Within the curriculum and assessment review, published tonight, there are numerous recommendations for how the content, structure and/or delivery of almost all core subjects should change. This could impact teachers across the country if these proposals are adopted.

Below Tes provides the text for each subject taken directly from the review, so that teachers can read exactly what is being proposed.

Simply click on a subject link below to go directly to your area of interest.

How might your subject change? Curriculum and assessment review recommendations:

• Art and design
• Citizenship
• Computing
• Cooking and nutrition
• Dance
• Design and technology
• Drama
• English
• Geography
• History
• Languages
• Maths
• Music
• Physical education
• Religious education
• Science

Art and design

We recommend that the government:

• Makes limited revisions to the key stage 1-3 art and design programmes of study to clarify and exemplify the knowledge and skills pupils should develop, including through creative practice, reflection and critical engagement.
   
• Works with Ofqual and awarding organisations to clarify the volume and range of coursework expected for GCSE art and design.

Citizenship

We recommend that the government:

• Introduces a statutory measure to ensure all pupils are taught a core body of essential citizenship content at primary level, including financial literacy, media literacy, climate change and sustainability.
   
• Improves the efficacy of primary citizenship by clarifying the purpose and content of the key stage 1-2 curriculum, and removes any duplication with the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) programme of study.
   
• Updates the secondary citizenship programmes of study to clarify their purpose, enhance specificity and improve progression from key stage 3 to 4 or to the optional GCSE. This should include renewed focus on financial and media literacy, climate and sustainability, equality duties, challenging discrimination and democracy and government.

Computing

We recommend that the government:

• Provides greater clarity in the computing curriculum regarding what students should be taught at each key stage to build essential digital literacy for life and work.
   
• Replaces GCSE computer science with a broader computing GCSE that reflects the full scope of the curriculum and supports digital skill development.
   
• Reviews where digital skills and technologies are integral to other subject disciplines and determines whether to include this content in those subjects’ programmes of study, aligned with the computing curriculum.

More on the curriculum review:

• Becky Francis: How we reached our recommendations
• 14 key points from the review

Cooking and nutrition

We recommend that the government:

• Renames the subject to “food and nutrition” and establishes distinct aims and purpose of study to reflect its unique identity within design and technology.
   
• Ensures the curriculum includes sufficient detail to set clear expectations for each key stage, recognising the subject’s role in life skills and progression to further study.
   
• Reviews Level 3 vocational options for food science to ensure they meet learner needs and support a strong pipeline into higher education and careers.

Dance

We recommend that the government:

• Reviews how the PE key stage 1 to 4 programmes of study refer to dance, including whether they are sufficiently specific to support high-quality teaching and students’ progression, including to further study.
   
• Reviews the subject content, balance of assessment and assessment methods of GCSE dance so that the qualification is inclusive, representative and better suited to the discipline.

Design and technology (D&T)

We recommend that the government:

• Rewrites the D&T subject aims to be more aspirational and clarify the purpose of study, focusing on the subject’s distinct knowledge and capabilities, especially at key stage 3.
   
• Refines the D&T curriculum and GCSE content to:

- Include sustainable design solutions.

- Embed social responsibility and inclusive design throughout the design process.

- Support critical decision-making in material selection.

- Ensure that realising designs remains a core part of pupils’ experience.

Drama

We recommend that the government:

• Updates the key stage 3 English programme of study to include a discrete section on drama. This should include more detail to provide greater clarity about expectations for performing, creating and responding to dramatic works. Greater specificity about drama should be added to the key stage 1 and 2 English programmes of study, aiming to build solid foundations and support transition to key stage 3
   
• Reviews the subject content for GCSE drama, assessment methods and the balance of assessment to ensure that the qualification is up to date, suited to the discipline and enables progression to further study and careers in drama and theatre.

English

We recommend that the government:

• Ensures that the English curriculum sets out a clearer purpose, with more clarity and specificity at each key stage, including clarifying the distinction between English and literacy. This should include more clearly drawing out curriculum requirements for speaking and listening, as well as drama. In particular, more clarity and specificity at key stage 3 should improve coherence between primary and secondary.

- To support this, we recommend that the government introduce an oracy framework to support practice and to complement the existing frameworks for reading and writing.
 

• Reviews grammatical content to determine what content should be resequenced to later key stages, and what content should be removed entirely at key stage 2 to enable a greater focus on grammar in use rather than grammar in theory.
   
