On 3 May 2013 the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, confirmed that, following the recent public consultation on proposals to reform the national curriculum, the Government’s intention remains that the national curriculum subject of information and communication technology (ICT) should be replaced by computing from September 2014. Although many schools are now officially not required to teach the national curriculum, it does set a benchmark to which Ofsted will inspect, and because of this all schools should be aware of the changes that are currently in progress.
The statement explained: "Having carefully considered the responses to the recent public consultation, the Government has confirmed that it intends to proceed to replace the existing ICT curriculum with a new computing curriculum. ICT as a subject name carries negative connotations of a dated and unchallenging curriculum that does not serve the needs and ambitions of pupils. Changing the subject name of ICT to computing will not only improve the status of the subject but also more accurately reflect the breadth of content included in the proposed new programmes of study."
In line with the Education Act 2002, the Government now has to enter into a further one month consultation before pressing ahead with dropping all reference to ICT in the curriculum and changing to Computing. This should be seen as a formality.
The consultation on the actual content of the draft computing curriculum continues and we will report as soon as the detail begins to emerge, providing the clearest possible explanation of the implications for schools. In the meantime, you can read more about how Naace is responding to the changing curriculum and supporting schools' CPD and resource requirements by visiting our web site here.. You can also read for yourself the Department for Education's initial summary of the feedback it has received on the draft programme of study for computing. The document can be downloaded here
