{"id":40666,"date":"2025-11-04T22:42:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=40666"},"modified":"2025-11-04T22:42:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:42:03","slug":"england-curriculum-should-focus-less-on-exams-and-more-on-life-skills-finds-review-national-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/11\/04\/england-curriculum-should-focus-less-on-exams-and-more-on-life-skills-finds-review-national-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"England curriculum should focus less on exams and more on life skills, finds review | National curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A review of England\u2019s curriculum has recommended reducing the amount of content and emphasis on exams and instead focusing more on life skills and \u201cenrichment\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The review, led by Prof Becky Francis, wants pupils to spend less time in exam halls and have more time \u201cfor all of those amazing other things that schools do\u201d, such as plays, sport and work experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It also urged the government to cut back on policies introduced by the former Tory education secretary Michael Gove, including an overhaul of controversial grammar tests in primary schools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The review seeks to cut about three hours from the total length of GCSE exams sat by pupils, as well as reducing the course content of several GCSE subjects, including history and the sciences.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"e4759400-ff84-4f0a-ab6d-fd78049d7312\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-47fhrn\"><gu-island name=\"RichLinkComponent\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{&quot;richLinkIndex&quot;:4,&quot;element&quot;:{&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement&quot;,&quot;prefix&quot;:&quot;Related: &quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Bridget Phillipson \u2018ready to take on unions\u2019 over year 8 reading tests&quot;,&quot;elementId&quot;:&quot;e4759400-ff84-4f0a-ab6d-fd78049d7312&quot;,&quot;role&quot;:&quot;richLink&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2025\/nov\/01\/bridget-phillipson-unions-oppose-reading-tests-year-8s&quot;},&quot;ajaxUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/api.nextgen.guardianapps.co.uk&quot;,&quot;format&quot;:{&quot;design&quot;:0,&quot;display&quot;:0,&quot;theme&quot;:0}}\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cSome of those other really precious and important things that schools do around enrichment, life skills, support for young people\u2019s confidence \u2013 those things are being squeezed by the sheer volume of content in the national curriculum at present,\u201d Francis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The government indicated it would accept several of the review\u2019s recommendations, including a widely advertised decision to end the English baccalaureate (EBacc) introduced by Gove, which steered students towards more academic subjects at GCSE, as well as revising year 6 Sats to cut out testing of fronted adverbials and similar grammatical concepts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But school leaders were left wondering how many of the review\u2019s proposals, which was commissioned by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, would be accepted after some appeared at odds with the government\u2019s recent commitments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">While the review recommends that pupils in year 8 should take diagnostic tests in maths and English, Phillipson last month announced a new national reading test for year 8 pupils.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Pepe Di\u2019Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: \u201cWe are confused by the fact that the government has already announced plans for a mandatory year 8 reading test before the outcome of the curriculum and assessment review.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Department for Education\u2019s initial response appeared at odds in other areas, including proposals to change an accountability measure known as Progress 8, which measures changes in attainment between key stage 2 standardised tests (Sats) and GCSEs. While the review recommended keeping Progress 8, the DfE said it wants to reform the measure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The changes would \u201cencourage students to study a greater breadth of GCSE subjects including the arts, humanities and languages alongside English, maths and science\u201d, according to a government spokesperson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Phillipson said: \u201cIt has been over a decade since the national curriculum was updated, and it\u2019s more crucial than ever that young people are equipped to face the challenges of today, so they can seize the exciting opportunities that life has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The DfE also used its response to announce new proposals including \u201ca new set of enrichment benchmarks\u201d that would require schools to offer \u201caccess to civic engagement, arts and culture, nature and adventure, sport, and life skills\u201d, to be inspected by Ofsted and advertised to parents through a new \u201cschool profiles\u201d information service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The department\u2019s response also mentioned that it was \u201cexploring a new language qualification which banks progress and motivates pupils to want to continue studying, complementing existing GCSEs and A-levels\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Di\u2019Iasio said: \u201cWe see that the education secretary has now randomly announced that a new set of enrichment benchmarks will be added to the many expectations over which schools are judged without a word about how this will be resourced.<\/p>\n<figure data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.NewsletterSignupBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<aside aria-label=\"newsletter promotion\" class=\"dcr-av5vqf\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1xjndtj\">Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n<p><gu-island name=\"SecureSignup\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"visible\" props=\"{&quot;newsletterId&quot;:&quot;morning-briefing&quot;,&quot;successDescription&quot;:&quot;Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters&quot;}\"\/><span class=\"dcr-1eusqlu\"><strong>Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on<!-- --> theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our<!-- --> Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google<!-- --> Privacy Policy and<!-- --> Terms of Service <!-- -->apply.<\/span><\/aside>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-16\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe stark reality is that many schools have had to cut back extracurricular activities because government funding is so desperately inadequate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The government said it would support the review\u2019s focus on climate change and sustainability in the national curriculum, while citizenship classes will be compulsory in primary schools, teaching media and financial literacy alongside law and democracy.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"d59396be-b8cc-4775-9142-2b891d7e3a01\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-47fhrn\"><gu-island name=\"RichLinkComponent\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{&quot;richLinkIndex&quot;:19,&quot;element&quot;:{&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement&quot;,&quot;prefix&quot;:&quot;Related: &quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Compulsory maths and English GCSE resits too inflexible, says curriculum chief&quot;,&quot;elementId&quot;:&quot;d59396be-b8cc-4775-9142-2b891d7e3a01&quot;,&quot;role&quot;:&quot;richLink&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2025\/oct\/17\/compulsory-maths-english-gcse-resits-inflexible-curriculum-chief-becky-francis&quot;},&quot;ajaxUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/api.nextgen.guardianapps.co.uk&quot;,&quot;format&quot;:{&quot;design&quot;:0,&quot;display&quot;:0,&quot;theme&quot;:0}}\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Prof Andrew Charlton-Perez, chair of the National Climate Education Action Plan, said: \u201cIt\u2019s brilliant that all children will now learn about climate and nature at school. This will help the next generation to be better informed and choose their own future path. It will put young people, and the UK economy, in a stronger position to benefit from the green transition that the world is already going through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, described the proposals as \u201ceducation vandalism\u201d on the part of Phillipson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cLabour\u2019s idea of boosting social mobility is to teach primary school children about climate change instead of making sure they can read, write and add up properly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThese reforms will mean children moving towards an \u2018enrichment entitlement\u2019 and see fewer children studying history and languages, post-14. This will leave children with a weaker understanding of our national story and hide standards slipping in schools.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The government said it aimed to publish the revised national curriculum by spring 2027, for teaching in classrooms from September 2028.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#England #curriculum #focus #exams #life #skills #finds #review #National #curriculum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A review of England\u2019s curriculum has recommended reducing the amount of content and emphasis on exams and instead focusing more&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40667,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40666\/revisions\/40667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}