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I have referred to all these curriculum documents on numerous occasions during my studies and having them stored all together saves me lots of time.

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If you've ever spoken to a friend or relative from a different part of the UK about their child's education, you might well have been left feeling somewhat confused. Although the four countries follow a broadly similar structure, there are significant variations between the school systems, ranging from the age that children start school to the type of tests they take. Our at-a-glance guide will give you an overview of what school life involves for children in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

When do children start school?

In England most children start primary school in the September before they turn five.

In Wales children start Reception in the September before turning five.

In Scotland children with birthdays between March and August start school in the August following their fifth birthday. Children with birthdays between September and February start school in the August before their fifth birthday (but this can be deferred until the following September).

Northern Ireland has the lowest compulsory school starting age in Europe: children who have reached the age of four on July 1st start school the following September.

How are primary schools organised?

Throughout the UK, schools are organised into year groups, so children are taught with others of the same age (although in some schools - for example, very small ones, or those that admit more than 30 children in one year - year groups may be combined within the same class).

In most areas, school years are then grouped together in larger stages or phases, usually with different curriculum requirements and outcomes for each.

In England:

The Foundation Stage includes pre-school, nursery and Reception.

Key Stage 1 covers Years 1 and 2.

Key Stage 2 covers Years 3 to 6.

In Wales:

The Foundation Phase covers children from age three until the end of Year 2 (this has recently replaced Key Stage 1).

Key Stage 2 includes Years 3 to 6.

In Scotland, there are no phases or stages; the Curriculum for Excellence runs progressively from age three to 18.

In Northern Ireland:

The Foundation Stage includes Years 1 and 2.

Key Stage 1 covers Years 3 and 4.

Key Stage 2 comprises Years 5 to 7.

What curriculum do primary school children follow?

Each country of the UK has its own curriculum, and although much of the content is similar, there are differences in the programmes of study.

In England, the National Curriculum applies to children in Key Stages 1 and 2. It includes English; maths; science; art and design; computing; design and technology; geography; history; music and physical education. Key Stage 2 children must also study a foreign language.

The Welsh curriculum has recently been revised. Schools follow the National Literacy and Numeracy Framework (NLF), which emphasises applying literacy and numeracy across the whole curriculum. The Curriculum for Wales identifies different areas of learning: personal and social development, wellbeing and cultural diversity; language, literacy and communication skills; mathematical development; Welsh language development (using Welsh as the first language in school, or learning it as a second language); knowledge and understanding of the world; physical development and creative development.

In Scotland, the Curriculum for Excellence includes expressive arts; health and wellbeing; languages; mathematics; religious and moral education; sciences; social studies and technologies.

The Northern Ireland Curriculum requires children in Key Stages 1 and 2 to study language and literacy; mathematics and numeracy; the arts; the world around us; personal development and mutual understanding; religious education and physical education.

How are children assessed?

Across the UK, children's learning and progress are continually assessed by their teachers. This is through activities such as classwork, homework, reading, spelling tests and maths tests. In some areas, there are also externally set assessments at specific points of a child's education.

In England, children have a baseline assessment in Reception to assess their ability on starting school (from September 2016), a phonics screening test at the end of Year 1, Key Stage 1 SATs in English and maths in Year 2, and Key Stage 2 SATs in English, spelling, punctuation and grammar in Year 6.

In Wales, children take National Reading and Numeracy Tests every year from Year 2 to Year 9.

In Scotland, general screening takes place in P1 to assess children's ability on starting school. Standardised assessments in literacy and numeracy, known as SNSAs, take place in P1, P4, P7 and S3. The SNSAs were introduced in 2017.

In Northern Ireland, children are assessed every year through teacher assessment and planned tasks and activities (assessments often take the form of InCAS tests). Formal results, in the form of levels, are reported to parents at the end of Years 4 and 7.

Who's in charge of inspecting schools?

English schools are inspected by Ofsted. This typically happens once in every five years, but more often for schools where problems have been highlighted. Schools are rated Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate.

In Wales, schools are inspected by Estyn at least every six years. They are graded from 1 (outstanding) to 5 (poor).

In Scotland, Her Majesty's Inspectorate for Education (HMIe) monitors schools. They choose a random sample of 240 schools across the country to assess each year. Schools are not given a specific result or grade, but a letter explaining the strengths, weaknesses and targets.

