

	Statutory requirements at key stage 4 home

	Statutory entitlement areas at key stage 4
	Entitlement courses
	Careers education and guidance
	Citizenship at key stage 4

	Print this page

Entitlement courses


		11-16 schools

		6th form schools

		Colleges

The four entitlement areas

The entitlement arrangements for key stage 4 create new curricular units based on existing national curriculum subjects and disciplines. These are: the arts, design and technology (D&T), the humanities and modern foreign languages (MFL).

Schools must provide course at key stage 4 in all these entitlement areas. These courses should secure progression from key stage 3 and be developed within the context of the 14-19 phase.

This section of the guidance looks at each of the entitlement areas in turn, answering the questions:

What is it?
What must schools do?
How can schools fulfil the entitlement

There are also a number of case studies to illustrate how individual schools are addressing specific issues within their entitlement area:

Schools must provide course at key stage 4 in all these entitlement areas. These courses should secure progression from key stage 3 and be developed within the context of the 14-19 phase.

This section of the guidance looks at each of the entitlement areas in turn, answering the questions:

What is it?
What must schools do?
How can schools fulfil the entitlement?

There are also a number of case studies to illustrate how individual schools are addressing specific issues within their entitlement area:

the arts
design and technology
the humanities
modern foreign languages.

The arts entitlement area

What is it?

The arts entitlement area involves students in making, sharing and responding to works of art as a dynamic part of culture past and present. This includes all art forms, for example paintings, sculpture, theatre, films and musicals.

It is met by the existing curriculum arts disciplines of art and design, music, dance, drama and media arts. It does not include literature, as opportunities already exist for this area within English.

What must schools do?

From 2004, every school must make available to all students at least one course that leads to a qualification in the arts that has been approved under Section 96.

There has been no change to the statutory requirement to teach art and music to all students at key stages 1, 2, and 3 or to the programmes of study for these key stages.

Schools will be expected to offer at least two courses in the arts entitlement area and continue to offer as wide a range of arts courses as they currently do. As a minimum it is expected that schools will offer courses both in art and design and in music.

How can schools fulfil the entitlement?

The aim of the arts entitlement is to ensure continuity of provision from the existing national curriculum programmes of study for art and music, and/or to extend the range of arts experiences available to students.

Each course offered within the arts entitlement area should provide sufficient depth and breadth of experience for students to:

engage with art forms from different times and cultures, extend their own interests and explore their own thoughts and feelings
develop artistic skills, knowledge and understanding
participate in shared arts experiences
understand the arts in context.

Schools can make this possible by providing access to courses that:

focus on separate disciplines within the areas of media arts, performing arts and visual arts
focus on the development of critical appreciation and understanding across a range of arts disciplines.

Schools will be encouraged to offer courses in as many of these areas as they consider appropriate to the needs of their students. They should also ensure that students can develop their interests and areas of experience through as wide a variety of arts opportunities as possible.

A range of qualifications in the arts is approved under Section 96, although some of these might not – by themselves – fully meet the non-statutory requirements for the arts at key stage 4.

All courses should provide opportunities - within and beyond school - for first-hand experience of the arts disciplines studied, for example involvement with galleries, cinema, concerts, theatre, dance performances and working with arts practitioners.

If they wish, schools can make the arts part of their compulsory key stage 4 curriculum. This may be particularly applicable to specialist arts or music colleges.

The experience of individual students choosing the arts will differ according to the courses they choose. Some students will study more than one arts discipline; others will study combinations of arts courses of different sizes; some will focus on one arts discipline or one broad arts course during key stage 4.

Design and technology entitlement area

What is it?

The design and technology entitlement area involves students in:

developing knowledge and understanding of materials, components, systems and control
applying the above knowledge to investigating how materials, components, systems and control can be combined and processed for design, industrial and manufacturing purposes
developing, planning and communicating ideas that take into account technical, social, aesthetic and environmental concerns and respond to needs, function and industrial practices
working with tools, equipment and computers (CAD and CAM) to produce quality products through product analysis, focused practical tasks, and design and make activities, including activities related to industrial practices
evaluating processes and products in a discriminating and informed way.

What must schools do?

From 2004, every school must make available to all students at least one course in design and technology that leads to a qualification approved under Section 96.

There has been no change to the legal requirement to teach design and technology to all students at key stages 1, 2, and 3 or to the programmes of study for these key stages.

From 2004, there will no longer be a statutory programme of study for design and technology at key stage 4. The text of the present programme of study becomes non-statutory guidance for the teaching of design and technology at key stage 4. This is available on pages 23-25 of the National Curriculum for England booklet for design and technology, which will be updated to reflect these changes. It can also be downloaded at the end of this page.

It is expected that schools will offer at least two courses in the design and technology curriculum area and will continue to offer at least as wide a range of design and technology courses as they currently do.

How can schools fulfil the entitlement?

The aim of the entitlement requirement for design and technology is to ensure continuity of provision from the key stage 3 programme of study for design and technology and to extend the range of experience available to students in the curriculum area.

Courses offered within the design and technology curriculum area should:

cover the knowledge, skills and understanding, as well as the breadth of study, set out in the non-statutory guidelines for design and technology in key stage 4 (the former programme of study)
give access to a foundation for general, technical and vocational learning 14-19
provide opportunities for designing and making products and systems combining practical skills with an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues, functions and industrial practices from a range of designing and making contexts.

Schools can make this possible by providing access to courses in the following areas:

product design (including textiles technology, resistant materials technology, graphic products) or manufacturing
food technology (this covers all of the non-statutory guidance) or hospitality and catering/home economics (these cover part of the non-statutory guidance)
systems and control, electronic products, electronics and communication technology, industrial technology or engineering.

