I've written before, at length, about the Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) and especially about its implications for languages in primary schools.
I heard recently that Key Stage 3 would also be having some changes following the review, something that isn't mentioned in the DfE Response to the CAR, and which I hadn't heard about before.
At the beginning of September I asked the DfE about this directly:
One of the recommendations for KS2 Foreign Languages in the Curriculum and Assessment Review was the creation of a minimum core content. I have heard recently that KS3 MFL will also be having a minimum core content, even though this was not in the CAR or in the DfE response to the CAR. Please can you confirm if both key stages will have a minimum core content or just KS2.
Today I received a reply:
Thank you for getting in contact to request information
about key stage 3 modern languages and curriculum reform following the
publication of the Curriculum Assessment Review and Government response.
As you mention in your email, one of the recommendations of
the Curriculum and Assessment Review was that the government update the key
stage 2 languages programme of study to include a clearly defined minimum core
content for French, German and Spanish to standardise expectations about what
‘substantial progress in one language’ looks like. The government accepted
these recommendations, and we are proposing some amendments to key stage 3 to
maintain coherence across the key stages. This is to make sure that the
cumulative linguistic knowledge introduced in primary aligns with expectations
for early secondary. We will ensure that the proposed changes at key stage 3
align with the recent reforms to GCSEs in French, German and Spanish which
introduced specified vocabulary, grammar and phonics for the first time.
I hope that this response is helpful.
It seems, therefore, that they are taking the opportunity to work from the top down, creating the KS2 and KS3 lists from the already existing GCSE lists.
