National curriculum and assessment review

Approximate read time: 15 minutes

The House of Lords is scheduled to consider the following question for short debate on 26 March 2026:

Lord Freyberg (Crossbench) to ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the implications of the final report of the curriculum and assessment review, published on 5 November 2025, for education in England.

1. What is the national curriculum?

The national curriculum sets out the subjects that are taught and the standards children should reach for pupils in primary and secondary schools “so children can learn the same things”.^[1] It is organised into blocks of years called ‘key stages’.

Table 1. Child’s age and school year for key stages

The national curriculum applies to key stages 1 to 4. Maths, English, sciences, computing and physical education are included in these stages, while other subjects may vary according to the key stage. Key stage 5 is made up of students aged 16 to 18 (or 19 in some contexts) at secondary schools with sixth forms, or colleges, who take A levels or other similar qualifications.^[2] There is currently no set curriculum for 16- to 19-year-olds in further and higher education.^[3]

The curriculum was last reviewed under the coalition government in 2011. The report ‘Framework for the national curriculum’, published in December 2011, informed changes to the curriculum which were introduced in 2014. Multiple smaller updates have occurred since then.^[4]

All maintained schools in England must teach the national curriculum. Currently academies and private schools do not have to follow the national curriculum, although academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum including English, maths and science.^[5] Both maintained schools and academies must also teach relationships and sex education, and religious education.^[6]

Provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would introduce a requirement for all academies to teach the national curriculum. The explanatory notes to the bill confirm:

The measure will be commenced after the independent curriculum and assessment review has concluded and the government has responded to its recommendations. Academies are not required to teach the national curriculum until commencement.^[7]

2. Curriculum and assessment review

The Labour Party manifesto for the 2024 general election included a commitment to  modernise the school curriculum and to reform assessment, stating:

Labour will launch an expert-led review of curriculum and assessment, working with school staff, parents and employers to change this. Our reforms will build on the hard work of teachers who have brought their subjects alive with knowledge-rich syllabuses, to deliver a curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive, and innovative. To capture this breadth, our review will consider the right balance of assessment methods whilst protecting the important role of examinations.^[8]

Following the general election, in July 2024 the government launched the curriculum and assessment review and named Professor Becky Francis as review chair.^[9] The terms of reference for the review stated that it would address “the key problems and hard barriers to achievement” in the curriculum and assessment system from key stage 1 to key stage 5, and seek to deliver:^[10]

• An excellent foundation in core subjects of reading, writing and maths.
• A broader curriculum, so that children and young people do not miss out on subjects such as music, art, sport and drama, as well as vocational subjects.
• A curriculum that ensures children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes young people need to thrive. This includes embedding digital, oracy and life skills in their learning.
• A curriculum that reflects the issues and diversities of our society, ensuring all children and young people are represented.
• An assessment system that captures the strengths of every child and young person and the breadth of curriculum, with the right balance of assessment methods whilst maintaining the important role of examinations.^[11]

The review panel issued a call for evidence which ran from September to November 2024.^[12] In March 2025, it published an interim report which included analysis of the views given in the call for evidence and also set out the review’s initial findings and next steps.^[13] The review panel published its final report, ‘Building a world-class curriculum for all: Final report’, in November 2025.

The report included a wide range of recommendations. These included proposals that the government should:^[14]

• Introduce an oracy framework to support practice and to complement the existing frameworks for reading and writing.
• Review and update all programmes of study—and, where appropriate, the corresponding GCSE subject content—to include stronger representation of the diversity that makes up modern society, allowing more children to see themselves in the curriculum.
• Develop the national curriculum as a digital product that can support teachers to navigate content easily and to see and make connections across key stages and disciplines.
• Develop a programme of work to provide evidence-led guidance on curriculum and pedagogical adaptation (as well as exemplification) for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
• Involve teachers in the testing and design of programmes of study as part of the drafting process. This must take into consideration the curriculum time that is available, ensuring the national curriculum is ambitious but teachable within a typical school timetable.

