This article covers the teaching and learning of pupils in full-time compulsory secondary education ages 11–16 (Key Stages 3 and 4).

Curriculum, subjects, number of hours 

The school curriculum comprises all learning and other experiences that each school plans for its pupils, reflecting its particular needs and circumstances.

All publicly funded schools are expected to provide a balanced and broadly based curriculum, although different legal obligations apply depending on the type of school.

The legal basis for the curriculum in a maintained school is set out in the Education Act 2002. Under Section 78 of the Act, schools must provide a balanced and broadly based curriculum which:

• ‘promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and
• prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life’.

In accordance with Section 80 of the Act, maintained schools must also provide religious education and the national curriculum as part of their broad, whole school curriculum.

The legal basis for the curriculum in academies is covered by Section 1 of the Academies Act 2010, and the individual school’s funding agreement with the Secretary of State.

Under these provisions, the same broad aims apply as for maintained schools and some subjects are compulsory. Academies are not, however, required to provide the national curriculum.

Responsibilities 

Responsibility for the school curriculum is shared.

The Secretary of State for Education is the Cabinet Minister in charge of the Department for Education. As such, he/she has overall responsibility, under the Education Act 2002, for the programmes of study for each national curriculum subject. These set out the ‘matters, skills and processes’ to be taught at each key stage. The Secretary of State also approves all qualifications taken by young people under 19 years of age, including GCSEs taken at age 16. This is under the provisions of Section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000. He/she is also responsible for determining the subject content and assessment objectives for GCSEs, and steers school decision making on the curriculum through accountability measures (see below).

Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, is a non-ministerial government department, responsible for school inspection under the provisions of the Education Act 2005 (as amended). Judgements on the design, implementation and impact of the school curriculum contribute to Ofsted’s school inspection judgement on the quality of education.

Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation is the independent regulator of the qualifications taken in schools and colleges. It is a non-ministerial government department operating under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 and the Education Act 2011.

Awarding organisations, or AOs, design and develop qualifications in line with regulatory requirements. Those that provide general qualifications are also known as exam boards.

Local authorities, or (LAs), have a duty, under Section 390 of the Education Act 1996, to establish a Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE). The SACRE, which includes representatives of faith groups and teachers, advises on the locally agreed syllabus for religious education (see the subheading ‘Religious education and collective worship’ below).

Schools are responsible for planning the whole school curriculum for their pupils. Responsibility is shared between the executive leadership (headteacher in the case of a maintained school) and the governing board / academy trust.

The curriculum in both maintained secondary schools and academies is influenced to a significant extent by accountability measures. These include:

• the school inspection system (see the article ‘Quality Assurance in Early Childhood and School Education)
• the publication of the results of school-level performance measures.

As well as subject content, the Secretary of State decides on the measures to be reported in the school-level performance tables, and only certain qualifications and combinations of qualifications, taken at the end of Key Stage 4 (age 16), are taken into account in these school-level performance measures. This has a strong influence on schools’ decisions on the qualifications and consequently the curriculum they offer. Although a wide range of qualifications is approved for teaching to this age group (under Section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000), schools are encouraged to focus on a core of subjects through ‘headline’ measures in the performance tables known as Attainment 8, Progress 8 and the EBacc.

Requirements

The school curriculum comprises all learning and other experiences that each school plans for its pupils, reflecting its particular needs and circumstances.

For all schools, the language of instruction is normally English. Bilingual teaching is rare. However, there are no regulatory barriers which prevent schools offering this type of provision if they choose to do so.

Although they are bound by the same broad aims and accountability requirements, in terms of specific legislative requirements for the school curriculum, there are differences between maintained schools and academies.

Maintained schools must teach the national curriculum and religious education (RE). This is under the provisions of the Education Act 2002.

It is also a statutory requirement for maintained schools to provide a daily act of collective worship, which typically means a school assembly of a reverential or reflective nature, which is broadly Christian.

Maintained secondary schools must also teach sex education, and have a duty, under the Education Act 1997 (as amended by Section 29 of the Education Act 2011), to secure access to independent and impartial careers guidance for all pupils from Year 8 (aged 12+).

Schools are free to include other subjects or topics of their choice in planning and designing their own whole school curriculum / programme of education. In particular, they may provide vocational education at Key Stage 4 (pupils aged 14-16).

Academies are bound by their funding agreement with the Secretary of State to teach:

• English, mathematics, science
• religious education.

