Aims and Purposes
of the National Curriculum

QTS standard 2.2 requires, in part, that trainees “know and understand the Values, Aims and Purposes and the General Teaching Requirements set out in the National Curriculum Handbook.” My trainees have a paper copy of the National Curriculum booklet for English. This includes the General Teaching Requirements (on inclusion, use of language across the curriculum, use of ICT across the curriculum, and health and safety) but not, unfortunately and strangely, the Values, Aims and Purposes. This is available online and I think it is particularly important to go through this with trainees. Trainees on teaching practice are rightly concerned with the subject-specific detail of the curriculum. There is a danger though, particularly where schools are narrowly following the KS3 Strategy, that trainees do not see the wider educational wood for the subject-specific trees. The general statements establish the principle, if not the reality, of adapting the curriculum and creating the space for the needs of particular groups.