Interim Report: Curriculum and Assessment Insights for KS1 and KS2

The review is informed by research evidence, data and perspectives from experts, stakeholders and the public. There have been over 7000 responses to the Call for Evidence.

The review aims to update the national curriculum and assessment system to ensure it is modern, effective, and meets the needs of children and young people for their future life and work. It focuses on balancing ambition, excellence, relevance, flexibility, and inclusivity, providing high-value pathways for students aged 16-19. The review supports the government’s goals to remove barriers to opportunity and promote growth. It seeks to develop a curriculum that equips students with essential knowledge and skills for the future, building on the efforts of teachers and staff to create a rich, broad, inclusive, and innovative educational experience.

Findings and analysis with a focus on KS1 and KS2

It is acknowledged that the existing national curriculum is a knowledge-rich offer and attainment has been impacted on positively when compared internationally. However, there are still persistent gaps between socio-economically disadvantaged pupils and their peers and SEND pupils are not making sufficient progress in comparison to non-SEND pupils. At the end of KS2 there are still 4/10 pupils who are not meeting all the standards they need to build successfully on foundational knowledge to support their education into KS3 and 4. The review will consider the positive impact it can make on disadvantaged pupils as well as making sure that systems for the curriculum and assessment prepare young people for work and life.

Initial ambitions are as follows:

The national curriculum and subject content should support schools to provide a rigorous and knowledge-rich education, aiming for breadth across subjects and depth within subjects.

Whilst evidence was positive about the breadth of the curriculum at KS1-4, some features of the current system make delivery of it challenging and some subjects (particularly the arts) have been squeezed. At KS1 and 2, pupils are struggling to master foundational concepts due to too much other content.

It was noted that the mastery approach is helping students understand core concepts and there was praise for the role of phonics in teaching literacy.

There is ‘continued support for a high-quality knowledge-rich curriculum that drives excellence in education across a broad range of subjects.’

The national curriculum should remain relevant and up to date while embedding and recognising the importance of cultural knowledge stemming from the past.

The plans are to build on the current national curriculum to allow pupils to master their subject knowledge and further their understanding of the rapidly changing world around them.

The national curriculum should empower teachers to foster a love of learning by enabling learning to be situated in a range of local, national and global contexts, to widen horizons, and to ensure that young people see meaningful representations of themselves in what they learn, as well as encountering and recognising the perspectives of others.

The curriculum should represent all young people by reflecting issues and diversities.

The national curriculum should allow schools to support the full development of their students and prepare them for their future life and work.

‘Rapid social, environmental and technological change necessitates that the curriculum keep pace; including a renewed focus on digital and media literacy, and a greater focus on sustainability and climate science.’

A strong focus on maths, analytical skills and higher order domain-specific problem-solving will be encouraged to ensure that young people are equipped to cope and work with AI effectively.

The national curriculum should be coherently and logically sequenced and allow space for schools to support mastery of core concepts, effective transitions, and progression through each key stage of education.

‘Securing mastery in a subject is vital for raising standards and enabling future expertise.’

‘Students need to be secure in core concepts and knowledge before moving forward to avoid gaps forming and growing (which are then hard to remedy). Moreover, mastery approaches are important from a social justice viewpoint as they have been shown to narrow the disadvantage gap when targeted support is given to students with gaps in understanding.’

The national curriculum should enable students to master high-quality and aspirational learning, no matter what their individual needs or backgrounds. It should also support teachers to use their professional expertise in designing or selecting an engaging and stretching programme of learning that best suits their students’ needs.

Not all issues with the arts are linked to curriculum or assessment – improvements appear to be needed in equipment, more specialist teachers and better access to extra-curricular activities.

Assessment:

There are strengths in the current assessment system and formal assessments are an important part of KS1 and KS2. However, concerns were expressed about the standalone grammar, punctuation and spelling test as many felt it led to the teaching of textual features in isolation and detracted from a sound understanding of reading and writing. There were also concerns about writing assessment at the end of KS2 which it was felt does not validly assess pupils’ ability to write fluently or to incentivise the effective teaching of writing.

In the next phase, there are plans to:

‘Ensure that a good level of breadth across the curriculum is achievable, while continuing to drive high and rising standards in all subjects, which includes mastery of foundational concepts in English and maths.’

‘Examine how the assessment of writing at KS2 can be improved to support high and rising standards,’

‘Conduct closer analysis to diagnose each subject’s specific issues and explore and test a range of solutions.’

‘Consider how best to equip children and young people with the essential knowledge and skills which will enable them to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing and AI-enabled world.’

It is worth noting that there is no mention of oracy in the interim report which has surprised many people considering it was in the review’s initial terms of reference. Voice 21 have responded to the lack of oracy in it: The Curriculum and Assessment Review is a generational opportunity to embed oracy effectively into the curriculum and ensure that every child can use their voice to thrive in school, work and life. We look forward to working with the Curriculum and Assessment Review team to address this omission and ensure that oracy is included in the final report so that oracy education can become the entitlement of every child. You can read the full response from Voice 21 here https://voice21.org/voice21responds/

“A curriculum that enables children and young people to thrive at school and prepares them for their future lives and careers must have speaking, listening and communication skills at its heart. Parents, employers and the Prime Minister himself know this and so do teachers across the country who see the difference that oracy education is making in their classrooms. So it’s completely baffling that this issue isn’t mentioned, especially as it is in the Review’s terms of reference. The Curriculum and Assessment Review urgently needs to catch up and follow the evidence,”  Dr Kate Paradine, CEO of Voice 21.

The review will publish its final report in autumn 2025 and there will be a recommendation of a phased programme of work in different subjects /areas.