National Curriculum Review: Panel says it's 'not working well for all' - the four things that need to change

• The Government last year launched a review of England’s national curriculum
• The expert panel leading it received thousands of submissions from the public
• In a new interim report, they found the school system to be working okay overall
• But they have identified four areas where it may need big changes going forwards

An expert panel has identified four key areas that the national curriculum needs to improve on - to create a school system that helps children from all backgrounds leave school ready for the real world.

Last year, the Government launched a full review of the national curriculum - which maps out what schools should be teaching children, as well as what standards children should be achieving at - and the assessment system. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson previously said the current system was “outdated” and no longer fit for purpose - and its eventual replacement would help “set up all our children to achieve and thrive in the workplaces of the future, and throughout their lives”.

The review panel, led by Professor Becky Francis, received more than 7,000 submissions from parents, educators, experts, employers, and young people themselves. An interim report detailing their findings was released on Tuesday afternoon (March 18).

But what exactly did they find, and what comes next in the shake-up of the national curriculum? Here’s what you need to know:

The four key things that need to change in the National Curriculum

The review panel’s interim report found that overall, many aspects of the curriculum and assessment system were still functioning well - with Francis’ initial assessment finding that the curriculum review should be focused on “evolution, not revolution”.

It did, however, identify four main areas of the curriculum that did need improvement. These will help to guide the review’s next steps.

1. Ensuring high standards for all

Although the education system was broadly found to be functioning well, it was not necessarily “delivering for every child”, the panel found. This included pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“The socio-economic gap for educational attainment remains stubbornly large, and young people with SEND make less progress than their peers,” the report said. While it acknowledged that some of the causes and solutions lay outside the bounds of the curriculum alone, steps needed to be taken to ensure that the curriculum and assessment system “properly supports the progress and achievement of all young people”.

The panel found that in practice, having ‘high standards’ in education currently too often meant ‘high standards for some’ - rather than ‘high standards for all’. Going forwards, the review said it needed to explore how the curriculum and assessments could be made more inclusive and equitable for all pupils.

2. Addressing each subject’s specific challenges

The panel said there needed to be more in-depth analysis of individual school subjects, to ensure that what young people were learning in each of them was cutting edge. Many of the submissions it received from the public were to this effect, ranging from minor concerns about curriculum subjects (like dated content), to more major ones.

At the moment, the way some courses and subjects were designed was hindering some children from fully mastering important concepts, before moving on to the next one, it found.

“Many respondents to our Call for Evidence cited the trade-off between breadth and depth, noting that while the curriculum has a large variety of subjects, there can be a challenge to address them all adequately,” the report said.

“Moreover, advocates for the arts and some other subjects maintain that some subjects have been squeezed, either in relation to curriculum time, take-up by students, or both.” The responses suggested that ways of measuring school or student performance, like the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) - which is based on just a handful of subjects - may “unnecessarily constrain” young people’s choices and time to learn others.

3. Responding to social and technological change

How England’s education system can better prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of the future was another area that needed more work, the review found.

Examples included more teaching digital skills, critical thinking, and media literacy, to address trends in digital information and the rise of AI. More scientific and cultural knowledge is also going to be needed, to clear the hurdles that global political issues or even climate change may pose going forwards.

On top of that, the panel said that young people and their parents or carers “have been clear” that they would like to see more applied knowledge taught - to help them get ready for life and work after school.

4. Ensuring pathways beyond GCSEs work for all students

While England offered a “broad and balanced” curriculum for under 16s, once students completed their GCSEs things tended to become a lot more specialised - with the typical options being to take their A Levels to prepare for university, or T Levels and other vocational qualifications to prepare for a specific career.

“However, a significant proportion of young people require a mix of qualifications, or cannot access A levels or T Levels, or have not yet decided on career plans. Employers, the public, and young people themselves are often unclear about what pathways might be suitable,” the report said.

For students who didn’t pass their required English or maths GCSEs and needed to keep studying them, “the quality of provision appears to be uneven”, it continued. “Given that this group includes a disproportionate number of young people 8 with SEND and those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, it is especially important that these issues are addressed.”

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What comes next?

Currently, the national curriculum review process is still ongoing, with the final report - and the panel’s recommendations - due to be published this autumn. But what the interim report does is outline the form that the rest of the review will take.

In the next stage, the Department for Education says the review panel will continue to look into the four key areas it feels need improvement. This work will include considering the concerns that have been raised across different subjects about the relevance, amount, and diversity of content. The experts will scrutinise each subject’s specific issues - exploring and testing a range of solutions.

They will also look further into the impact current performance measures have on young people’s choices and outcomes. Other work will include exploring level 2 and 3 pathways for students after they complete their GCSEs, “with special attention to vocational routes and support for progression”.

Finally, the next phase of the review will involve a deeper dive into assessments, with the panel to consider whether any improvements are needed.

Although this is still subject to change depending on what they find, at this stage the review says it expects to recommend a phased programme of work across the subjects listed in the national curriculum. This will mean changes to improve them will be able to be made incrementally - in a way it says will “not destabilise the system”.

What do you think of these initial findings - and is the panel focusing on the right issues with the national curriculum? Have your say and make your voice heard by leaving a comment below.