• Replaces the current grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) test with an amended test, which retains some elements of the current GPS test but with new tasks to better assess composition and application of grammar and punctuation. Once the new test is established in schools, the Department for Education may wish to consider whether the role of the test in accountability should remain as stands, or whether any changes, such as including the new test in headline measures, should be explored.
   
• Introduces a diagnostic test in English, to be taken in Year 8, with the aim of supporting teachers to identify and address any areas of weakness before gaps widen further.
   
• Makes significant changes to the key stage 4 English programme of study and the GCSE English language subject content, introducing greater clarity of purpose to focus English language more clearly on the nature and expression of language, and to support critical analysis of a wider variety of text types and genres, including multi-modal and ephemeral text types.
   
• Reviews the genres specified in the English key stage 4 programme of study and GCSE English literature subject content to ensure that students continue to study texts drawn from the recognised body of English literature (including the expectation of at least one play by Shakespeare, a selection of poetry, fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards, and at least one 19th century novel), and that they also benefit from studying texts drawn from the full breadth of our literary heritage, including more diverse and representative texts. This should not increase the volume of content.

Geography

We recommend that the government:

• Makes minor refinements to the geography programmes of study and GCSE subject content to respond to the issues identified, including by:
   

- Refining content to better support progression to further study, deepen children’s and young people’s understanding of key geographical concepts, make content more relevant and inclusive, and remove unnecessary repetition across topics.
 

- Embedding disciplinary knowledge more explicitly at key stage 3, such as geographical enquiry, spatial reasoning, use of digital tools, human geography and use of evidence, to ensure all children and young people have access to high-quality geographical education.
 

- Clarifying and reinforcing requirements for fieldwork to demonstrate its role more effectively in supporting content and developing disciplinary knowledge, ensuring changes remain proportionate and inclusive.
 

- Embedding climate change and sustainability more explicitly across different key stages, including across the physical geography, geographical applications and human geography sections of the curriculum, ensuring early, coherent and more detailed engagement with climate education. This should be done without risking curriculum overload.

History

We recommend that the government:

• Adjusts the history programmes of study to:

- Improve the understanding and application of disciplinary knowledge and skills through additions and amendments to the disciplinary terms used.

- Clarify the statutory and non-statutory content requirements to better support teachers in recognising and understanding the optionality that exists across key stages 1 to 3.

- Support the wider teaching of history’s inherent diversity, including through the analysis of a wide range of sources and, where appropriate, local history.
 

• Reviews GCSE history subject content and assessment (including assessment objectives) to:

- Ensure that understanding of disciplinary knowledge is advanced, and that concerns about overload are tackled.

- Ensure that assessment is fit for purpose and aligned with the aims of the GCSE.

Languages

We recommend that the government:

• Updates the key stage 2 languages programme of study to include a clearly defined minimum core content for French, German and Spanish to standardise expectations about what “substantial progress in one language” looks like.
   
• Should not make immediate changes to the new content of the GCSEs in French, German and Spanish but that the DfE should review the impact of these following the first exams in 2026.

We recommend that local authorities, multi-academy trusts and schools:

• Should explore the potential benefits of a coordinated approach in their local areas to the main language taught from key stage 2 through to key stage 4, taking account of their local context and priorities. The government should look to encourage this activity where appropriate

Maths

We recommend that the government:

• Retains the amount and type of content in the key stage 1 to 3 curriculum, but resequences it so that topics are introduced in such a way that pupils can master them deeply, with opportunities for more complex problem-solving in each area, and reduces repetition in later years.
   
• Ensures that maths should be the subject in which pupils are exposed to mathematical concepts for the first time, and the curriculum is sequenced as such. These concepts should then be applied in different contexts and, where appropriate, in other subjects - for example, aspects of financial education in citizenship. [Footnote: for example, a student should not be exposed to compound interest during their financial education in citizenship without first having been introduced to it in maths]
   
• Ensures that the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) works with DfE to refine the current non-statutory maths test at key stage 1 to reflect any updates to the maths curriculum. Alongside this, the DfE should consider ways in which it can encourage more schools to use it.
   
• Ensures that the STA works with the DfE to redesign key stage 2 assessments minimally to reflect a resequenced curriculum and include a stronger focus on mental arithmetic and reasoning.
   
• Introduces a diagnostic test in maths, to be taken in Year 8, with the aim of supporting teachers to identify and deal with any weakness before students progress to key stage 4.

Music

We recommend that the government:

• Revises the content of the programmes of study for key stages 1 to 3 to ensure a curriculum pathway that gives all pupils a rigorous foundation in musical understanding and enables broader access to further study at key stage 4. This could be achieved by:

- Revisiting the purpose and aims, ensuring that they better reflect intended outcomes.