Northern Irish schools are inspected by the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) on a risk-based schedule, so schools that are causing concern will be inspected more frequently. Schools can be rated as Outstanding, Very Good, Good, Satisfactory, Inadequate or Unsatisfactory.

What about school term dates?

Term dates vary not just from country to country in the UK, but also from area to area, so it's important to check the specific term and holiday dates for your school. However, on the whole:

The English and Welsh school year begins at the start of September and ends in the third week of July.

The Scottish school year begins in the third week of August and ends in mid to late June.

The Northern Irish school year begins on September 1st and ends on July 1st.

Education in the UK: regional differences

For more information about education in the devolved countries, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education (England), http://learning.wales.gov.uk (Wales), https://education.gov.scot/ (Scotland) and http://www.deni.gov.uk (Northern Ireland).

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Primary education in England, Wales, Scotland and N Ireland

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If you've ever spoken to a friend or relative from a different part of the UK about their child's education, you might well have been left feeling somewhat confused. Although the four countries follow a broadly similar structure, there are significant variations between the school systems, ranging from the age that children start school to the type of tests they take.

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This is a site we use daily in class. It allows children to work at their own pace, marks their work and shows an example if they get it wrong.

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IXL offers online maths practice covering reception through year 13 maths and everything in between. Students will enjoy learning with IXL's fun and interactive questions, including graphing, drag-and-drop, select-and-edit and more.

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Accelerated Maths

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A Parent's Guide to using Accelerated Maths

As you will be aware, your child will be using Accelerated Maths software for maths practice. This guide is designed to answer your questions about Accelerated Maths and is adapted from a larger guide that can be found If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact your child's teacher or visit the Renaissance website at www.renlearn.co.uk.

Accelerated Maths can be accessed through the 'Learning at Home' resource page on each school's website

What Is Accelerated Maths?

Accelerated Maths is an online tool that helps teachers manage and monitor students' mathematics practice and mastery. Through the platform, your child completes daily, personalised assignments. Your child may work on the assignment on a computer or tablet. A review in the software or an individual report shows both the student and teacher which problems the student answered correctly and incorrectly. The teacher uses the information in the report to help the student with specific concepts. The software then creates the next assignment, including more practice on the concepts with which the student had trouble.

Students using Accelerated Maths receive individualised assignments that challenge them on the skills they need to work on most. Because each assignment is personalised, students can work together towards a better understanding of a maths concept without being able to copy from one another.

Teachers working with Accelerated Maths receive a report and can focus on specific problem areas for each student. This ensures your child will master those concepts and be successful on future assignments.

Students enjoy working on their assignments because they move at their own pace and receive personalised practice. With their teacher's help, students set targets for themselves and achieve them.

What is a Star Maths test?

Star Maths is a computerised maths assessment that uses computer-adaptive technology. Questions continually adjust to your child's responses. If the child's response to a question is correct, the difficulty level of the next question is increased. If the child misses a question, the difficulty level of the next question is reduced. The test uses multiple-choice questions and takes approximately 25 minutes to complete.

Does using the computer harm the teacher-student connection?

No. Accelerated Maths actually improves the teacher-student connection because it allows teachers to personalise student practice and work one-on-one with students when needed. However, Accelerated Maths is not a computer instructional program. Though students may enter their answers on a computer or tablet or record them on scan cards, they work through the problems in a maths notebook or on paper. Unlike Integrated Learning Systems that use computers for instruction, Accelerated Maths uses the computer to do what it does best-create and mark students' work and keep track of their daily maths practice. As a result, teachers enjoy more personal interaction with students to keep them motivated and excited about learning maths.

Are there any results showing the effectiveness of Accelerated Maths?

Yes. A large and growing body of research supports the effectiveness of Accelerated Maths in a wide variety of classroom settings. In fact, Accelerated Maths has more published research than any other maths program.

What kinds of maths problems are available?

Accelerated Maths offers maths content for Year 2 to Year 9 and Key Stage 4. Your child's teacher will select content containing objectives that match his/her students' current levels.

How will I know how my child is doing?