2.1 Reviewing the national curriculum

The review included curriculum principles which it said the government should follow when drafting programmes of study for the refreshed national curriculum. The review recommended the curriculum should:^[15]

• Be an aspirational, engaging and demanding offer that reflects the high expectations and excellence young people deserve, irrespective of background.
• Retain a knowledge-rich approach, ensuring skills are developed in conjunction with knowledge in ways that are appropriate for each subject discipline.
• Be constructed so that it supports children and young people to master core concepts, ensuring sufficient space for them to build their knowledge and deepen their understanding.
• Have curriculum coherence as an organising principle for curriculum drafters and support the selection and prioritisation of content. Where appropriate, vertical core concepts on which subjects have been constructed should be clearly presented, and horizontal coherence should be ensured.
• Ensure the professional autonomy of teachers is maintained, making sure that greater specificity does not substantially restrict teachers’ flexibility to choose lesson content and how to teach it.
• Reflect the diversity of society and the contributions of people of all backgrounds to knowledge and culture.
• Ensure foundation subject content specifies the essential substantive knowledge and skills which should be taught.

The report also included subject-specific recommendations.^[16] These included replacing the computer science GCSE with a broader computing GCSE and making citizenship a mandatory requirement at primary school, to include climate change and sustainability, media and financial literacy.

2.2 Assessment

The review included several recommendations which related to accountability, performance measures and assessment, notably to:

• Remove the EBacc performance measures and the associated EBacc entry and attainment headline accountability measures.^[17] The EBacc is a performance measure for schools in England which measures the achievement of pupils who have gained key stage 4 (GCSE-level) qualifications in the following subjects: English language and literature, maths, the sciences, geography or history, and a language.^[18]
• Retain Progress 8 (and Attainment 8) with no changes to its structure or subject composition but a small change to how its components are named.^[19] Progress 8 seeks to measure the ‘value added’ by a school by looking at how much a secondary school has helped pupils improve (or progress) over a five-year period when compared to a government-calculated expected level of improvement.^[20] Attainment 8 is a measure published annually showing the average academic performance of a secondary school.^[21] It is calculated using results from GCSE results in certain subjects approved by the government.

In addition, recommendations for specific key stages included:^[22]

• the Department for Education (DfE) working with the Standards and Testing Agency to find ways to encourage the take-up of optional tests in key stage 1
• replacing the current grammar, punctation and spelling test in key stage 2 and focusing more on writing fluency at this key stage
• introducing an English and maths diagnostic assessment at key stage 3 to ensure students are ready to progress to key stage 4
• reducing exam time in key stage 4 by at least 10%, maintaining the system where subjects are mostly assessed by exam at the end of the course, while retaining non-exam assessment (coursework) where necessary

The review included several proposals about accessibility for those pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This included recommendations to consider access arrangements for those with SEND needs in key stage 1 and key stage 2 assessments and ensure that Ofqual, awarding organisations and the DfE work together to consider how awarding organisations can build accessibility into the design of new specifications for GCSEs, AS and A levels.^[23]

2.3 Education for 16- to 19-year-olds

The review also addressed the education of 16- to 19-year-olds. Recommendations included:^[24]

• Introducing V levels, a revised third level 3 pathway to sit alongside A levels and T levels. The government describes A levels as the established academic route, with T levels the technical and occupational route that includes an industry placement.^[25] V levels will be a vocational pathway for students “who want to explore different sectors before deciding where to specialise”. V levels will be regulated by Ofqual and be “an ambitious, high-quality and cohesive offer for those not pursuing three A levels or a T level to make sure they have access to meaningful and rewarding destinations”.^[26]
• Considering learners who have SEND or face other barriers to education to ensure that the qualifications are inclusive by design.
• Continuing to work closely with awarding organisations to reduce the assessment burden of T level assessment and driving forward employer engagement with 16–19 education to grow the number of industry placements for students.
• Introducing two separate pathways at level 2 (GCSE equivalent), an occupational pathway and a pathway to level 3.
• Introducing new level 1 stepped qualifications for maths and English language at 16–19, to enable learners to make progress towards achieving level 2 in these GCSEs during 16–19 study.
• Strengthening guidance for 16–19 study programmes to promote effective practice in delivering non-qualification activity which focuses on applied knowledge and transferable skills.

