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
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 agreement (from section 2.41).
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provision
You need to
- Alternative provision: curriculum requirements and examples
- Anti-racism: how to review and re-frame your curriculum
- Bloom's Taxonomy: summary and use
- Covering LGBTQ+ content in your curriculum
- Cultural capital: how to weave it into your curriculum New
- Curriculum accessibility for pupils with SEND: checklist
- Curriculum audit: gender and LGBTQ+ inclusivity
- Curriculum maps: templates and examples
- English genres in the National Curriculum
- How to design a curriculum
- 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
- Quality first teaching: guidance
- Relationships and sex education (RSE): curriculum audit
- Requests to withdraw a pupil from RE
- Whole-school curriculum audit
- Withdrawing pupils from subjects
More from The Key

Bitesize training with a big impact
Our on-demand training has your whole board covered and lets them learn at a time and pace that suits them.
Help your new governors hit the ground running with our expertly-designed induction training, and our role-specific courses support your link governors develop key skills and confidence in their role.
Get safeguarding peace of mind this summer term
Walk into the summer term with everything you need to maintain safeguarding vigilance in your school.
Download our summer term briefing pack, available for free to DSLs for a limited time only.
- Need-to-know: DfE launches consultation on changes to behaviour and exclusion guidance 4 Feb 2022 09:29
- Need-to-know: DfE publishes new statutory guidance on the cost of school uniform 19 Nov 2021 08:51
- Need-to-know: STPCD 2021 published 4 Oct 2021 10:30
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 20 to 27 August 2021 27 Aug 2021 08:00
- In the news: Your weekly round-up for 6 to 13 August 2021 13 Aug 2021 08:00
- Cost-of-living crisis: how to manage the impact on your school New
- Sustainability and climate change: summary of the DfE's strategy New
- Headteacher appraisal: step-by-step process and templates New
- Cultural capital: how to weave it into your curriculum New
- Health and safety duties of trusts: overview template and how to comply New
The Key has taken great care in publishing this article. However, some of the article's content and information may come from or link to third party sources whose quality, relevance, accuracy, completeness, currency and reliability we do not guarantee. Accordingly, we will not be held liable for any use of or reliance placed on this article's content or the links or downloads it provides. This article may contain information sourced from public sector bodies and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.