The Education (Curriculum Minimum Content) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007

Made: 26th January 2007

Coming into operation: 1st August 2007

The Department of Education makes the following Order in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Articles 7(2) and 43(5) of the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 2006[^f00001]:

Citation and commencement

1

This Order may be cited as The Education (Curriculum Minimum Content) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007 and shall come into operation as set out in Schedule 1.

Specification of Minimum Content

2

The Minimum Content for the area of learning at each Key Stage is specified in Schedule 2.

SCHEDULE 1 — Commencement

The provisions of this Order shall come into operation for pupils in each year of each key stage on 1st August of the school year shown in the following table:

Commencement Date	Year Group
2007/2008	1st year of the Foundation Stage
2007/2008	1st year of Key Stage 2
2007/2008	1st year of Key Stage 3
2007/2008	1st year of Key Stage 4
2008/2009	2nd year of the Foundation Stage
2008/2009	2nd year of Key Stage 2
2008/2009	2nd year of Key Stage 3
2008/2009	2nd year of Key Stage 4
2009/2010	1st and 2nd years of Key Stage 1
2009/2010	3rd year of Key Stage 2
2009/2010	3rd year of Key Stage 3

SCHEDULE 2 — Specification of Minimum Content

PART 1 — Statutory Requirements Relating to the Curriculum

The statutory Northern Ireland Curriculum from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 4

is a balanced and broadly based curriculum which—

• (a) promotes the spiritual, emotional, moral, cultural, intellectual and physical development of pupils at the school and thereby of society; and

• (b) prepares such pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life by equipping them with appropriate knowledge, understanding and skills.

In order to meet their statutory requirements, schools must provide learning opportunities in relation to the following:

• (a) Religious Education – in accordance with the core syllabus drafted by the four main Christian Churches in Northern Ireland and specified by the Department of Education.

• (b) the following Areas of Learning:

Areas of Learning	Contributory Elements
Language and Literacy	Talking and ListeningReadingWriting
Mathematics and Numeracy	NumberMeasuresShape and SpaceSortingPatterns and Relationships
The Arts	Art and designMusicDrama
The World Around Us	The World Around Us
Personal Development and Mutual Understanding	Personal Understanding and HealthMutual Understanding in the Local and Wider Community
Physical Development and Movement	Physical Development and Movement
Areas of Learning	Contributory Elements
---	---
Language and Literacy	Talking and ListeningReadingWriting
Mathematics and Numeracy	Processes in MathematicsNumberMeasuresShape and SpaceHandling Data
The Arts	Art and DesignMusicDrama
The World Around Us	HistoryGeographyScience and Technology
Personal Development and Mutual Understanding	Personal Understanding and HealthMutual Understanding in the Local and Wider Community
Physical Education	Physical Education
Areas of Learning	Contributory Elements
---	---
Language and Literacy	EnglishIrish (in Irish-speaking schools)Media education
Mathematics and Numeracy	MathematicsFinancial capability
Modern Languages	Any official language of the European Union (other than English and, in Irish speaking schools, Irish).
The Arts	Art and DesignMusicDrama
Environment and Society	HistoryGeography
Science and Technology	ScienceTechnology and Design
Learning for Life and Work	EmployabilityLocal and Global CitizenshipPersonal DevelopmentHome Economics
Physical Education	Physical Education
Areas of Learning	Contributory Elements
---	---
Language and Literacy
Mathematics and Numeracy
Modern Languages
The Arts
Environment and Society
Science and Technology
Learning for Life and Work	EmployabilityLocal and Global CitizenshipPersonal Development
Physical Education	Physical Education

Minimum Content

The Minimum Content for each Area of Learning and Key Stage means the knowledge, understanding and skills within that Area of Learning which are required to be taught to pupils of different abilities and maturities during that stage.

PART 2 — Foundation Stage

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

The minimum content for Language and Literacy is set out below.

Pupils should be enabled to:

• count a variety of objects;

• develop an understanding of one-to-one correspondence and come to appreciate that the size of a set is given by the last number in the count;

• investigate different ways of making sets for a given number within 5/10;

• match numerals to sets;

• order numerals and sets within 5/10;

• develop an understanding of conservation of number within 5/10;

• understand in counting activities that ‘none’ is represented by zero;

• explore ordinal number;

• explore the number that comes after, before, between a given number;

• carry out simple mental calculations;

• extend, when appropriate, understanding of number beyond 10.

