Guest Blog: The DfE’s Curriculum and Assessment Review – Parentkind Webinar

Professor Becky Francis CBE, Chair of the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, joined Frank Young, Director of Policy and Research at Parentkind, in a special webinar to discuss the ongoing review and to hear the views of parents and answer your questions.

Following the general election, the Government announced the formation of the independently led Curriculum and Assessment Review, which I have the honour of chairing. 

What is the Review?

The Curriculum and Assessment Review aims to refresh the curriculum and assessment methods in England for 5- to 19-year-olds to make sure they meet the needs of every child and young person. The Review is mindful of existing inequalities and so has a particular focus on young people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or those with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

To ensure the Review is both effective and efficient and that our final recommendations are ready for Autumn 2025, the Review has a limited scope. For more on what the Review is specifically focusing on please see The Education Hub — What is the Curriculum and Assessment Review and how will it impact my child’s education?. 

Our terms of reference set out several working principles that are very dear to me and which will help ensure that the Review is as effective as possible in addressing the most significant challenges facing curriculum and assessment in England. They include a series of commitments such as to consult widely and seek the views from a range of stakeholders, and to ensure that all decisions are evidence and data informed. 

We have also committed to taking an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach. This is because our system remains successful in many ways, and we want to build on these successes and not seek to fix things that aren’t broken. We also want to be mindful of the current resources available and suggest only changes that can be adopted effectively. Closely linked to this is our need to consider how things will work in practice and the necessity of some balanced trade-offs. 

Who is the Review for?

We all have a stake in the National Curriculum – it belongs to us all. It’s our society’s way of investing in the knowledge and skills which we pass down to and want taught to our young people as the next generation. 

There are many key groups important to our work. We have been seeking views from and engaging with, not just teachers, college lecturers and education experts but also employers, young people and parents. 

It’s been important to hear from all these groups about their views on the strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement in the current system. As such we have been doing a range of activities to gather evidence. 

The panel and I have been travelling across the country, meeting teachers, young people, parents, experts and employers at our roadshows. We’ve also held webinars and open discussion with small groups of key stakeholders for them to share views and thoughts. Our open call for evidence also received over 7,000 responses. 

It’s been fantastic to have enjoyed such a huge response to our call for evidence, and to have heard views and evidence from representatives of all these groups across the country at our engagement events and focus groups. 

What are we doing now?

We are currently digesting this wide range of evidence and data and, following our interim report, we will continue to undertake further engagement. This will have a more targeted focus and look further into the problems we identify from this initial evidence gathering, helping us develop our final recommendations. 

I am lucky to be supported by my fellow panel members. They have been appointed to bring expertise from across the education sector, with representatives from primary, secondary and post-16 education to experts in assessment and curriculum theory. 

Following our initial evidence gathering, we will be publishing our interim report in spring 2025. This will diagnose the problems that our final report will make recommendations on in autumn 2025.We will continue to engage with all our key audiences throughout our work on the Review. 

What do we want to achieve?

Our purpose is to consider the broad ambition for what every young person should be expected to achieve by age 18. By reviewing the existing curriculum and assessment methods we want to determine the best means of achieving this. 

We are starting with what we want all young people to achieve at Key Stages 4 and 5 and working backwards to ensure the earlier stages are building strong foundations for all young people and removing barriers to achievement. 

We are refreshing the curriculum to ensure that all young people are prepared for life and work through a broad and balanced curriculum. Alongside this, we want a balanced assessment system that fully captures children and young people’s knowledge and abilities. We will also be reviewing how the Government measures school and college performance. Understanding these complex interlinked elements is key to properly ensuring a broad and deep curriculum, and that the system functions well. 

What difference can parents expect to see in the education system and the education that their children receive?

There is no doubt it is time for a refresh. It’s been over a decade since the last review of the National Curriculum and it is natural for things to change over time. Of course, we want to ensure we properly digest all the evidence and consider the implications of the data we have gathered, before moving to our recommendations. However, we know there are concerns and questions from all groups about the breadth and depth of our current national curriculum that we hope to address. 

Analysing the data often shows the complexity at stake, and the necessity of close attention to the evidence. For example, if we take the case of the arts, there is a widespread view that the arts have been deprioritised and fallen away in the last decade. 

Our data is showing a much more complicated picture. Art still has a strong uptake at GCSE and little has changed in availability of arts at key stage 3 (the start of secondary school for those aged 11 to 14). But at GCSE level, we do see in our data how the number of students taking drama, dance and design technology has fallen significantly over the last 10 years. 

From this more nuanced picture that the data is showing, we now need to investigate why this is happening, and if it’s a problem. We are examining how we strike the right balance of focus on each subject to ensure breadth and to ensure we provide young people with the strong foundations they need. 

These are the kind of challenges and dilemmas that we are facing, and we will draw on the wealth of evidence we have gathered to find effective and workable solutions. We are enormously grateful to all stakeholders – including parents – that have shared their evidence, opinions and experiences with the Review, and hope to realise our collective ambition to improve educational experiences and outcomes to ensure all young people are enabled to thrive.