They must also comply with any additional curriculum requirements in their funding agreement, such as that of securing access to independent and impartial careers guidance, and providing a daily act of collective worship.

Academies are not obliged to teach the national curriculum as part of their whole school curriculum, but may choose to do so. 

Research for the Department for Education (DfE), published in 2014, showed that, for most subjects at secondary level, the majority of academies intended to provide content as specified in the national curriculum. This was most strongly the case for the core subjects of English, mathematics and science.

In its March 2016 White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, the Government stated that it would establish the national curriculum as:

’an ambitious benchmark which autonomous academies can use and improve upon[…] It will serve an important role in setting out the sort of knowledge-based, ambitious, academically rigorous education which every child should experience’ (p. 20 / 90).

National curriculum 

The national curriculum does not aim to be the whole school curriculum. Schools plan and design their own curriculum. Maintained schools must include the national curriculum in their whole school curriculum and academies may choose to do so.

The national curriculum does not prescribe teaching hours. It sets out the compulsory subjects and associated programmes of study that must be taught at each key stage in maintained schools. Information on the purpose, aims and subject content of the compulsory national curriculum subjects is available in the individual programmes of study for Key Stages 3 and 4.

National curriculum subjects 

In Key Stage 3 (ages 11–14), all pupils must study:

• English, maths, science (the ‘core’ subjects)
• art and design, citizenship, computing, design and technology, languages, geography, history, music, and physical education (the ‘foundation’ subjects).

Any modern foreign language may be taught to fulfil the languages requirement. The majority of schools offer one or two languages. French, German and Spanish are the most common, but many other languages are taught. Note: A December 2018 House of Commons Library briefing provides an overview of requirements for teaching languages, quality of provision, support for teaching, and government reforms. The British Council also publishes an annual report on language trends in primary and secondary schools.

In Key Stage 4 (ages 14 –16), all pupils must study:

• English, maths and science* (the ‘core’ subjects)
• citizenship, computing, and physical education (the ‘foundation’ subjects).

*Schools must offer all students access to two science GCSEs, or to three separate GCSEs in each of physics, chemistry and biology.

Pupils in Key Stage 4 also have a statutory entitlement to be able to study a subject in each of four ‘entitlement areas’:

• the arts (art and design, music, dance, drama and media arts)
• design and technology
• the humanities (geography and history)
• modern foreign languages.

Schools must provide access to a minimum of one course in each of the four entitlement areas. They must also provide the opportunity for pupils to take a course in all four areas, should they wish to do so.

Other curriculum subjects 

In Key Stages 3 and 4, in addition to the national curriculum, maintained secondary schools must also teach religious education and sex and relationships education (SRE). From Year 8 (pupils aged 12+), they must also provide careers advice and guidance.

In Key Stage 4, schools may also offer technical and vocational subjects to students.

Religious education and collective worship 

All maintained schools and academies must teach religious education (RE) and provide a daily act of collective worship.

Local authorities (LAs) have a duty, under Section 390 of the Education Act 1996, to establish a Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) to advise on matters concerning the teaching of RE. The SACRE, which includes faith groups and teachers, also advises on the locally-agreed syllabus/curriculum for RE.  

The nature of the religious education and collective worship in an individual school depends on whether or not the school is designated as having a religious character (a ‘faith school’). It also depends on the legal category of school.

• Foundation and voluntary-controlled (maintained) schools with a designated religious character must follow the locally-agreed syllabus for RE. However, parents have the right to request that their child is taught RE in accordance with the school’s trust deed or designated religion.
• In voluntary aided (maintained) schools designated as having a religious character, the governing body determines the syllabus for RE. This is in accordance with the provisions of the trust deed relating to the school, or in accordance with the school’s designated religion. However, parents have the right to request that their child is taught the locally-agreed syllabus for RE.
• Maintained schools without a designated religious character must follow the locally agreed curriculum for RE which all local authorities (LAs) are required to adopt. This must, in accordance with Section 375 of the Education Act 1996, ‘reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain’.
• Requirements for the teaching of RE in academies are set out in their individual funding agreement. For academies without a faith designation, this will usually mirror the requirements for a local authority maintained school without a religious character.

The daily act of collective worship, which all maintained schools must provide, means an act of a reverential or reflective nature, which is typically held during a school assembly or during a tutor period for pupils. It must be broadly Christian. The broadly Christian content requirement can be removed for the school as a whole. The statutory requirements are contained in Sections 69 to 71 and Schedules 19 and 20 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, as amended.