TALKING AND LISTENING

Pupils should be enabled to develop:

• attention and listening skills through:listening to a wide range of stories, poems, songs and music;following instructions;identifying environmental sounds;repeating familiar phrases/sound sequences;recalling sequence and detail.

• phonological awareness through:responding to a steady beat;identifying words in phrases and sentences;identifying syllables;identifying and generating rhymes;identifying and manipulating phonemes.

• social use of language through:observing modelled behaviours;understanding non-verbal signals;talking with adults and other pupils;initiating and joining in conversations in pairs or groups;working in different groupings;adopting or assuming a role relevant to context.

• language and thinking through:talking about experiences, pictures and stories;talking about their work, play and things they have made;naming;recalling;sequencing;predicting;asking and answering questions;describing;explaining;sharing their thoughts, feelings and ideas with different audiences;taking part/contributing to group oral language activities.

• an extended vocabulary through:listening and responding to adults and peers;an immersion in the language of books, both fiction and non-fiction;focused experiences to introduce or generate vocabulary.

Progression

As pupils progress through the Foundation Stage they should be enabled to:

• express themselves with increasing clarity and confidence, using a growing vocabulary and more complex sentence structure;

• understand and use social conventions in conversations and pupil initiated interactions;

• initiate and sustain conversations with adults and peers in the classroom;

• retell stories, events or personal experiences in sequence with reasonable detail;

• answer questions to give information and demonstrate understanding;

• ask questions to find information or seek an explanation;

• offer reasons to support opinions given;

• listen with increasing attentiveness and for longer periods of time;

• listen to and carry out increasingly complex instructions.

READING

Through modelled, shared and guided reading sessions pupils should be enabled to:

• read with some independence;

• read a range of texts including electronic texts and those composed by themselves and others;

• sequence stories in reasonable detail using appropriate language;

• use word structure to develop reading;

• develop auditory discrimination and memory;

• develop visual discrimination and memory;

• share a range of books with adults/other pupils;

• know how to handle and care for books;

• understand and use some language associated with books;

• select and use books for specific purposes;

• develop concepts of print;

• listen to a range of stories, poems and non-fiction texts read to them by adults/other pupils.

Progression

As pupils progress through the Foundation Stage they should be enabled to:

• understand that words are made up of sounds and syllables and that sounds are represented by letters (phoneme/grapheme awareness);

• recognise different types of text and identify specific features of some genres;

• read and follow simple instructions;

• use a range of reading cues with increasing independence and begin to self-correct;

• read on sight, some words in a range of meaningful contexts;

• begin to read with expression in response to print variations and punctuation;

• use extended vocabulary when discussing text, re-telling stories or in their emergent writing;

• make links between personal experience and the text;

• make and give reasons for predictions;

• understand the purpose of and use environmental print;

• browse and choose books for a specific purpose.

WRITING

Through modelled, shared and guided writing sessions pupils should be enabled to:

• distinguish between drawing and writing;

• talk about the ideas represented in their drawings.

• understand that writing is a means of communication and can be used for different purposes;

• share their writing with others;

• see themselves and the teacher as ‘writers’;

• observe the teacher modelling specific writing strategies;

• use ICT to present and communicate their ideas.

Progression

As pupils progress through the Foundation Stage they should be enabled to:

• write without prompting and make decisions about how and what they will write;

• use rhymes, poems and patterned stories as models for structuring their own writing;

• write in a range of genres with teacher guidance;

• begin to problem-solve how to write using sound-symbol correspondence as the first strategy;

• begin to show evidence of sequence in recount and instructions;

• use a wide range of vocabulary in their writing;

• begin to demarcate sentences;

• begin to use capital letters for the pronoun ‘I’, for names and at the start of a sentence;

• show increased control over formation of lower and upper-case letters, size and spacing.

MATHEMATICS AND NUMERACY

The minimum content for Mathematics and Numeracy is set out below.

