‘War on illiteracy and innumeracy’

All children in England will be expected to know up to their 12 times table when they leave primary school, the government has announced.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said pupils aged 11 should also know correct punctuation, spelling and grammar.

Labour said the “surest way” to raise standards was to improve the quality of teaching in the classroom.

Mrs Morgan indicated the Conservatives would ring-fence most of the schools budget if they won May’s election.

‘Master the basics’

Under the Conservatives’ plans, pupils would not be made to re-sit planned new tests until they passed, but the school could be subject to measures if they failed.

A school that failed to get every pupil to pass the tests for two years running could be paired with an outstanding school to gain extra support. It could also become part of a teacher swap where heads of departments from good schools take over temporarily.

“We have to be ambitious for our young people. If you don’t get it right at primary, then it becomes much harder for children to catch up at secondary school,” Mrs Morgan told BBC 1’s Andrew Marr show.

Key Stage Two tests already include questions on times tables and long division but pupils are given an overall mark, not for individual sections.

Mrs Morgan plans to make times tables a separate section within the maths test.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31079515

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Updated 1 October 2014:  Three years on (Craig Smith’s Health) page 7 click here

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Needing help for your home schooling journey:

https://hef.org.nz/2011/needing-help-for-your-home-schooling-journey-2/

And

Here are a couple of links to get you started home schooling:

Information on getting startedhttps://hef.org.nz/getting-started-2/

and

Information on getting an exemptionhttps://hef.org.nz/exemptions/

This link is motivational: http://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-what-is-it-all-about/

Exemption Form online: https://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-exemption-form-now-online/

Coming Events: https://hef.org.nz/2013/some-coming-events-for-home-education-during-2013-2/

Beneficiaries: http://hef.org.nz/2013/where-to-for-beneficiary-families-now-that-the-social-security-benefit-categories-and-work-focus-amendment-bill-has-passed-its-third-reading