Understanding Your Child’s Curriculum

The content that a school delivers is referred to as its curriculum. This covers a range of subjects and the set standards that children of specific ages should reach. These are determined by the government that set the national curriculum to be followed by all schools except for academies and private schools which follow their own. We have teamed up with an independent school in Harrow to help you to understand your child’s curriculum.

Key Stages

The national curriculum as mentioned before outlines where a child should be in their learning for their age. For this purpose, it is categorised by age groups known as key stages which there are four of. These are early years, key stage 1, 2, 3 and 4. At the end of each is usually a formal teacher assessment which determines where your child is with regards to the national standards.

Early years as you would imagine is the first stage that your child will go through at school when in nursery and reception where they’re expected to reach the starting points of their education. This is followed by key stage 1 or ks1 which your child will enter in year 1 and leave at the end of year 2. KS2 then runs from year 3 to the end of primary school in year 6. Then when entering secondary school, your child will be in key stage 3 which runs until they reach year 9. The last year before their exam years begin. The final stage of your child’s secondary education is KS4 where they will complete their GCSEs in years 10 and 11.

There are several things that you can do to learn more about the national curriculum:

1. Speak to your child’s teacher to learn more about what they are doing in class and their performance.
2. Explore government guidance on the national curriculum.
3. Review the school’s websites to determine the exact one that they follow.
4. Speak to your child to learn about what they are doing at school.

Thanks for reading xxx