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Curriculum and assessment review: summary of the government's plans

Get up to speed on the planned changes to curriculum and assessment, including a reformed National Curriculum from 2028, removing EBacc performance measures and a new statutory reading test in year 8.

Last reviewed on 6 November 2025
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Contents
  1. What's the latest?
  2. New National Curriculum to start from September 2028 
  3. EBacc performance measures to be removed, with changes to Progress 8 
  4. Citizenship to become statutory in primary schools
  5. New non-statutory oracy framework
  6. Higher phonics check expectations in year 1
  7. New statutory reading test in year 8
  8. New enrichment benchmarks 
  9. Other proposals

What's the latest?

The government has published its response to the curriculum and assessment review conducted by Becky Francis, the chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation. 

In its response, the government sets out its planned changes to the National Curriculum and assessment system in England – accepting many of the review's recommendations.

You don't need to make any changes to your curriculum or assessment yet

The government will publish more information and guidance on how it will go about implementing the changes. We'll update this article when this happens – select 'save for later' at the top right-hand corner of this article, and you'll receive a notification when we've updated it.

For now, it's a good idea to get to grips with the forthcoming changes so you can be prepared further down the line.

We've summarised the government's most significant planned changes below. Our list is not exhaustive – for a more