For maintained schools which have a designated religious character, collective worship must be in accordance with the religious character of the school.

Academies without a religious character are required to provide collective worship in line with each school’s funding agreement with the Government. 

Parents have the right to withdraw their children from religious education and collective worship (and sixth-formers can decide for themselves whether or not to attend).

The Government provides non-statutory guidance on religious education for maintained schools (2010).

For a summary of the regulations and issues surrounding RE and collective worship, see the House of Commons Library briefing CBP-7167, published in July 2016.

PSHE including sex and relationships education 

Personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) is a non-statutory subject in secondary education, although the Government expects all schools to make provision for it. It makes a major contribution to maintained schools’ statutory responsibilities to promote children and young people’s personal and economic well-being; offer sex and relationships education; prepare pupils for adult life; and provide a broad and balanced curriculum. To support the provision of PSHE in schools, the PSHE Association  has developed a (non-statutory) programme of study.

Under Section 80 of the Education Act 2002, maintained secondary schools must teach sex education which covers reproduction, sexuality and sexual health. It is usually taught as sex and relationships education (SRE) within the curriculum for PSHE. There is no statutory programme of study, but schools must have regard to statutory guidance on sex and relationship education.

Academies do not have to provide SRE but, if they do, must also have regard to the statutory guidance.

Parents have the right to withdraw their children from parts of sex education if they choose. The only exceptions to this are the biological aspects of human growth and reproduction that are essential elements of national curriculum science.

It is intended that health education and relationships and sex education (RSE) will become compulsory in maintained secondary schools and academies from September 2020.

This follows the passing of regulations in May 2019, under the provisions of the Children and Social Work Act 2017. Although the statutory requirements do not begin until September 2020, schools may begin teaching health education and RSE in line with the new regulations from September 2019.

Further information is available in House of Commons Library briefing CBP-7303 on PSHE in schools (July 2019), and in briefing paper SN06103 on relationships and sex education in schools (July 2019).

Careers advice and guidance 

Under the Education Act 2011, maintained secondary schools are required to secure access to independent and impartial careers advice and guidance for their pupils from Year 8 (age 12/13). Many academies are also subject to the duties relating to careers guidance through their funding agreement.

The Government’s all-age careers strategy (published in December 2017) outlines a number of measures for improving the quality of careers provision in schools. It has, for example, required all schools and colleges to have a dedicated careers leader since September 2018. He/she is responsible for developing the careers strategy in their individual school / college. The strategy also requires all schools to offer every young person in secondary education at least one encounter with employers every year.

The Government has produced statutory guidance for schools.

The article on 'Guidance and Counselling in Early Childhood and School Education' provides further information.

Technical and vocational education 

Schools may offer technical and vocational subjects to pupils in Key Stage 4 (ages 14-16). The subheading ‘Technical and vocational qualifications’ in the article on ‘Assessment’ provides information on the types of programmes available.

Pupils in Key Stage 4 who wish to develop technical knowledge and skills may also study in new forms of academy, known as studio schools and university technical colleges (UTCs). See the article on ‘Organisational Variations and Alternative Structures’ for further information.

Time allocation/number of hours 

Under Section 87 of the Education Act 2002, the amount of time to be allocated to each subject in any key stage cannot be prescribed.

The national curriculum guidance makes clear that the national curriculum should be used as a framework, which schools incorporate into their whole school curriculum. It states that the national curriculum provides an ‘outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop….. the wider school curriculum’, and that there ‘is time and space in the school day and each week, term and year to range beyond the national curriculum specifications’.

For students following GCSE programmes in Key Stage 4, however, there is some  indicative teaching time. This takes the form of guided learning hours (GLH) for GCSE qualifications, which are specified on Ofqual’s Register of Regulated Qualifications. The GLH for each individual GCSE programme is 120 to 140 hours.

History of the school curriculum 

Broad aims for the school curriculum were first established by the Education Act 1944. These were that the curriculum should promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society; and prepare pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Beyond these broad aims, which were expressed in the form of a duty on local authorities, there was no central government control over the curriculum until the Education Reform Act 1988 gave the Secretary of State important new powers over the curriculum and its assessment. The aim of centralising this fundamental aspect of education policy-making was to:

• give pupils an entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum
• set standards for pupil attainment
• support school accountability.

