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Curriculum requirements: maintained schools

All maintained schools must follow the National Curriculum. If you're reviewing or updating your curriculum, find out what you need to cover to stay compliant with requirements and meet DfE expectations.

Last reviewed on 7 July 2023
School types: All•School phases: All•Ref: 43417
Contents
  1. Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requirements
  2. Key Stage (KS) 1 and 2 requirements
  3. You must teach RE and RHE
  4. You need to provide for your pupils' SMSC development
  5. Subject teaching time
  6. Next steps

All maintained schools must follow the National Curriculum. If you're a special school, find out more about how curriculum requirements apply to your setting.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requirements

All EYFS provision must follow the guidance in the EYFS statutory framework.

You need to make sure all pupils study the 7 areas of learning:

3 prime areas:

  • Communication and language
  • Physical development
  • Personal, social and emotional development 

4 specific areas:

  • Literacy
  • Maths
  • Understanding of the world
  • Expressive arts and design

The EYFS framework also sets out 'early learning goals' you need to help pupils work towards – these are the knowledge, skills and understanding that children should have by the end of reception.

See the framework linked to above and our range of EYFS curriculum articles for more information.

Key Stage (KS) 1 and 2 requirements

Pupils in KS1 and KS2 are expected to learn the core and foundation subjects