National Curriculum for the Primary Schools - Dissertation Example

National Curriculum for the Primary Schools Abstract This paper is being prepared as a part of the training session attended. The objective of this paper is to identify the aspects of planning and preparation to ensure a productive learning environment. The paper primarily talks about the foundation subject at the primary school and incorporates the National Curriculum with that. The paper also covers the class management aspects of the teaching. I. Introduction Education is a social system that prepares and develops new members for the society. It is a process, which teaches them the social setting, morale and their expected behaviour in the society. It gives them an opportunity to choose their area of interest and develops them accordingly. If you talk about any education system there are few things which comes to our mind first, these are student, teachers and books. The student teacher relationship is very important. This small statement above has a lot weight within it. It tells us about the relationship we have with our students, it tells us what we are to our students and the most important meaning it has is the sense of responsibility. Like parents teachers should always keep on understanding their pupils and not just teaching them but also helping them to grow in overall perspective in order to live successfully, peacefully and the best way they can. A Teacher is the person having impact on the overall growth of the persona of the children. They become role model to them. They are the first outsiders for the children with whom they spend more time comparatively. Experiences in primary school for foundation subjects become very interesting when one have to teach children about Geography. It becomes very interesting and challenging. It is the right place to use the knowledge and skill one has developed with teachers training programs and hi or her own experiences. Usually for students at primary level teacher is their core of all activities. Some of the issues related to the children at this level are- Most of them are coming out of their protective home environment to some social set-up for the first time They miss their parents, siblings or simply being home. They are very sensitive and so are their parents. Any small thing can lead to cry. They are very delicate to handle, they ask too many questions, they do not know the rules and regulations and at that level it will not be good on our part to assume also that they would be doing that. The environment they have at home is totally different from the school as well as their classmates. But there are several other factors which are very encouraging dealing children at this age or level. They are very smart, they obey a lot, they show their feelings instantly and they get easily motivated. The teacher requires handling children at primary level in a different manner than s/he would have been doing for the children above this level. Any subject from the level of teacher who might have learned it till the tertiary education and teaching to children of that age where it is still difficult for them to draw a straight line properly becomes very challenging. The teacher, the curriculum all has to bring to pupil’s level. This paper will be discussing the objectives as set by National curriculum. That will be followed by various planning prerequisites. The observation of taught lesson is covered in the next chapter. II. National Curriculum for the Primary Schools The Foundation Stage became part of the National Curriculum in 2002. Children's learning is now organized into six areas: 1. Personal, social and emotional development 2. Language and literacy 3. Mathematical development 4. Knowledge and understanding of the world 5. Physical development 6. Creative development The Assessment is done informally through teachers' observations of children. Nowhere in the overall teaching process at the primary level should the child be stressed. The learning should be more like fun to them. There development should be assessed in a planned way in their normal school days. The National Curriculum has set various standards for the planning and teaching. The principles on which they are based are given below: 1. Setting suitable learning challenges 2. Responding to pupils' diverse learning needs 3. Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils At every stage teachers face various challenging situations handling their jobs. Their students are from various backgrounds and social set-ups. They have different culture and environment at there home. With all these aspects of their life, teachers need to develop their overall teaching plan, which helps every child in the class, and respect the backgrounds they come from. In the teaching process, teachers may find some student who are extraordinary in their learning capabilities or have strength in some specific areas whereas others who are not even to the minimum set level. The students can face various barriers during their education process. A teacher needs to identify them and help the students to overcome these problems and barriers. A good teacher always provides overall supportive environment of education. This is the reason why we still remember those teachers who were good to us and helped our development during school days. Foundation Subjects: As we know our foundation subjects for key stage 1 (5-7 years) is Design and technology, ICT, History, geography, Modern Foreign Language, Art and Design, Music and Physical education. For the key stage-1, the Subject Geography is targeted to give them a proper knowledge of their local area and in broader terms knowledge about United Kingdom or abroad. Various tools like pictures, maps, and computer screens, CD, small models animation movies along with the regular class mode and outside visits are utilised. III. Working on National Curriculum National curriculum is designed for the development of the pupil. It provides a tool, which helps the teachers to design their own teaching pattern. Our task is stimulating and motivating pupils in their playing exercises. i. Personal, Social and Emotional Development This