Archived decisions

Appendix 1

The Two Year Key Stage 3 Project and its Impact on the Teaching of Religious Education at Cowplain Community School

Cowplain Community was one of 20 schools in the country and the only school in Hampshire to be a part of the DfES Project to compress the National Curriculum from three years into two in order to address the "Year 8 Attainment Dip" and raise standards at both KS3 and KS4. Additionally at Cowplain this was done in conjunction with a wider KS3 Curriculum change, the aim of which was to create a block on non-National Curriculum time to address work-related, vocational and thinking skills aspects of the curriculum. These areas, we feel, are the areas employers most wish to see developed in young people, and which should be addressed in Year 9 as well as in Years 10 and 11.

In order to create the block of time in Year 9, the majority of our students now sit their National Curriculum Tests in Year 8, and have slightly different time allocations for their other subjects. These changes enable us to make long desired changes to the way in which Religious Education was taught in our school. An already successful department has benefited from the changes, and will, we are confident, continue to go from strength to strength under the leadership of the Head of Department Ms Suzanne Dew and an NQT, Ms Janine Parkinson.

The department has been teaching two lessons per week in year eight and nine for one year now. The department no longer teaches year seven as a two year key stage three timetable operates. The effects have been both noticeable and positive:-

· Teacher relationships with students have improved as there is twice weekly contact. This enables the teacher to better know the students and support them where appropriate.

· The status of the subject has been raised in key stage three. The students are beginning to perceive it as a more academic subject again as it has similar timetable weighting to other small departments.

· The department has been able to focus on developing the curriculum and raising teaching standards partly because staff are not as overstretched in terms of the teacher - student ratio (each member of staff was responsible for half the school). The new initiatives within the department have been far more successful as a result of having two lessons a week in key stage three. Much work has been done on Assessment for Learning and the department is currently in a position to adopt and embrace the aims of the New Agreed Syllabus.

· Teacher assessment has improved as there has been a reduction in workload, there is one less year group to report on, meet parents, mark formal assessments, mark exercise books etc.

· Students have preferred to have two lessons a week. The less able have found it easier to remember what we are doing and feel a sense of continuity. The students gain from the increased contact with staff which has helped them to feel more confident in the subject.

· A lower proportion of lesson time has been dedicated to revisiting last lesson or a number of last lessons. This has allowed us to utilise more of the lesson for learning. Homework can be set one lesson and collected in the next, reducing the proportion of time in weekly lessons devoted to dealing with writing homework in diaries, explaining or clarifying the task set and collecting homework in, again enabling more learning to take place within the lesson.

Ms Dew and Mr Brockhurst (Senior Assistant Headteacher - Curriculum and Standards) would be happy to talk further about these matters and answer any questions that may arise.