ABSTRACT
Since the introduction of the National Curriculum (NC) we have witnessed fundamental changes in the structure and content of the curriculum. Alongside these curriculum changes we also have new demands in terms of assessment, recording and reporting of pupils’ progress. This means that the need for schools to be accountable has never been greater. The implications for teachers and their ways of working have been enormous. The changes we have seen in schools demonstrate the shift away from the idiosyncratic and largely incohesive curriculum that dominated primary schools before the NC to a far more structured and homogeneous one. We now have an education system where a child moving from school to school, LEA to LEA, has entitlement to a common curriculum with assessments that are based upon common procedures. Not only is there now a common curriculum in terms of content but we also have definitions of learning, attainment and progression that are used when judgements are made about a school’s performance. The NC describes learning in particular terms, that is, the acquisition of knowledge, skills and understanding. Furthermore, the knowledge, skills and understanding of pupils are benchmarked by ‘level descriptions’ so our assessment of pupils is ‘criterion-referenced’, and ‘progression’ is seen as gains in knowledge, skills and understanding.