- Adding some further specificity, without increasing volume, to clarify how pupils should progress in the three pillars of musical understanding (technical, constructive and expressive), and to ensure that a range of genres and repertoires can be covered.

• Reviews the music GCSE and Technical Award concurrently to ensure their purposes are both clear and distinct and that qualification content and assessment meet these aims. As part of this, the government should consider:

- GCSE assessment objectives, modes and requirements, and whether these are suited to the discipline.

- The extent to which the most recent reforms to Technical Awards have effectively changed the purpose and suitability of the music Technical Award, and whether this qualification is still fit for purpose or requires further adjustments.

• Explores ways to better optimise its investment in music education to support the teaching and learning of musical instruments and the reading of music to ensure equitable access to, and progression in, music education.

Physical education

We recommend that the government:

• Redrafts the purpose of study for PE, retaining the importance of competitive sports but clarifying the significance of providing all pupils with opportunities to learn in a physical environment and emphasising its physical, social, cognitive and emotional benefits that complement and enhance overall academic performance and general wellbeing.
   
• Redrafts the aims of PE so that they are clearer and more coherent at each key stage.
   
• Introduces a concise, scaffolded approach to the attainment targets and key stage subject content within the programmes of study. As part of this, the government should review how the programmes of study refer to individual activities (such as dance, swimming and outdoor activity), including whether they are sufficiently specific to support quality teaching.
   
• Distinguishes clearly between mandatory core PE and qualification pathways, and develops distinct terminology for each. This can be achieved by renaming GCSE PE, and considering whether any content changes are required to ensure it retains a focus on sports science. The content of key stage 4 mandatory non-assessed PE should be revised to ensure that it focuses primarily on physical activity.
   
• Reviews the current GCSE PE activity list to consider ways in which it could be made more inclusive for all students, especially for students with special educational needs and disabilities.

Religious education (RE)

We recommend that the government:

Adds RE to the national curriculum in due course. A staged approach should be taken, in line with the following steps:

Stage 1: Representatives from faith groups, secular groups and the wider teaching and education sector that we heard from during the review should build on the constructive and collaborative work they have been doing through the course of the review. The DfE should invite the sector to form a task-and-finish group, convened and led by an expert chair who is independent of any particular secular or faith group interest or representation. The review recommends that, given her leadership of this strand of the review’s work (based on her expertise), Dr Vanessa Ogden CBE should undertake this role, ensuring momentum in the successful convening she has established. This group should liaise with relevant external parties and, building on the existing national content standard for RE in England, engage with faith and non-faith schools, as well as RE organisations and faith communities, to co-create a draft RE curriculum.

• Whilst this work should be sector-led, the DfE should welcome efforts the sector makes to reach a consensus and support and facilitate this group where necessary.
   
• Alongside this, the DfE should consider the legislative framework for RE, including, for example, what any changes to its status in the curriculum would mean for functions such as Standing Advisory Councils on RE (SACREs). A long-term plan for implementing potential changes to legislation should be drafted.
   
• As part of this review, the DfE should consider removing the statutory requirement for learners in school sixth forms to study RE.
   
• In parallel, the DfE should review the non-statutory guidance for RE, which has not been updated since 2010, to establish whether beneficial changes to subject content could be made in the short term that do not pre-empt the wider work the review is recommending.

Stage 2: If consensus on a draft RE curriculum can be reached, the DfE should conduct a formal consultation on the detailed content. Alongside this, the DfE should consult on proposed changes to the legislative framework, including any proposal to repeal the requirement to teach RE in school sixth forms.

Science

We recommend that the government:

• Ensures more cohesion and consistency across the primary science curriculum, including clearer guidance on what should be taught, to what depth, at each stage.
   
• At all key stages, bases the science curriculum on the fundamental concepts of each individual discipline so that students develop deep scientific and disciplinary knowledge and skills. In light of this, the government should consider where content can be streamlined, especially at GCSE, without affecting rigour or the subject’s knowledge-rich focus.
   
• Ensures that the curriculum more clearly articulates the purpose and expectations of high-quality practical work in supporting the building of substantive knowledge and the development of important skills and procedural knowledge.
   
• Ensures that, in relevant areas, the science curriculum explicitly develops students’ understanding of the scientific principles that explain climate change and sustainability and the global efforts to tackle them.
   
• Introduces an entitlement to triple science at GCSE, so that any student who wants to study triple science has the opportunity to do so.

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