The government has set out plans to bring the school curriculum into the modern day and help young people step into the future.
For the first time, primary-aged children will gain vital skills like how to spot fake news and identify misinformation and disinformation, helping them develop the critical thinking needed to challenge what they see and protect them from online harms.
Primary pupils will also learn more about the fundamentals of money, recognising that children are now consumers often before they reach secondary school, while bringing important changes to strengthen children’s reading.
The government will introduce a new statutory reading test in year 8 and a strengthening of writing assessment in year 6 to spot pupils who need extra support at a crucial point in their development. Currently, around 1 in 4 children leave primary school without being able to properly read, and too many are leaving school without passing their GCSE English.
The new year 8 test will pinpoint those who could benefit from further stretch, while repairing falling standards in the “lost years” at the start of secondary, when too many working-class young people fall behind.
Under the new arrangements, arts GCSEs will be given equal status to humanities and languages, recognising their value in boosting confidence and broadening skills for a competitive job market.
To complement this, a new core enrichment entitlement will offer all pupils access to civic engagement, arts and culture, nature and adventure, sport, and life skills to build resilience and opportunity.
Schools will also be expected to work towards offering triple science GCSE as standard, which comes alongside the government exploring a new qualification for 16-18 year olds in data science and AI – helping more young people succeed in the science and tech careers that power our economy.
Key reforms include:
- Making citizenship compulsory in primary, ensuring all pupils learn media literacy and financial literacy, law and rights, democracy and government, and climate education early on.
- Replacing the narrowly focused computer science GCSE with a broader, future-facing computing GCSE and exploring a new qualification in data science and AI for 16–18-year-olds.
- Changes to school performance measures – removal of the EBacc and reforms to Progress 8 – to encourage students to study a greater breadth of GCSE subjects, including the arts, humanities and languages alongside English, maths and science. This follows the failure of the EBacc measure to encourage take-up of subjects including languages and constraining student choice.
- Supporting schools to develop a triple science offer, ahead of introducing a statutory entitlement for all GCSE pupils.
- A new primary oracy framework and a new combined secondary oracy, reading, and writing framework, so these are embedded across the whole curriculum.
- Exploring a new language qualification which banks progress and motivates pupils to want to continue studying, complementing existing GCSEs and A levels.
- A new core enrichment entitlement for every pupil – covering civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, sport and physical activities, and developing wider life skills.
The new curriculum will be implemented in full, for the first teaching from September 2028. Government will aim to publish the final revised national curriculum by spring 2027 – giving schools four terms to prepare for the changes.
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