becomes one of the important fundamental aspects of the teaching in the primary school. How to deal with any emotional outbreak of the child? The empathy is required at this level. Teacher needs to understand and show empathy towards the pupil to stabilize him. S/he should be introduced with the other children in the class and the toys etc. The pupil should be encouraged and motivated to stay in the school. Their understanding with the social set-ups has already started once they are inside the school. They learn various other things here. They understand the social set-up with the help of stories, poems and picture books is the other area of development. The small stories about mother, grand mothers, different toys of block, alphabets, numbers and the things used in the regular life like toys of cups, spoons etc help the pupil to understand them well. The personal development of the child takes place in various ways. The use of knowledge and use of various objects helps developing pupil’s control over his body and other equipments. At none of the stage pupil has pressure for any thing. The learning process is should be very comfortable for them. Utilising geography subject to attain these objectives can be very useful. One can teach them sharing teamwork and inform them about their own locality. There are some practices that we can do with parents’ cooperation. It can be done like in a class of 20 children, Friends House Visit program can be run where each child will invite his/her classmates to their place during lunch break. Though pupils will use the same lunch they bring from home (if any). Before going to the classmates place they will be given a map marked. Once they visit again they would be given the same map and will be asked to identify and mark the place where they have been. It will be a fun exercise as well as learning for them. Streetlights and meanings of signboards can e taught on the way. Visit to 20 houses will definitely make them acquainted with the local area. ii. Language and literacy/ Mathematical Development This can be taught along with the geography. As children will be explaining about the place s/he lives. Talking to the class about the place or street the child lives will help in improving the communication skill. Mathematical skills will be incorporated while asking the name of the object shown in the map with number. (It can be 1 for river, 2 for lake, 3 for mountain and 4 for desert likewise) iii. Knowledge and Understanding of the World/ Physical Development For a foundation subject like geography, all the activities will be based on this section. This is done with the help of materials provided, story telling and sharing. Talking about water, water in glass, water in pond, water in river and water in sea are the various places where water can be found and they learn these with the help of pictures and objects. In physical development they learn how to handle large and small equipment, physical control, coordination and ability to move in different ways. Pupils at this level face difficulty in controlling their own body. They are taught in a focused manner with the help of toys, games etc to control their body. They will be taught. All the activities are aimed to help them living in a healthy and safe environment. iv. Creative Development The creative skills of child are developed in this area. Uses of pencils colours, papers to fill colours in the objects, introduction with colours are taught here. Creative can be easily incorporated with Geography e.g. Ask the class to fill a map with colours, sections showing mountains with brown, lake, rivers and other water bodies with blue. Singing and dancing is the other area for this or telling them to prepare a model of Solar System with the help of various sizes of balls and board or simply draw them etc. Children have very powerful imagination power. Even with their small knowledge they remember and recall things very well. They associate pictures and tell the story around them. IV. Planning Prerequisites There are certain prerequisites of the planning for the primary school productive learning environment. Availability of Resources The availability of the proper resources like toys, globe, educative CDs, maps, pictures, photographs, art crafts, books, performance recording systems, proper furniture and various other required resources should be in place. Support of the School Administration The school administration support is required to the primary school staff for the resource allocation and facilitating the proper learning environment. If there is any child who requires expert attention than contacting the guardian/parents and expert are done along with the support of the school administration. Teachers Attitude, Education and Skill Level Trained teachers with proper qualification on various teaching techniques and child related issues should be appointed. One most important area for the primary school teachers is their attitude towards their job and children. The positive attitude and ability to gel with children is required here. It is very important that children like the teacher and not scared of the teacher. This will happen when teacher’s attitude and communication with the child is in a very polite manner. Teachers Observation Skills Any trained teacher will be able to identify the area of the concerns in the child development process. At early stage sometimes children face some hurdles, which can be taken care of easily once identified. Teacher can observe the overall development of the student against set standards. Understanding of the Background of the Students Very often issues like cultural, racial differences come across while teaching. Every child is coming from different backgrounds and families. The teaching plan should have a common aim, where the entire student can participate. Consistency with the National Curriculum for the foundation subject and learning goals. V. Observation of a Taught Lesson This observation is about the lesson taught in Year 3. The teaching strategy in the observed taught lesion was pupils’ activities. The lesson was from mathematics subject. Students were learning about fractions and part and whole concepts. This was their general introduction to the fraction, to make them understand about the various sizes and effort to develop their skill to match with the correct fraction of things. The resources required to teach this lesson were classroom, whiteboard, and large pieces of sugar cubes, paper and scissors. For teachers own record she had distinguished the activities for the high ability children and low ability children. The process started with the introduction to input. There was a white board were the children came up in the introduction to input. On the tables’ large pieces of sugar paper, circles and scissors were given. All the children in the class were divided into two groups of low ability and high ability. Teacher explained the objects to the children along with the activity to be conducted with that at the beginning of the activity session. The children of low ability were asked to draw circles and match the appropriate fraction. The higher ability children were asked to draw the house and fill in the windows with the correct fraction. Once this task was completed the groups of the children doing the same work did a presentation. Finally the final bit of plenary the teacher recapped over what is half, quarter and three quarters and asked individual questions. In between the activities children were assessed and helped as and when required. Teacher was supporting any student having difficulty or questioned. The transition of one environment to anther was managed well. The first phase of transition was introduction to the activity. The phonetics, body language of the teacher was supportive and encouraging pupils to participate. The two groups were formed in a well-managed way. Pupils with high and low abilities were grouped together that led to focus appropriately to all the students. The time for the activity was twenty minutes. Pupils who completed their work before time were told to observe the charts on the wall. Once pupils completed their task each individual was observed, encouraged and appreciated. At the end the teacher recapped the learning of the class. The class was handled and managed well. But it would have been more effective if some other techniques were used for example “brain gym” technique. It accelerates the learning process among students. The learning improves the visualisation of concepts, ideas and thinking. The class could have shown an apple, half of the apple and one fourth of the apple for the basic introduction to the fraction. In the primary school the worst experience one can have is the “class crying”. This happens when one child starts crying for any particular reason other will follow him, other will be followed by other and than full class. This usually happens in starting of the pre school sessions. Classroom management includes the general management and safety aspects. The classes of Pre School are different from the regular classes. It includes the toys and other educative materials. Teacher needs to ensure that every child after playing keep the toys and other material in place. They learn to manage things here. Pupils often want to carry the toys with them, explaining and talking to them and educating them on the utilization of school resources starts from here. Whenever taken out to the playground or assembly room, they need to be taught about walking together holding each other’s hands. The class needs to be managed here so that no one gets hurt, runs or walks faster on the way. VI. Planning One thing to be noticed here is that children at primary school do not take the schooling as a serious learning process. For them in simple words its fun, play, games, dance, songs and rhymes. This is how they take their primary school and this should be kept in mind before planning any thing for them. At any point of time before planning for children certain factors like their age, general background and teaching objectives should be kept in the mind. As one can group the various things related to child development together. This should be spread out to the overall academic period. Phase 1: On the basis of the curriculum divide the objectives of the subject into small deliverables. The objective of the subject Geography is familiarity with child’s own locality and introduction with the various components of the universe. The study can start from establishing the goals, allocation of the resources, ensuring the optimum utilisation of resources and that the school policy and National Curriculum policy are incorporated in the plan. The feedback design and assessment for the child are the parts of the regular process. The timings, delivery of each class, objectives, assessment papers, and resources required everything could be prepared this stage. Phase 2: This is the actual stage of delivering the lesson. The class with start the lesion with learning familiar things to create their interest. The list of Local things like traffic rules regulations, lake, rivers, plants, bridge etc will be prepared and the students will be encourage to observe in their daily life. At this stage the word bank will be build and Information communication technology will also be started. Phase 3: Once pupils learn about the local things in the class they would visit outside the school to visit classmates’ house, National parks and others. Phase 4: In this phase students will be taught about the global and universal aspects with the help of globe, maps, ICT and other additional tools. Phase 5: At this stage pupils will require more assistance. At first level teacher will check how much they know e.g. take a globe ask everyone what is that? The answers you may expect are ball to globe anything. If there is a single student using the right term, pet him/her and if number of them are there use motivating words for all of them. This will give an idea of the level of the average class. On the basis of this the next teaching strategies would be planned. Step 5: Use different teaching methods to educate them about the globe. Two groups can be formed one should be taught to identify UK in the globe and other to identify Europe. Call one from each group and ask them to teach each other about the thing they have learned. This will be a good fun exercise for them. Using interactive digital platform will also be very effective. Step 6: Assessment on the basis of various parameters VII. Productive Learning Environment As stated above, our emphasis is to prepare the children for their better tomorrow. The learning objectives are clear in the primary school level. The pupils are introduced to the various aspects of their environment and themselves. They are prepared for their formal learning process. The learning environment in the primary school should be friendly and disciplined. The environment should encourage pupil for the self-learning process. It will help them to develop their interest in the various areas. This is a stage of foundation to their education and foundation should always be strong. This can be done only if the environment is supportive for them. This can be done only when the overall environment is supportive to all the pupils. Each child is attended and valued. They feel secure and motivated. Their questions should be answered properly. The tendency of children is asking too many questions, since the world and things are new to them and they are full of queries, these queries should be handled properly. The classroom management takes care of the tangible and intangible factors of the class. These intangible factors are the overall discipline, transition of the environment, and emphasis on a particular issue or activity. The tangible factors are the position and placement of various educative items in the class and others. Class management further involves the following things: a. Management of Resources b. Administration of Resources c. Helping Children managing their belongings d. Class Décor or layout planning. e. Children’s contribution in class management. The discipline should not be forced but should come from within. They should be motivated and rewarded for there good conduct. Usually the walls, furniture and others items in the primary schools are usually very colourful and motivating. The use of Display Boards as a motivation tool can be really useful in the class. The resources should be utilised properly and safely in the class. Children should be provided their space to keep their belonging; it can be a drawer or a space on small racks. This will help learning how to keep their belongings. It will also control the distractions. It will help them learning respect for each other’s belongings. Use of colours, space management, displays and 3D models to make class more alive and attractive Teacher can use whistle, clapping or louder voice than the normal will help in changing the attention of the class from one thing to other. During the class change of any activity should be brought in notice to the students. This can be done in various ways for example clapping at seeking attention of the pupils, speaking louder etc. With in the class a teacher should adopt the friendly way to control them. McCarthy (1980) described students as innovative learners, analytic learners, common sense learners or dynamic learners. Based on this the teaching strategies are planned. The timeline decided will be keeping the lowest learner in the mind so that the entire group reaches the next level of the subject together. The methods will incorporate visuals like posters, pictures, flash cards, image books, auditory like story telling, songs and poems, kinetics like physical activities, role playing, board games and tactile like demonstration, projects and others. Students can be taught various words and terms with the help of visuals. Small Competitions within the class at individual or group levels will encourage pupils to participate actively. VIII. Conclusion The learning environment in the word is changing rapidly. With this changing environment the outlook of education system is also changing. Today government and various organisations are emphasizing more on the overall development of the children from the early stage. Various studies are being conducted. Various branches are contributing in this process. This essay is based on the work-based task. It takes care of the National Curriculum set by the government. It primarily explains the learning environment of the primary school set-up. The environment in the primary school is different from that of the school in general. The learning in primary school is not a direct process. There is nothing like teacher coming in the class, delivering lecture, handling queries and doubts. Indeed in this teachers role is more of a facilitator where in s/he starts a process of story telling, involving pupil in particular activity like singing, dancing, block arrangement and helping them to learn themselves. The teacher here is introducer to the various objects surrounding the children and a person who reminds them about those things again and again and help them recalling them. The teacher provides primary education of the world to the children, which become stepping-stones for the future of these children. A balanced, planned approach with an ability to analyse and evaluate the children provides a proper roadmap to the success of the overall child development. IX. Appendix I S.N Particular Action 1. Timings of Delivery of lesson in a foundation Subject 25% of the Time for the personal, social and emotional development of child. 50% of time in Mathematical development, knowledge and understanding of the world. 25% time in Physical development Creative development every day. 2. Assessment of Learning List prepared for children and there everyday performance should be noted. This can give a pattern of development in various areas and the focus area can be identified. 3. Evaluation Based on the standards pupils can be evaluated. 4. Observation of classroom environment 1 The change in the activities should be communicated in a manner that children pay attention to that. At the same time it should not be very loud or scary. 5. Observation of classroom management Things should be kept in right place, class should be neat and clean and children should be encouraged to keep the toys and educative materials at right place. 6. 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