Terms of Reference of the Design and Technology Working Group National Curriculum

Abstract

Background 

1. The Education Reform Bill currently before Parliament provides for the establishment of a National Curriculum of core and other foundation subjects for pupils of compulsory school age in England and Wales. For most subjects, including technology, the Government wishes to establish clear objectives - attainment targets - for the knowledge, skills, and understanding which pupils of different abilities and maturities should be expected to have acquired by the end of the academic year in which they reach the ages of 7, II, 14and 16; and to promote them, programmes of study describing the content, skills and processes which need to be covered during each key stage of compulsory education. Thken together, the attainment targets and programmes of study will provide the basis for assessing a pupil's performance, in relation both to expected attainment and to the next steps needed for the pupil's development.

2. Both the objectives (attainment targets) and means of achieving them (programmes of study) should leave scope for teachers to use their professional talents and skills to develol-- their own schemes of work, within a set framework which is known to all. It is the task of the Working Group un Design and Technology to advise on that framework for design and technology