Primary school children will be taught how to spot fake news, deal with money and about the climate crisis under a major shake-up of the school curriculum published today
Primary school kids will be taught how to spot fake news, deal with money and about the climate crisis under a major shake-up of the school curriculum.
They will also be taught about the law, voting in elections and arts and culture as part of compulsory citizenship education.
In secondary schools, teenagers will spend less time being tested under plans to reduce the average time spent in GCSE exams by up to three hours.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the significant update of the curriculum will ensure “young people are equipped to face the challenges of today”. She confirmed the changes off the back of the first review of the school curriculum in more than a decade, which is published today.
The nearly 200-page report warns that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), online harms and global challenges, both social and environmental, mean kids require new and evolving scientific and cultural skills.
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It pointed to chilling data showing over half of young people have encountered someone in their class (51%) or on social media (52%) who believes in a conspiracy theory and almost half of teachers (49%) said they are at least moderately worried about a pupil expressing a belief in a conspiracy to them in the classroom.
Ahead of the publication of its full response today, the Government confirmed it will update the curriculum to reflect the modern world, including online safety and climate education.
It also said it would scrap the English baccalaureate (Ebacc), introduced by former Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove and which judges schools on how many kids take GCSEs in English, maths, science and a humanities and language subject. Instead, students will be encouraged to take a wider choice between arts, humanities and languages alongside the core subjects.
Schools will also be expected to work towards offering triple science GCSEs – separate qualifications in physics, chemistry and biology – as standard, as not all schools currently offer it.
Ministers will also replace the current computer science GCSE with a broader future-facing GCSE and explore a new qualification in data science and AI for 16–18-year-olds.
It follows the Government’s announcement last month of new qualifications called V-levels to replace some 900 vocational qualifications. They will be made available alongside T Levels and A levels.
The Department for Education (DfE) also said it would publish a new set of enrichment benchmarks with schools asked to ensure every child has access to activities including civic engagement, arts and culture, nature and adventure, sport, and life skills.
But teachers reacted with scepticism at some of the plans, with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) warning that new enrichment standards risk adding pressures to school “without a word about how this will be resourced”. It also highlighted a “dire” shortage of physics teachers as a challenge to the Government’s ambition for all schools to offer triple science.
Ministers reiterated their announcement of a new statutory reading test in year eight and a strengthening of writing assessment in year six. But teachers have also pushed back against more testing of kids, with National Education Union’s (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede warning that “more mandatory tests are not the answer”.
Elsewhere, the curriculum review recommended a reduction in the overall volume of exams that 16-year-olds take by at least 10%. The DfE plans to work with exam boards to reduce GCSE exam time by two and a half to three hours for the average student.
The new curriculum will be implemented in full for first teaching from September 2028.
Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of ASCL, said: “We’re pleased to see recommendations which will modernise the curriculum for a changing world without creating an unmanageable burden on an education workforce which is already under great strain.
“However, delivering a great curriculum also requires sufficient funding and teachers, and the government must step up to the plate and ensure that schools and colleges have the resources they need.”
Martin Lewis, MoneySavingExpert.com founder, who has campaigned for compulsory financial education in school since 2012, welcomed its inclusion in the curriculum review.
“Our children are sent out into a world of scams, dodgy deals and debt, without the tools to cope,” he said.
He said any changes must be properly implemented with teacher training and school resources, but added: “Yet right now, after all these years, I’ll settle for cheering a big intention to improve things.”
Ms Phillipson said: “It has been over a decade since the national curriculum was updated, and it’s more crucial than ever that young people are equipped to face the challenges of today, so they can seize the exciting opportunities that life has to offer.
“The path to our country’s renewal runs through our schools: they must be an epicentre of the strongest possible foundations of knowledge, and the skills to excel in the modern world.”
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