The Purpose Of The National Curriculum

This unit aims to enable learners to understand the learning process and to give them the skills they need to

In Scotland there is the Curriculum for Excellence which aims to achieve a transformation in education by providing a coherent, more flexible and enriched curriculum from 3 to 18.

To provide a broad, balanced and integrated curriculum with a view to developing the individual child’s full potential.

The origins of the word curriculum date back to ancient times and in fact the work comes from the Latin word of currere: a course or race or to run (Smith, 1996,2000). Over many decades, people have argued over the various definitions. Tanner (1980) defined it as “the planned and guided learning experiences and intended outcomes”, whilst Pratt (1980) defined it as a written document describing goals planned, objectives, content and evaluation. So s it a course of study? Or can it be defined as content or a product( Marsh, 2008). Marsh (2008) goes on to include that at a variety of learning sites are a set of objectives for student learning. We can also relate this to Tyler’s objective curriculum model being that the first step to curriculum is always to set the objective. The Model of Taba from 1962, is the same model at Tyler’s but includes interaction and flow between all four stages, so we do not always need the objective before we start writing the content to the curriculum.

Children and young people should feel happy, safe, respected and included in the school or early years setting environment and all staff should be proactive in promoting positive behavior in the classroom, playground and the wider community. Policies and practice which make sure the safety and wellbeing of children should already be in place and it is this legislation develop through many years and experiences, and mistakes, that underpin the working practices that are used today.

The national government has been helping to improve and regulate education since 1965 when they passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The main purpose of this act was to help America's disadvantaged students that lived in poverty. The ESEA helped improve education from grades k-12 across the United States for thirty six years. When Congress approached the same program in 2001 it was reauthorized and

Mississippi, as well as our school district, is offering a wide range of activities to aid in implementing CCSS. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring that students master the knowledge and skills in the standards rests with our district, schools, administrators, and teachers (Center on Education Policy, 2011). Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) allows our school district the flexibility to decide how accomplish the goals outlined in CCSS. First and far most, our district had to hastily make changes to the curriculum, instruction, assessments, and professional development to align the curriculum with this new initiative.

Legally, one can argue that the state has jurisdiction, but the Department of Education has a great influence over the decision to adhere to its’ demands. Through funding, “the Department of Education has a significant amount of control over public education” (Underwood, n. d., p. 5). Aside from writing curriculum's using state and district standards, our curriculum's must now incorporate the common core standards. Our curricular, methods of teaching, and resources must be modified to address the common core standards, state standard, and district standards or one risks losing

It covers knowledge and understanding of the structure of education, how schools are organised, school ethos, mission, aims and values, legislative and policy frameworks and the wider context in which schools operate.

While the ESEA made no requirements for core academic subjects, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), reauthorized the 1965 act. No significant academic criterion requirements were required federally under the NCLB. The act required each state to set their own standards for achievement in the standardized testing. NCLB did, however, emphasize core academics standards to include reading, language arts, math and science for assessment of all students to receive federal funds. In 2012, President Obama allotted NCLB waivers to states that agreed “to raise standards, improve accountability, and undertake essential reforms to improve teacher effectiveness,"(NCLB, Wikipedia, ref. 107). Alabama’s waiver initiated the states adoption of the international Core Curriculum along with their own Alabama College and Career Ready Standards which includes English Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies (ACCR, par.1). According to Alabama Board of Education superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice, “Incorporating the Common Core Standards into our already highly regarded content standards brings a new level of rigor and perceptual

The roles of schools in relation to national policies is to ensure that the environment in which children and young people are to learn is safe inclusive, promotes positive behaviour and relationships and provides opportunities for children to reach their potential.

A study conducted in 2003 by Ofsted that involved England, Denmark and Finland, showed England’s national curriculum compared to the other two countries was:

Schools must decide how to teach the standardized curriculum. Schools must figure out how to mesh a standardized and non-standardized curriculum. Can students guide their own curriculum and perform well on tests?

Common Core State Standards is being heard throughout the education world. Many cringe when the words are spoken and many fight to support what the words stand for. Common Core was introduced in 2009 by state leaders. Common Core State Standards were developed to prepare children for the business world or the reality after grade school. “The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy, also known as ELA” (About the Standards, n.d.). The goals for the standards outline what students should know before leaving his or her current grade level. “The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live” (About the Standards, n.d.). This is an ambitious goal, but with much support can be accomplished. According to Common Core State Standards Initiative (n.d.) The Common Core has been adopted by forty-two states already and is accompanied by District of Columbia and Department of Defense Education Activity. Common Core was developed to improve the academics in society’s schools. Academics in the past years have not been successful and the United States has fallen behind international education. “One root cause has been an uneven patchwork of academic standards that vary from state to state and do not agree on what students should know and be able to do at each

The classroom should be set up in a manner which is age and grade appropriate for the level of the