Schools are encouraged to offer courses in as many of these areas as they consider appropriate to meet the needs of their students. They can, if they wish, make design and technology part of their compulsory key stage 4 curriculum. This might be particularly applicable to specialist technology colleges.

The experience of individual students choosing design and technology will differ according to the courses they choose. Some will study a single course; others will choose a combination of courses, for instance design and technology product design and engineering, or food technology and textiles technology.

The humanities entitlement area

What is it?

The humanities entitlement area:

involves students in exploring the spatial, political, social, economic, environmental and temporal dimensions of human existence
encourages students to address issues of concern to humanity in the past, present and future
is met by the existing national curriculum subjects of history and geography; it does not include English literature, religious education and citizenship, which have separate statutory requirements.

What must schools do?

From 2004, every school must make available to all students at least one course in the humanities that leads to a qualification that is approved under Section 96.

There has been no change to the legal requirement to teach geography and history at key stages 1, 2 and 3, or to the programmes of study at these key stages.

It is expected that schools will offer at least two courses in the humanities entitlement area and that they will continue to offer at least as wide a range of humanities courses as they do at present. It is expected that schools will offer courses in both geography and history.

How can schools fulfil the entitlement?

The aim of the humanities entitlement is to ensure that there is continuity of provision from the existing national curriculum programmes of study for geography and history and to extend the range of choices and experiences for students in the humanities.

The total provision within the humanities entitlement area should provide sufficient depth and breadth to enable students to:

study a diverse range of places, communities and environments in which people live and on which they depend in different parts of the world
study a wide range of past societies, events and individuals responsible for shaping the world in which we live
develop a range of skills in many different contexts, inside and outside the classroom, involving working independently and collaboratively with others
review and reflect on moral dilemmas implicit in current issues.

Schools can make this possible by providing access to courses that focus on:

the separate subjects of geography and history
issues and themes that result in combining aspects of geography and history, for example in humanities courses
issues and themes that result in combining substantial aspects of geography and/or history with other disciplines and curriculum areas, for example literature, the arts, science, modern foreign languages, information and communications technology
issues and themes that combine aspects of geography and/or history with relevant vocational areas, for example the heritage industry, galleries work, urban/rural planning, leisure/tourism, journalism.

It is envisaged that schools will provide access to a wide range of courses, so that, as at present, students can continue to study both geography and history at key stage 4 if they wish to do so.

At present, the qualifications that meet the entitlement requirements for humanities are GCSE full and short courses and entry level qualifications in geography, history and humanities. To increase flexibility, a new hybrid GCSE in geography is available for teaching from 2003 and a hybrid GCSE in history is being developed. Hybrid GCSEs have a knowledge core and/or a skills-based core with a range of optional additional pathways, which can be specialist or general.

Courses should provide opportunities within and beyond school for first-hand experiences of places, environments, events and activities that expand understanding of the past, present and future, for example the local area, sites of environmental or historical interest, public meetings, museums, theatre performances.

If they wish, schools can make the humanities part of their compulsory key stage 4 curriculum. This might be particularly applicable to specialist humanities colleges.

Students will have different experiences of the humanities according to the courses they choose. Some will study both geography and history to GCSE level; some will study combinations of history, geography and other subjects; others will study humanities courses of different sizes; some might study only one humanities subject during key stage 4.

Modern foreign languages entitlement area

What is it?

The modern foreign languages entitlement area involves students in:

speaking and writing in a modern foreign language
understanding and responding to speech and written materials in that language
learning about the culture of countries or communities where the language is spoken.

What must schools do?

From 2004, every school must make available to all students a course in modern foreign languages that leads to a qualification approved under Section 96.

There has been no change to the legal requirement to teach a modern foreign language to all students at key stage 3 or to the programme of study for key stage 3.

From 2004, there will no longer be a statutory programme of study for modern foreign languages at key stage 4. The text of the present programme of study remains non-statutory guidance for the teaching of modern foreign languages at key stage 4. This is available on pages 16-17 of the National Curriculum for England booklet for modern foreign languages, which will be updated to reflect these changes. It can also be downloaded at the end of this page.

It is expected that schools will offer at least two courses in the modern foreign languages entitlement area and continue to offer at least as wide a range of modern foreign languages courses as they do at present.

How can schools meet the entitlement?

The aim of the modern foreign languages entitlement area is to ensure continuity of provision from the existing key stage 3 programme of study for modern foreign languages and to extend the range of languages studied at key stage 4.

Each course offered within the modern foreign languages entitlement area should enable students to:

acquire knowledge and understanding of the target language
develop language skills
develop language learning skills
develop cultural awareness.

To meet the entitlement requirements, schools must give access to at least one course in an official working language of the European Union that leads to a qualification approved under Section 96.

The importance of other languages, including community languages, is recognised. Schools are encouraged to offer courses in other languages in addition to European Union languages, whether or not these have been offered at key stage 3.

The official working languages of the European Union are Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, modern Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. There are currently no qualifications approved under Section 96 for Finnish.

The number and range of qualifications available in modern foreign languages approved under Section 96 has increased considerably in recent years and comprises qualifications appropriate for all students.

Some schools might find it difficult to offer a range of language options and are encouraged to work in partnership with other schools and with colleges to provide a wide range of courses.

If they wish, schools can make modern foreign languages part of their compulsory key stage 4 curriculum. This might be particularly applicable to specialist language colleges.

The experience of individual students will differ according to the courses they choose. Some students will continue to study one or more of the languages learned in key stage 3; others will study a language learned in key stage 3 together with a language they have not learned before; some might study a language they have not learned before. The content and focus of courses will vary according to the qualifications that students are preparing for.

Also see

Case studies > Entitlement courses at key stage 4