Finally, the review included recommendations for future national curriculum reviews, stating that the interval between holistic curriculum reviews should be limited to approximately a decade and that holistic reviews should be supplemented with a rolling programme of light-touch minimalist updates of the national curriculum and its programmes of study.^[27]

3. Government response

The government published its response on the same day that the review was published.^[28] It indicated its support for a number of the recommendations such as introducing an oracy framework, reviewing and updating programmes of study, removing the EBacc, reducing exam time by 10%, and changes to the education system for 16- to 19-year-olds.^[29] While the review had recommended not changing the structure of Progress 8 and Attainment 8, the government outlined proposals to “develop and consult on an improved version of Progress 8 and Attainment 8 that balances a strong academic core with breadth and student choice”.^[30] The government provided more detail in ‘Progress 8 and Attainment 8: An explanation of the proposed improved model’, noting that it would “consult in due course”.^[31]

In addition, the government stated that it would not introduce diagnostic assessment for key components of maths and English to be taken during year 8 (key stage 3). Instead, it would “expect all schools to assess pupil progress in writing and maths in year 8 and will support them to draw on a range of high-quality products to do so”.^[32] However, it said it would also introduce a new statutory reading test for all children to be taken in year 8, designed to check both fluency and comprehension.

The government stated that it would refresh the programmes of study for each curriculum subject in line with the review’s recommendations and publish a revised national curriculum in 2027 for first teaching in 2028.^[33] It would also update GCSEs, for first teaching from 2029 onwards, improve arts education and provide an “enrichment entitlement” for every child, to ensure broad opportunities during and after the school day.

4. Reaction

While Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott welcomed some of the proposals, such as the introduction of a year 8 reading test, she expressed concerns:

[…] that the proposed wider changes will water down standards, lower expectations and divert teaching time away from the core education, which gives every child the best chance to get on in life. The temptation to make the curriculum a repository for every social concern is ever present, but when everything is a priority, nothing is. If we keep adding and adding, we risk diluting the very core that underpins academic success.^[34]

She was critical of what she described as the “backwards step” of abolishing the EBacc and proposals to reduce the time spent in exams by 10%. In addition, she expressed concerns about the government’s decision not to follow the review’s recommendations on retaining the Progress 8 measures.^[35]

Munira Wilson, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for education, children and families, welcomed much of the review, citing enrichment activities and the inclusion of financial and media literacy in citizenship education in particular.^[36]. However, she raised concerns about how the changes would be funded and queried whether the EBacc and Progress 8 changes could “actually risk narrowing choice” and “mean the death of languages in our state schools”. Instead, she called for a focus on broadening the curriculum in state schools.

The National Association of Head Teachers called the review “a step in the right direction”.^[37] It welcomed proposals to scrap the EBacc and described the government’s plans for Progress 8 as “encouraging”. However, it was disappointed that the opportunity to reduce the amount of “unnecessary primary school tests” was missed saying the tests “take up a disproportionate amount of time and place enormous strain on children and teachers for little obvious benefit”.

General Secretary of the National Education Union Daniel Kebede welcomed many aspects of the review including the abolition of the EBacc, which he said had “narrowed the secondary curriculum and squeezed the arts out”.^[38] He called for a wider range of recognised assessment methods beyond end-of-course exams and argued that the “elephant in the room is the lack of investment in education and the social conditions of children and young people”.

The Education Policy Institute argued that the government had “set out a broadly sensible direction of travel”.^[39] It welcomed enrichment activities and urged the government to set out how disadvantaged pupils are able to access these activities.

The Sutton Trust welcomed the “great emphasis placed on disadvantage gaps and the importance of considering the outcomes of pupils with SEND throughout the document”.^[40] It welcomed the removal of the EBacc, highlighting concerns about the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. The trust supported measures such as the introduction of diagnostic assessments in English and maths in year 8 and the strengthening of writing assessment in year 6, but called for a wider review of the transition between primary and secondary school. It also expressed concerns that contextual factors, such as socio-economic disadvantage, were not currently calculated in Progress 8 measures.

5. Read more

• House of Commons Library, ‘The school curriculum in England’, 21 November 2025
• Schools Week, ‘Curriculum review: All the key policy recommendations’, 4 November 2025; and ‘DfE ignores Francis review and proposes sweeping Progress 8 reform’, 5 November 2025

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