New Changes in Your Child's School & Exams

Don't get caught out by the coming changes and keep informed

With a change in government comes an eventual change in our education policy. A series of major changes are in the pipeline right now, and the exam system is going through it's biggest change in a generation.

Teachers and parents alike should be aware of these changes in well advance, inorder to be prepared and not be caught out.

The list below is aimed at keeping parents informed and up to date.

Key Stage 1

New one-to-one 'Year 1 Phonics Screening Check' to find children with difficulties earlier on (Link 1, Link 2)

Key Stage 2

End of calculator use in Key Stage 2 Numeracy SATs and more emphasis on Mental Maths (Link 1, Link 2)

Key Stage 3 and 4

Two new non-compulsory subjects - 'Personal Wellbeing' and 'Financial Wellbeing' (Link 1)

GCSEs

Exam (and coursework) marking schemes will become harsher (especially for English) (Link 1, Link 2)

Plans to boost computer science teaching (Link 1)

Plans to improve ICT (Link 1)

A Levels

Only summer exams, winter exams ending from Sept 2013 (Link 1)

There will be only one chance to resit an exam (Link 1)

AS Level will continue (Link 1)

Exams becoming harder to reverse 'grade inflation' (Link 1)

Universities to become involved with course and exam content (Link 1)

Exams changing to test 'real knowledge' and 'subject understanding' (Link 1)

Exam content will better support progression to higher education (Link 1)

Maths teaching to include 'specialist knowledge' and access to new 'rich free online resources' (Link 1)

Universities

Students loans facts: Not paid up-front, earn less than 21K then don't have to pay it back (Link 1)

General

Academies and new free schools can hire unqualified teachers with practical subject experience (Link 1)

Teacher trainees will face tougher tests in English, Maths and Reasoning (Link 1)

From 2013, the school leaving age will be 18 not 16 (Link 1)

Foundation Schools have greater freedom than Community Schools (Link 1)

Future Speculation

Teachers will be given more freedom on what they teach (Link 1)

The curriculum wil be focused more on 'the basics' and a 'traditional teaching approaches' (Link 1)

The government curriculum will become less relevant as more schools will become Academies and so have the right to not follow the it (Link 1)