Teach Secondary -Issue 15.1

Revolution? No. RESET? YES. AndyMcHugh surveys the implications of the Curriculum and Assessment Review for classroom teachers... A fter more than a decade without major reform, England’s curriculum and assessment systemhas finally been placed under the microscope. Professor Becky Francis’ long-running Curriculum and Assessment Review has now concluded, and with it comes an answer to the questionmany teachers have been asking. ‘ Is this the moment when everything changes...? ’ The short answer is – no. It doesn’t mark a dramatic rupture with the teaching priorities of the past decade. GCSEs and A Levels remain. The broad structure of Key Stages remains too, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is changing. Instead, the review sets out a careful recalibration of the system. It is evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, aiming to widen what counts as valuable learning, ease some assessment pressure and rebalance accountability, without dismantling the entire system. Broadening the curriculum For classroom teachers, this means the impact will be gradual, rather than immediate. Nothing will change overnight, but the direction of travel is clear over the next five to 10 years, and it’s likely to reshape what’s taught, how those things are taught, and what schools will feel able to prioritise. At the heart of the review is a concern that while standards have risen, the benefits haven’t been shared evenly. Disadvantaged pupils continue to lag behind their peers, and too many young people are leaving education without the knowledge and skills they need for life beyond school. The response has been not to scrap the National Curriculum, but to refresh it. Programmes of study will be updated to ensure they’re ambitious, current and better balanced. Media literacy, financial education and climate science will all be given greater prominence, reflecting the realities that pupils now face outside of the classroom. Moreover, these themes are intended to be woven across different subjects, rather than confined to discrete lessons and one-off projects. Adifferent view The Review also marks a notable shift in how the curriculum itself is framed. The Review explicitly stated that the National Curriculum should be seen as a minimum entitlement , rather than as a finished product. Schools will thus be encouraged to enrich and adapt content, so that their pupils can encounter a broader range of histories, cultures and perspectives. This step would legitimise work that many schools are doing already, while making it clear that relevance and representation aren’t just optional extras. Taking centre stage The Review’s proposal for a ‘digital curriculum framework’ further supports this approach. In place of the static documents used up to now, teachers would be able to see connections between subjects and add their own enrichment materials. In theory, this could make planning more coherent and flexible. In practice, careful implementation will be needed to avoid adding to teachers’ workloads and creating inconsistencies between what different schools are teaching.. Speaking up One of the Review’s most striking features is its renewed emphasis on oracy, and how it positions speaking and listening alongside reading and writing as core foundations for learning and participation. There’s a proposal for a new national oracy framework to sit alongside existing literacy frameworks, so that a combined oracy, reading and writing framework operates across all secondary schools. This reflects a growing recognition throughout the profession that pupils need more than subject knowledge alone. The ability to articulate ideas, listen carefully, challenge viewpoints and participate in discussion underpins success across the curriculum and beyond. For many teachers, this will feel more like a validation of approaches they already value than a radical departure. Providing stability In terms of assessment, things stay familiar, but become slightly lighter. The review treads carefully here, with no proposals for a wholesale move away from exams. GCSEs and A levels will be retained, on the basis that externally set and marked assessments are still seen as the fairest way to assess essential knowledge. There are some signs of softening around the edges, however, with exam content set to be reduced by around 10%, in order to free up teaching time and ease pressure on students. That said, the Review also calls for a new, compulsory diagnostic reading test in “The exam-driven system remains intact,but slightly less crowded thanbefore” 36 teachwire.net/secondary