The full list of experts who will be drafting England’s new curriculum has been published by the government.

They will lead a major overhaul of England’s curriculum and assessment system, following a long-awaited review last year.

The “curriculum drafters” include a former Department for Education adviser, David Thomas, and a senior leader from a large multi-academy trust, Matt Carnaby.

The experts will help the government to revise the national curriculum, as well as subject content for GCSE and A level.

In November 2025, Professor Becky Francis published her independent curriculum and assessment review, and the government’s response included agreeing to scrap the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and guarantee that all students have the option to take triple science at GCSE.

Curriculum drafters

According to an earlier government tender, successful applicants to become curriculum drafters would need “substantial expertise in and experience of teaching and leading their subject”, an “understanding of pedagogical approaches” and knowledge of “curriculum planning”.

They would need to know how a subject is taught in schools, and, responding to the Francis review recommendations, they would be required to communicate clearly what teachers need to know to teach that subject effectively.

The government said that while there is no current requirement for additional drafters, it will consider allocating work to other successful candidates in the future.

The curriculum drafters’ work is expected to continue until 2029, and additional curriculum-related work may be commissioned during this period.

Subjects have different numbers of curriculum drafters. PE has 10, for example, while English has only two.

The DfE told Tes that this is because work for each subject has been allocated based on a set number of days, rather than the number of people.

A spokesperson said: “Each supplier has been allocated a set number of days based on the scale of work required to respond to the review recommendations.”

For context, PE only had seven recommendations in the Francis review, whereas English had 10.

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