Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has promised that her major shake-up of the school curriculum will prepare kids for a world that is ‘changing more rapidly than ever’
The government has today announced the biggest changes to the school curriculum in over a decade.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has promised that her major shake-up of the school curriculum will prepare kids for a world that is “changing more rapidly than ever”.
She told MPs pupils will learn how to deal with “dark forces” online. Media literacy will teach pupils how to spot fake news, while digital literacy and a revamped computing qualification will prepare students with the tech skills needed for the future.
And the Cabinet minister also vowed to revitalise art education, telling MPs “the arts should be for all, not just the lucky few”. She said all her plans would sit alongside a “strong academic core”.
The significant changes to the national curriculum come after Professor Becky Francis’s Curriculum and Assessment Review, which was published in full today. The new curriculum will be implemented in full for first teaching from September 2028.
The Government has since published its full response to the review – detailing exactly what changes it plans to make to the national curriculum. The Mirror looks at the key changes.
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1. Online safety
Primary school kids will be taught how to spot fake news and different types of misinformation and disinformation, especially online.
Ms Phillipson said she wants children to learn how material is “exploited by dark forces online to spread lies and sow division”. She said media literacy will prepare kids “not to consume passively, but engage critically, to recognise and reject disinformation”.
She also said digital literacy will be boosted through a “reformed computing curriculum to navigate the opportunities and challenges of AI (artificial intelligence) and much more”. The Department for Education (DfE) said it will also explore a new qualification in data science and AI for 16–18-year-olds.
2. Financial skills
From primary school, kids will be taught how to deal with money. Ms Phillipson said financial literacy will be taught “to empower young people to make informed choices about money, saving and investing”.
Parts of this will be taught in maths, such as how to calculate interest, while some of it will be part of citizenship lessons.
Martin Lewis, MoneySavingExpert.com founder, who has campaigned for compulsory financial education in school since 2012, welcomed the move. “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.
3. Citizenship lessons
Citizenship lessons will be made compulsory in primary school, including learning on financial and media literacy, climate change and democracy and law into primary education.
The DfE said: “Citizenship education, reinforced across the curriculum, can play a vital role in making sure young people feel the democratic process is relevant to them, and that they understand how constitutional principles such as the rule of law protect them and benefit their lives.” Ministers said it was important for youngsters to learn about democracy given plans to change the voting age to 16.
The department also said it wants to enhance teaching on climate change, which will also be taught in geography and science. “Equipping children and young people to thrive in a rapidly changing world therefore means enabling them to understand and meet the global challenge that climate change presents,” it said.
4. Michael Gove’s system scrapped
The government has confirmed it will 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 have a wider choice of options between arts, humanities and languages alongside the core subjects.
Ms Phillipson said there will be improvements to Progress 8 and Attainment 8 – which measure a pupil’s performance at the end of GSCEs – after a consultation. She said the current structure “restricts choice” and turns kids away from subjects like drama, art and design and music. “Our creative industries are a source of such national pride,” she said. “The arts should be for all not just a lucky few.”
5. Diversity and local history
Children will be taught a more diverse history curriculum.
The DfE said: “In reforming the curriculum, we will ensure that teachers can reflect the innate diversity of British history, including British Black and Asian history. We will continue to include the Holocaust as a compulsory topic within key stage 3, as confirmed by the Prime Minister last year.”
It also said there will be information on how local history can be studied to teach history through where children and young people live.
6. Enrichment entitlement
Ministers 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.
The DfE said: “We will set out a new core enrichment offer that every school and college should provide for every one of their pupils, which delivers access to civic engagement; arts and culture; nature, outdoor and adventure; sport and physical activities; and developing wider life skills.”
Ministers said Ofsted will consider how schools are meeting enrichment expectations when judging the personal development grade.
Teachers reacted with scepticism at 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”.
7. Cut exam times
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.
Asked about children having an “exam overload” in this country, Ms Phillipson said exams regulator Ofqual has been clear that cutting GCSE exam time by 10% is “more than achievable”.
“That amounts to two and a half to three hours achievable in reducing the time spent in exams, while at no point compromising the integrity, or the high quality and standards of the system, she told MPs. “And we will work with the regulator in order to make that happen. We are an international outlier where it comes to the amount of time that children spend in exams at GCSE.”
8. Triple science offer
Schools will 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.
But ASCL union highlighted a “dire” shortage of physics teachers as a challenge to the Government’s ambition for all schools to offer triple science.
The DfE said: “We will work with schools to understand the barriers to entry for triple science, including workforce challenges, and support schools to develop a triple science offer, ahead of introducing a statutory entitlement. We will also continue to invest in tackling physics teacher shortages through the Subject Knowledge for Physics Teaching programme.”
9. Year eight reading test
While cutting exams time for GCSEs, Ms Phillipson has announced more tests elsewhere. She has faced pushback from teachers unions against her plans to introduce a new statutory reading test in year eight.
National Education Union’s (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede has warned that “more mandatory tests are not the answer”. “Pigs don’t get fatter the more you weigh them – and children don’t learn to love reading by being tested repeatedly,” he added.
Ms Phillipson defended the plan today, saying: “If you can’t read well, you can’t do anything else.”
10. V-Levels
Young people will be able to take new qualifications called V-levels. Ms Phillipson said vocational education has been seen as an “afterthought for too long” as she announced the new qualification last month.
In response to the curriculum review, the DfE said: “We will make ‘V Levels’ the only pathway of vocational qualifications at level 3 for young people. These will sit alongside A levels and T Levels, providing simplicity and clarity as well as quality.
“We want V-Levels to be clearly distinct from A levels and T Levels, with nationally set content linked to occupational standards. We expect these qualifications will be small enough (similar in size to an A level) to be effectively combined with other qualifications to allow students the flexibility to study different areas.”
11. Speaking skills
The government said it will raise standards in speaking, reading and writing from the early years and into secondary.
The DfE said: “A new oracy framework will support primary teachers to ensure their pupils become confident, fluent speakers and listeners by the end of key stage 2, and our new secondary oracy, reading and writing framework will enable secondary teachers to connect and embed all three of those vital skills in each of their subjects as part of a whole school strategy.”
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