NUMBER:

Understanding Number

Pupils should be enabled to:

• listen to and follow simple instructions/rules;

• take part in warm-up and cool-down activities;

• experiment with different ways of moving and exploring personal and general space;

• develop confidence, imagination and some understanding of safety through participating in a range of movement activities;

• develop body awareness through varying body movements in relation to shape, levels, pathways (straight/curved), directions, speed;

• use a range of small equipment to develop skills of rolling, pushing, patting, throwing, catching, aiming, hitting, kicking and passing;

• play/create/modify simple games;

• listen and respond to a range of stimuli;

• explore, refine and improve simple movements;

• create, practise, improve and perform simple movement sequences which have a clear beginning, middle and end;

• use a range of movement vocabulary to discuss actions;

• observe, describe and copy what others have done;

• lift, carry, place and store equipment safely, with adult assistance where appropriate.

Pupils should be enabled to:

• count in the context of number rhymes, jingles and stories;

• count forwards in ones within 5/10 from different starting points;

• count backwards in ones within 5/10 from different starting points;

• recognise numerals up to 5/10;

• state, without counting, quantities within 5;

• make a sensible guess of quantities within 10;

• explore numbers relevant to their every day lives;

• extend, when appropriate, counting in ones and recognition of numbers beyond 10;

• extend activities to include counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.

Understanding Money

Pupils should be enabled to:

• use money in various contexts;

• talk about things that they want to spend money on;

• understand the need to pay for goods;

• become familiar with coins in everyday use;

• talk about different ways we can pay for goods;

• use their number skills in shopping activities.

MEASURES

Pupils should be enabled to:

• compare two objects of different length/weight/capacity/area; understand and use the language of comparison;

• order three objects of different length, weight, capacity, area; talk about the ordering using appropriate language;

• find an object of similar length, weight, capacity, area; talk about their findings in terms of ‘just about the same’ length, weight, capacity, area;

• begin to explore the notion of conservation of length, weight, capacity in practical situations; engage in discussion about their observations;

• choose and use, with guidance, non-standard units to measure length/capacity/weight; talk about their work;

• sequence two or three familiar events;

• talk about significant times on the clock;

• compare two intervals of time; talk about their observations in terms of took longer/shorter time;

• explore time patterns;

• choose and use, with guidance, non-standard units to measure time; talk about their work.

SHAPE AND SPACE

Pupils should be enabled to:

• explore and talk about shapes in the environment;

• build and make models with 3D shapes; create pictures and patterns with 2D shapes;

• investigate and talk about the properties of shapes;

• sort collections of shapes in several ways; describe the arrangements;

• describe and name common 3-D and 2-D shapes;

• explore body space through different types of movement;

• explore movement through space during indoor and outdoor play activities;

• understand and use a range of positional words;

• explore movement using programmable devices;

• follow/give directions from/to a partner for simple movements.

SORTING

Pupils should be enabled to:

• explore freely properties of a range of materials and one/two/three property collections; respond to questions about the arrangements;

• sort collections of random materials;

• sort for one criterion using one-property materials; talk about the arrangement;

• sort for one criterion using two-property collections; re-sort for the second criterion; explain their work;

• sort for one criterion using three/four-property collections; find the various possibilities; explain their work;

• partition sets into subsets in preparation for exploring components of number.

PATTERNS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Pupils should be enabled to:

• investigate and talk about pattern in the environment;

• copy a simple pattern;

• continue a simple pattern;

• create patterns;

• explore pattern in number;

• discover the components of numbers within 5/10 by investigating different ways of partitioning sets into subsets practically; talk abut the outcomes;

• understand the concept of addition by combining sets of objects to find ‘how many’;

• match objects in real contexts;

• compare sets by matching objects/counting objects to understand the terms ‘more than’ less than’ ‘the same’;

• investigate the relationship between addition and subtraction in practical situations.

Progression

As pupils progress through the Foundation Stage they should be enabled to:

• use appropriate mathematical language and symbols;

• sort and re-sort materials, recording the outcomes in a variety of ways;

• talk about data represented in simple block graphs, tables and diagrams;

• understand the conservation of number;

• count forwards and backwards from different starting points;

• recognise numbers to at least 20;

• carry out mental calculations such as 1 more/less than up to 20, doubles up to 10 and mentally add and subtract within 10;

• understand that ‘teen’ numbers are made up of 10 plus another number;

• begin to measure using non-standard units;

• talk about the properties of 3-D and 2-D shapes using appropriate mathematical language;

• be involved in solving practical problems.

THE ARTS

The minimum content for The Arts is set out below.

ART AND DESIGN

Pupils should be enabled to: