The Education (National Curriculum) (Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study in English) (England) (Amendment) Order 2007

Statutory Instruments

2007 No. 1841

EduCATION, ENGLAND

The Education (National Curriculum) (Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study in English) (England) (Amendment) Order 2007

Made

25th June 2007

Laid before Parliament

4th July 2007

Coming into force

31st August 2007

The Secretary of State for Education and Skills makes this Order in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 87(3)(a) and (b) and (5) and 210 of the Education Act 2002(1) (“the Act”).

In accordance with section 87(1)(b) of the Act, the Secretary of State considers that it is expedient to change the National Curriculum for England for the first key stage in relation to attainment targets and the programme of study for English.

The Secretary of State referred, pursuant to section 96(2)(2) of the Act, the proposal (“the proposal”) to amend the Education (National Curriculum) (Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study in English) (England) Order 2000(3) (“the principal Order”) in accordance with this Order to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority(4) (“the Authority”).

The Authority—

(a)

pursuant to section 96(3) of the Act, on 15th January 2007, gave notice of the proposal—

(i)

to such associations of local education authorities, bodies representing the interests of school governing bodies and organisations representing school teachers as appeared to the Authority to be concerned, and

(ii)

to other persons with whom consultation appeared to the Authority to be desirable,

and gave them a reasonable opportunity of submitting evidence and representations as to the issues arising; and

(b)

submitted its report on the proposal to the Secretary of State on 30^th March 2007 pursuant to section 96(4) of the Act, that report containing—

(i)

a summary of the views expressed during the consultations, and

(ii)

the Authority’s recommendations as to the proposal;

(c)

after submitting the report to the Secretary of State, arranged for it to be published(5) pursuant to section 96(5) of the Act.

The Secretary of State—

(a)

pursuant to section 96(6) of the Act, published on 18^th May 2007 in the manner which, in his opinion, was likely to bring them to the notice of persons having a special interest in education, a draft of this Order (together with the provisions of the Document(6) (“the Document”) referred to in the principal Order and in the amendments to the principal Order made by this Order relevant to this Order), and sent copies of the draft of this Order (and the those provisions) to the Authority and to each of the persons consulted by the Authority;

(b)

pursuant to section 96(7) of the Act, allowed until 17^th June 2007, being a period of not less than one month, for the submission of evidence and representations as to the issues arising;

(c)

considers in accordance with section 87(3) of the Act that the attainment targets and programmes of study for English specified in this Order are as he considers appropriate for that subject; and

(d)

now makes this Order with modifications.

Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Education (National Curriculum) (Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study in English) (England) (Amendment) Order 2007 and comes into force on 31^st August 2007.

Amendment of S.I. 2000/1604

2.  The Education (National Curriculum) (Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study in English) (England) Order 2000(7) is amended as follows—

(a) for article 3 substitute the following—

“3.— (1) The attainment targets and programmes of study specified for the purposes of the National Curriculum for the first, second, third and fourth key stages for the foundation subject of English are the attainment targets and programmes of study specified in the Document as amended by this order, and it is directed that the Document as amended has effect for those purposes.

(2) The provisions of the Document relating to the first key stage entitled “En2 Reading” are to have effect as amended in the Schedule to this Order.”; and

(b) insert the Schedule set out in the Schedule to this Order.

Andrew Adonis

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Department for Education and Skills

25th June 2007

Article 2(b)

SCHEDULE SCHEDULE TO THE EDUCATION (NATIONAL CURRICULUM) (ATTAINMENT TARGETS AND PROGRAMMES OF STUDY IN ENGLISH) (ENGLAND) ORDER 2000

Article 3(2)

“SCHEDULE AMENDMENTS TO “EN2 READING”

The provisions of the Document relating to the first key stage entitled “En2 Reading” are amended in the section entitled “Knowledge, skills and understanding” by substituting for the sub-section entitled “Reading strategies” the following—

Reading strategies

1.   Pupils should be taught to read with fluency, accuracy, understanding and enjoyment.

Word recognition and graphic knowledge

They should be taught phonemic awareness and phonic knowledge to decode and encode words, including to:

(a) hear, identify, segment and blend phonemes in words in the order in which they occur

(b) name the letters of the alphabet

(c) identify syllables in words

(d) recognise that the same sounds may have different spellings and that the same spellings may relate to different sounds

(e) read on sight high-frequency words and other familiar words

(f) recognise words with common spelling patterns

(g) recognise specific parts of words, including prefixes, suffixes, inflectional endings, plurals

(h) link sound and letter patterns, exploring rhyme, alliteration and other sound patterns

Understanding text

They should be taught to use grammatical understanding and their knowledge of the content and context of texts to:

(i) understand how word order affects meaning

(j) decipher new words, and confirm or check meaning

(k) work out the sense of a sentence by rereading or reading ahead

(l) focus on the meaning derived from the text as a whole

(m) use their knowledge of book conventions, structure, sequence and presentational devices

(n) draw on their background knowledge and understanding of the content.”

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order substitutes a new article 3 of, and inserts a Schedule to, the Education (National Curriculum) (Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study in English) (England) Order 2000 (S.I. 2000/1604; “the principal Order”), which provides for the attainment targets and programmes of study in English for the first, second, third and fourth key stages of the National Curriculum.

The changes only affect the attainment targets and programmes of study for the first key stage (Years 1 and 2; ages 5 to 7). They are made following the publication of a report on 20^th March 2006 resulting from the independent review of the teaching of early reading carried out by Jim Rose (“the Rose Report”) ISBN: 1-84478-684-6. The Rose Report is can be accessed at the following internet link—

• http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/phonics/earlyreading

Copies of this publication can also be obtained from:

• DfES Publications

• PO Box 5050

• Sherwood Park

• Annesley

• Nottingham NG15 ODJ

• Tel: [phone]

• Fax: [phone]

• Textphone: 0845 60 555 60

The programmes of study and attainment targets for English are contained in the document entitled “Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study in English” ISBN 011 3700687 (“the Document”), which was published on 1^st September 2000 by the Stationery Office Limited, as amended in relation to “En2 Reading” by this Order (article 3(2) of and the Schedule to the principal Order as inserted by article 2 of and the Schedule to this Order). The Document referred to in article 3(1) of the principal Order may be accessed at the following internet link—

• http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/En-1-2-POS.html

The QCA’s report to the Secretary of State, published on 31st May 2007, may be accessed at the following link—

• http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/EN-1-2-POS.html

This Order makes some minor modifications to the proposals in the QCA’s report.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.

(1)

2002 c. 32; subsection (1) of section 87 has been prospectively substituted by section 48 of, and paragraph 10(1) and (2) of Schedule 1 to the Childcare Act 2006 (c. 21) on a date to be appointed pursuant to sections 109(2) and 110(2) of that Act.

(2)

Section 96 has been amended in subsection (1) by paragraph 15 of Schedule 1 to the Childcare Act 2006.

(3)

S.I. 2000/1604, which specified Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study in English for the first, second, third and fourth key stages. This Order was made under sections 356(2)(a) and (b) and (4) and 568(5) and (6) of the Education Act 1996 (c. 56). Section 356 was repealed by section 215(2) of, and Part 3 of Schedule 22 to, the Education Act 2002 (c. 32). The Order continues in force under section 87 of the Education Act 2002.

(4)

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority was established under section 21 of the Education Act 1997 (c. 44).

(5)

The QCA published its report to the Secretary of State on 31^st May 2007.

(6)

“Attainment Targets and Programmes of Study in English” (reference ISBN 011 3700687), which was published on 1^st September 2000 by the Stationery Office Limited

(7)

S.I. 2000/1604.