Curriculum and assessment review: how to prepare for changes

What's the latest on the curriculum and assessment review?

The government has published its response to the curriculum and assessment review, where it has:

• Accepted many of the review's recommendations
• Set out planned changes to the National Curriculum and assessment system, including on a subject-by-subject basis 

The DfE has also published a new enrichment framework and benchmarks, as recommended by the review. Read our summary of the framework and benchmarks.

You don't need to act on the planned changes to the National Curriculum yet...

We don't have all the details of the changes yet – the government is expected to publish its revised National Curriculum in spring 2027, for first teaching from September 2028. 

We'll update this article when more details are available – select 'save for later' at the top of this article to receive a notification when we've updated it.

...but you can start to prepare for them

Get to grips with the planned changes to the National Curriculum and assessment, how they're different from your school's curriculum and assessment provision, and how you can start to prepare.

Read our summary of the government's plans for an overview of the planned changes – if you want a subject-by-subject breakdown, scroll down to download our preparation tool. 

Use our tool to prepare for curriculum changes

Download our curriculum and assessment review preparation tool to find out what the planned changes are in each subject, and find questions to ask about your current curriculum offer. Our tool includes:

• Details of the government's planned changes in each subject
• Questions to consider for each change
• Resources from The Key to help you get ahead
• Space to plan your next steps and priorities for the subject
• Information about the new expectation of a whole-school enrichment offer and actions to take 

Please note: there are many planned changes to get your head around, and we're still waiting for the government to publish the revised National Curriculum and programmes of study. This means you don't need to start reforming your curriculum yet, and you don't need to review every subject at once.

You might want to:

• Take 1 subject at a time and hold conversations with subject leads/heads of departments gradually
• Give each section to the relevant subject lead/head of department to consider, and ask them to come back to you with their thoughts

Use your results to prioritise next steps

Once you have an idea of how the planned changes might impact each subject in your school, you'll be better able to plan your next steps for when the revised National Curriculum is published in 2027. 

You might choose to priorities actions that:

• You would've wanted to take anyway to improve your curriculum, such as teaching about a broader range of artists (in art and design)
• Will involve significant funding or resources, so you can plan for these in advance
• Will help your teaching staff feel more confident and prepared for curriculum changes, for example arranging CPD opportunities
• The government has published further guidance on, for example meeting the new enrichment benchmarks – read our summary for more information on these

Your priorities and next steps will depend on your school's context, needs and priorities. But having a clearer idea of what you'll need to change is the first step to rolling out changes in response to the revised National Curriculum.