Overview
- Department for Education confirmed it will scrap the EBacc and reform Progress 8 to encourage a wider mix of GCSE subjects, including arts, humanities and languages.
- Officials will work with Ofqual and exam boards to reduce GCSE exam time, with the review urging about a 10% cut and the government indicating average reductions could reach up to three hours.
- Citizenship will become compulsory in primary schools, covering media and financial literacy, democracy and government, and climate education.
- A new statutory Year 8 reading test and a strengthened Year 6 writing assessment will target earlier support, and the Key Stage 2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test will shift toward applied writing.
- The government targets publication of a revised national curriculum by spring 2027 for first teaching from September 2028, alongside a triple science entitlement, enrichment benchmarks checked by Ofsted, and exploration of new computing, data science/AI and language qualifications.