UKEdMag: Opportunities with the KS1 Curriculum, by @EmmaAnnHardy

–By: Emma Hardy (Extract)

Tim Taylor has done a very good comparison of the old and new primary curriculum and for infant teachers very little has changed, unless you want it to. See the link here.

Following the February draft of the primary curriculum I became involved in the Defend School History group because I disagreed with a number of things including the omission of Historical inquiry skills. My reaction to the July draft was much more positive and my only criticism now, of the KS1 History Curriculum, is a political one that seeks to divide schools into those who must teach it and those who have the freedom to set their own curriculum – I still fail to see any justification for that but this is a different argument for another time.

Yes, in Key Stage 1 schools can continue to teach the same History topics in the same way but the freedoms that we had in the original curriculum still remain and so I see this as an opportunity to make more dramatic changes.

My aim is still to teach my children under a topic heading and the challenge will be trying to make all the different curriculum elements fit together. This year I am going to experiment with an ‘Adventures’ topic in the Spring term. We are going to study Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong as our significant people and then link this to the Geography mapping skills and the new location knowledge requirement. At the start of the year we are putting a world map in the front of our children’s books and as we learn about new places throughout the year they can update this map.

This new topic will also include teaching story writing, adjectives, adverbs for description, poetry – the list is endless….