Key Stage 2 - Northern Ireland

The minimum statutory requirements for the curriculum at Key Stage 2 are set out in six Areas of Learning, some with subject strands which are identified below.

The areas of learning of the Key Stage 2 curriculum to which the UNA-ID has the potential to add value are identified in the chart above.

Language and literacy

As well as being a subject discipline in its own right, English is the medium for learning and teaching across the entire school curriculum and is integral aspect of every subject area. 

All of the International Days learning activities provide meaningful, relevant and motivating contexts for developing the statutory requirements of talking and listening, reading and writing and vocabulary in line with the expectations, experiences and outcomes of the Northern Ireland Curriculum

Mathematics and Numeracy

• Handling data
• Collecting, representing and interpreting data

Pupils should be enabled to:

• Collect, classify, record and present data drawn from a range of meaningful situations, using graphs, tables, diagrams and ICT software;
• Explain their work orally and/or through writing and draw conclusions;
• Interpret a wide range of tables, lists, graphs and diagrams, create and interpret frequency tables, including those for grouped data;
• Understand, calculate and use the mean and range of a set of discrete data.

The Arts – including Art and Design, Drama and Music

In Art and Design pupils should be enabled to:

• Engage with observing, investigating and responding to first hand experiences, memory and imagination;
• Collect, examine and select resource material to use in the development of ideas;
• Look and talk about the work of artists, designers and craft workers from their own and other cultures; appreciate methods used in the resource materials and use their appreciation to stimulate personal ideas and engage with informed art making;
• Develop their understanding of the visual elements of colour, tone, line, shape, form, space, texture and pattern to communicate their ideas;
• Use a range of media, materials, tools and processes such as: drawing, painting, printmaking, malleable materials, textiles and three dimensional construction, selecting which is appropriate in order to realise personal ideas and intentions.

In Drama pupils should be enabled to:

• Develop their understanding of the world by engaging in a range of creative and imaginative role play situations;
• Explore a range of cultural and human issues in a safe environment by using drama to begin to explore their own and others’ feelings about issues, and by negotiating situations both in and out of role;
• Develop a range of drama strategies including freeze frame, tableau, hot seating, thought tracking and conscience.

The World Around Us – includes History, Geography and Science and Technology

Pupils should be enabled to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in:

Interdependence

• How they and others interact with the world;
• How living things rely on each other within the natural world;
• Interdependence of people and the environment and how this has been accelerated over time by advances in transport and communications;
• The effect of people on the natural and built environment over time.

Place

• Ways in which people, plants and animals depend on the features and materials in places and how they adapt to their environment;
• Features of, and variations in places, including physical, human, climatic, vegetation and animal life;
• Positive and negative effects of natural and human events upon a place over time.

Movement and Energy

• Causes that affect the movement of people and animals;
• How movement can be accelerated by human and natural events such as wars, earthquakes, famine or floods;
• Positive and negative consequences of movement and its impact on people, places and interdependence.

Change over time

• How change is a feature of the human and natural world and may have consequences for our lives and the world around us;
• Ways in which change occurs over both short and long periods of time in the physical and natural world;
• The effects of positive and negative changes globally and how we contribute to some of these changes.

Personal Development and Mutual Understanding

Personal understanding and health

Pupils should be enabled to explore:

• How to sustain their health, growth and well-being abd coping safely and efficiently with their environment.

Mutual understanding in the local and wider community

Pupils should be enabled to explore:

• Human rights and social responsibility;
• Causes of conflict and appropriate responses;
• Valuing and celebrating cultural difference and diversity;
• Playing an active and meaningful part in the life of the community and being concerned about the wider environment.