As your child completes each assignment, the child either sees a summary of his or her work on a computer or tablet or receives a printed TOPS Report. This provides feedback on your child's understanding of the objectives and shows cumulative data for the marking period and school year. Teachers may send the TOPS Report home with your child. If so, you should review the report, sign it and send it back to school.

You can access your child's Accelerated Maths information in Renaissance Home Connect from any web-enabled computer. You must first gain access to the program from the school. Once in the program, you can view your child's progress towards targets and objectives mastered. You can only access information about your child. In addition, your child can open the Accelerated Maths software through Renaissance Home Connect to review past work, and if the teacher has set the preference to allow marking, your child can complete or mark practices and exercises in the software.

What if I have more than one child using Accelerated Maths?

The information in Renaissance Home Connect is only for the child whose username and password you used. You must request access to the information for each of your children.

What if I have questions about using Renaissance Home Connect?

After logging in, click Help in the upper right-hand corner or contact your child's teacher.

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As you will be aware, your child will be using Accelerated Maths software for maths practice. This guide is designed to answer your questions about Accelerated Maths and is adapted from a larger guide that can be found If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact your child's teacher or visit the Renaissance website at www.renlearn.co.uk.

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This app can be preloaded with spellings appropriate to the age, stage or topic the class are working on. Games are played at varying levels with the objective of winning the Queen Bee. Teacher can monitor how much time is spent on this activity at home.

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Teachers

Spelling Shed is made by teachers, for teachers and was developed in the founder's classroom. We have built a suite of tools to enable teachers and schools to manage pupils' data, including reporting on assessments. Spelling Shed tracks student game plays along with their responses. Teachers can monitor weekly activity in order to advance or remediate as needed.

Our platform enables learning to happen anywhere and everywhere giving educators the peace of mind that pupils can learn and get practice unhindered.

Our administration tools also allow groups of schools to manage school data centrally.

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Proudly powered by EdShed, Spelling Shed includes a whole-school spelling scheme, web & mobile games and a teacher hub with homework and data.

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Our plans to improve teaching in schools

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The national curriculum primary programmes of study and attainment targets for key stages 1 and 2.

Details

The statutory primary national curriculum, including programmes of study and attainment targets, for all subjects at key stages 1 and 2. Languages are only statutory at key stage 2.

These must be taught in all local-authority-maintained primary schools in England.

The statutory primary national curriculum is issued by law, which means you must follow it unless there is a good reason not to.

Schools are not required by law to teach the example content in [square brackets] or the content indicated as being 'non-statutory'.

The individual programmes of study for key stages 1 and 2 are also available for each subject.

Further information about the pre-2014 primary curriculum is available on the National Archives.

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National curriculum in England: primary curriculum

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The national curriculum primary programmes of study and attainment targets for key stages 1 and 2.

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Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations.

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Create your own storybook online. Make writing and publishing a book more fun with our picture book making tool!

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This app was a fantastic resource during home schooling. All worked to be completed was stored here along with video links. It was also used for zoom meetings with the entire class.

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A digital app introducing geometry skills

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Interactive activities in maths

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search

Enriching mathematics for all learners

A free-to-use collection of mathematics activities, lessons and problems designed to nurture curious, resourceful and confident learners of mathematics. Produced by The University of Cambridge.

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The Nrich Maths Project Cambridge,England. Mathematics resources for children,parents and teachers to enrich learning. Problems,children's solutions,interactivities,games,articles.

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Can be used by children or adults as a learning tool. Especially useful for children with communication issues either verbally or in their writing.

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Create your own storybook online. Make writing and publishing a book more fun with our picture book making tool!

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6 Sites for Virtual Labs That Your Students Will Love

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Are you hesitant about using in-person labs in the classroom? Virtual labs are a great option for both in-school and distance learning! There are LOTS of options out there for online simulations - definitely too many to count! Here are some of my favorite virtual labs to use with my students.

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Home : iSpot Nature - Your place to share nature. iSpot is a website aimed at helping anyone identify anything in nature. Once you've registered, you can add an observation to the website and suggest an identification yourself or see if anyone else can identify it for you.

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Home : iSpot Nature - Your place to share nature. iSpot is a website aimed at helping anyone identify anything in nature. Once you’ve registered, you can add an observation to the website and suggest an identification yourself or see if anyone else can identify it for you.