DfEE Green Paper (22/10/1997) National Curriculum, assessment and qualifications

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1 Policies for excellence

National Curriculum, assessment and qualifications

National Curriculum
24. The National Curriculum means that all pupils, including those with special educational needs, benefit from a broad and balanced curriculum. Pupils with SEN should have the same opportunities as others to progress and demonstrate achievement. At the same time, the National Curriculum should apply to these children in a way which teachers and parents recognise as appropriate. Access statements give teachers flexibility to match the National Curriculum to an individual pupil's ability. Modification and disapplication of subjects and assessments should therefore be needed only in exceptional cases.

25. Many special schools have worked hard to provide the full National Curriculum to their pupils. These schools have successfully challenged low expectations and differentiated the curriculum to meet a wide range of needs. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has issued guidance on using a variety of approaches, within the flexibility of access statements, to present the National Curriculum to pupils with profound and multiple difficulties. It is working on guidance for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties and pupils with multi-sensory impairments. Schools will be invited to comment on strategies for delivering the curriculum to children with SEN when we conduct our review of the National Curriculum in due course.

QUESTION: How can we identify and disseminate good practice in delivering the curriculum to children with special educational needs?

Assessment
26. Key Stage 1-3 assessments are accessible to most pupils with SEN and help schools to measure their progress and achievements. Pupils working at the lowest levels at Key Stages 2 and 3 will be assessed only by their teacher. The National Curriculum tests provide for a range of adaptations and modifications to ensure that as many children as possible have access to them. However, it remains difficult to recognise and report the progress of pupils whose attainment will be below level 2 throughout their education. This issue is being considered by the QCA through the National Curriculum monitoring arrangements.

Qualifications
27. Most pupils with special educational needs can achieve some form of accredited qualification, such as GNVQs or GCSEs. But some - especially those in some special schools - are not given the opportunity to prove themselves in public examinations. All special schools should ask themselves whether more of their pupils may be capable of working towards such qualifications, given the special arrangements that can be made for pupils with special educational needs.

28. For pupils for whom GNVQs or GCSEs at sixteen are not appropriate, a range of nationally recognised qualifications - Certificates of Achievement - are available in all National Curriculum subjects and religious education. From September 1998, Certificates of Achievement will become part of the new Entry Level within the national framework of qualifications which will:

allow full recognition of pupils' achievements;
be re cognised by colleges, employers and others in a way that some non-GCSE qualifications currently available are not;
give more able pupils with SEN the opportunity to progress to higher level qualifications within the national framework; and
give special schools key performance data for use in target setting and self-assessment.

29. Many teachers help pupils to identify and record their achievements and skills, often using the National Record of Achievement (NRA). The NRA is being replaced by the Progress File achievement planner, currently being piloted in schools, including special schools. As part of Progress File, we will develop support material so that all pupils, including those with SEN, can identify and record their achievements, set goals and targets and plan their further learning.

QUESTION: Do the existing arrangements for assessment within the National Curriculum, and for public examinations, give appropriate recognition of the achievements of children with special educational needs? If not, how might they be improved?

31/08/2000