Curriculum requirements: academies
If you're reviewing or updating your curriculum, find out what you need to cover to stay compliant with requirements and meet DfE expectations.
Contents
- Your trust is responsible for the curriculum in your school
- Your Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provision
- Your Key Stage (KS) 1 and 2 provision
- You must teach RE and RHE
- You also need to provide for your pupils' SMSC development
- It's likely your funding agreement will also include these requirements
- National tests are based on the National Curriculum
- Next steps
Your trust is responsible for the curriculum in your school
It must make sure it's "balanced and broadly based" and:
- Promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school, and of society
- Prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life
This is set out in section 1A of the Academies Act 2010 and section 2.1 of the National Curriculum framework.
There are some other requirements and expectations too, which we explain below.
- Check your funding agreement to see what it says about curriculum in your trust
- Ask your trust for more information or if you're unsure of anything in the agreement
You can see an example of how curriculum is covered in the DfE's model funding agreements:
- For multi-academy trusts (MATs), in the 'master academy and free school finding agreement' from section 2.21
- For single academies, in the 'mainstream: single funding agreement' from section 2.41
Your Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provision
- Alternative provision: curriculum requirements and examples
- Anti-racism: how to review and re-frame your curriculum
- Black History Month: ideas and resources
- Bloom's Taxonomy: summary and use
- Covering LGBTQ+ content in your curriculum
- Cultural capital: how to weave it into your curriculum
- Curriculum accessibility for pupils with SEND: checklist
- Curriculum audit: gender and LGBTQ+ inclusivity
- Curriculum maps: templates and examples
- English genres in the National Curriculum
- High-quality teaching to support pupils with SEND
- How to design a curriculum
- How to develop an outstanding music provision
- How to embed sustainability into your curriculum: case study
- How to make your curriculum and lessons accessible and inclusive
- How to promote British values across your school
- How to review curriculum alignment across your trust
- How to review your curriculum
- Implementing a knowledge-rich curriculum
- LGBT+ History Month: assembly resources
- PE teaching hours: guidance and examples
- Relationships and sex education (RSE): curriculum audit
- Requests to withdraw a pupil from RE
- Whole-school curriculum audit
- Withdrawing pupils from subjects