The first national curriculum was introduced under these powers on a gradual basis between 1989 and the mid-1990s. For an account of the evolution of the Government’s interest in the curriculum from 1944 and the development of the national curriculum, see the report of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee inquiry into the national curriculum, published in March 2009.

Since its introduction, the national curriculum has undergone a series of reviews and revisions, accompanied by changes to assessment arrangements, in an effort to slim down content and improve consistency. In 2011, the then Government launched a major review, which was primarily aimed at raising levels of achievement by developing the curriculum so that it compared favourably with the most successful international curricula in the highest performing jurisdictions in the world. It also aimed to set rigorous requirements for pupil attainment, at the same time as giving teachers greater freedom over their teaching.

Reformed national curriculum subjects were introduced between September 2014 and September 2017. They were based on new programmes of study, which were simultaneously more demanding and (apart from English and maths) slimmed down to focus on the essential skills and knowledge of each subject. The compulsory subjects at secondary level remained the same, although the new subject of ‘computing’ replaced ‘information and communication technology’ (ICT). This put greater emphasis on computational thinking and practical programming skills relevant in a global digital economy.

The House of Commons Library briefing SN06798, published in April 2018, provides an overview of the curriculum and a summary of the development and reform of the national curriculum since its inception.

Teaching methods and materials 

Within each school, teaching methods are usually decided by the subject teacher. In maintained schools, this will usually be in consultation with the headteacher and subject or key stage leaders. In academies, it may be in consultation with subject leaders, key stage leaders, and the executive leadership.

Subject leaders (or subject coordinators) are teachers who have additional responsibility for a particular subject area, and who give help and guidance to their colleagues within the school. Key stage leaders have a similar responsibility for a particular key stage.

There are no prescribed textbooks for students; all teaching materials are selected by schools. Textbooks are produced by commercial publishers and do not require government approval. Although there are no prescribed textbooks, for pupils aged 11 to 14, schools will usually only choose to use textbooks which pay attention to national curriculum programmes of study. For pupils aged 14 to 18/19, they will generally only use textbooks which reflect the qualification specifications set by awarding organisations. 

Schools may not usually charge for the cost of materials, books, or any other equipment used by students.

All schools have a range of ICT tools available for use by teachers and pupils. These may include computers, laptops, tablets and other handheld devices, interactive whiteboards and virtual learning environments.

Schools and teachers make decisions about teaching methods and materials in the context of national standards and guidance as outlined below.

Frameworks and guidance 

Teachers are expected to meet the Government’s Teachers’ Standards, which state that they must:

• set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils/studentspromote good progress and outcomes by pupils/students
• demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge
• plan and teach well-structured lessons
• adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils/students
• make accurate and productive use of assessment 
• manage behaviour effectively to ensure a good and safe learning environment
• fulfil wider professional responsibilities.

In accordance with the Standards, the teacher is responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient opportunities for differentiated work for students of all abilities. Differentiation is defined as the process of providing teaching which is matched to the needs, capabilities and previous learning of individual students

There are no statutory requirements regarding homework. Schools are expected to establish their own policy on homework and to decide on the nature, frequency and amount of homework they will set.  In doing so, they take into consideration the age and stage of pupils, their needs and the school’s ethos. The Teachers’ Standards set an expectation that teachers should understand how homework or other out-of-class activities can sustain learners’ progress and consolidate and extend learning.

The Government funds or facilitates a range of initiatives to support the curriculum. These include:

• maths hubs, established to work with schools and colleges across England and acting as expert leaders in mathematics pedagogy and the curriculum
• the National Centre for Computing Education, which provides support for the teaching of computing.

Information on a range of other resources and support available is provided in a Department for Education factsheet (2014).

The Goverment has also published the report of an independent review providing practical guidance for teachers on how to tackle bad behaviour in the classroom. This March 2017 report - Creating a Culture: How School Leaders Can Optimise Behaviour, has been supplemented by guidance, published in November 2018, on mental health and behaviour in schools. This provides advice on understanding the link between mental health and behaviour and links to sources of further support and guidance.

In addition, the Department for Education (DfE) provides advice for teachers on managing their workload. This includes a workload reduction toolkit, which provides practical advice and tools to help school leaders and teachers review and reduce workload. The advice has been developed as a result of an inquiry which began in 2014.

Article last reviewed April 2021.