The National Curriculum was introduced into England, Wales and Northern Ireland as a nationwide curriculum for primary and secondary state schools following the Education Reform Act 1988. Notwithstanding its name, it does not apply to Independent Schools, which by definition are free to set their own curriculum, but it ensures that state schools of all Local Education Authorities have a common curriculum.
The Education Reform Act 1988 requires that all state students be taught a Basic Curriculum of Religious Education and the National Curriculum.
The purpose of the National Curriculum was to standardise the content taught across schools in order to enable assessment, which in turn enabled the compilation of league tables detailing the assessment statistics for each school. These league tables, together with the provision to parents of some degree of choice in assignment of the school for their child (also legislated in the same act) were intended to encourage a ‘free market’ by allowing parents to choose schools based on their measured ability to teach the National Curriculum.
Whilst only several subjects were included at first in subsequent years the curriculum grew to fill the entire teaching time of most state schools.
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There are two principal aims and four main purposes set out in the National Curriculum documentation[1]:
The table below lists those subjects which form a statutory part of the National Curriculum under the Education Act 2002 (Part 6) as updated.[2][3][4]
| Subject | Key Stage
1 (age 5-7) |
Key Stage
2 (age 7-11) |
Key Stage
3 (age 11-14) |
Key Stage
4 (age 14-16) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English |  * |
|
|
|
| Mathematics | |
|
|
|
| Science | |
|
|
|
| Art & Design | |
|
|
|
| Citizenship | |
|
||
| Design & Technology | |
|
|
|
| Geography | |
|
|
|
| History | |
|
|
|
| Information & Communication Technology | |
|
|
** |
| Modern Foreign Languages | |
|||
| Music | |
|
|
|
| Physical Education | |
|
|
|
| Work-related Learning | |
|||
| Welsh (Wales only) | |
|
|
|
*English is not statutory in Key Stage 1 in Welsh-medium schools in Wales
**ICT is not statutory at KS4 in Wales or Northern Ireland.
In all maintained schools, provision is made for the requirement to offer a course in Religious Education under the Education Act 1996. Parents have the right to withdraw pupils from this if they wish.[5] In addition, at all Key Stages, the Department for Children, Schools and Families suggests that pupils are offered provision in Personal, Social and Health Education, although this is not statutory.[2]
In some Key Stages there are additional entitlements which form part of the National Curriculum, but for which prescribed programmes of study are not clearly set out.
Primary schools, while not required to include Sex education in the curriculum are advised by the government to include a programme of education which is rooted in the PSHE curriculum which covers topics such as puberty and adolescence. Schools should maintain a policy outlining what will be covered in their programme, and parents maintain a right to withdraw their pupils from such courses.[6]
The Education Act 1996 requires that all pupils in secondary education are provided with a programme of Sex education, including education about AIDS, HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases. While a statutory provision, this does not form part of the National Curriculum, and parents have a right to remove their children from this provision.[5]
The Education Act 1997 (as amended) requires that all pupils in Key Stages 3 and 4 be provided with a programme of Careers education. This does not form part of the National Curriculum but is a statutory entitlement for all pupils.[7][8]
Schools are required, under the amendments to the Education Act of 2002, to provide at least one course for those pupils who wish to study it, in each of the entitlement areas at Key Stage 4. These are: the Arts; Design and Technology; the Humanities; and a Modern Foreign Language.[3]
Assessments are carried out at three ages: seven (school year 2, at the end of Key Stage 1), eleven (Year 6, the end of Key Stage 2) and fourteen (Year 9, the end of Key Stage 3). Some aspects of subjects are teacher-assessed, whilst others involve sitting an examination paper. The results are considered when school and LEA performance league tables are being compiled, but they do not lead to any formal qualification for the candidates taking them.
The study of most subjects under the National Curriculum would usually culminate in the sitting of a GCSE at the end of Key Stage 4. Although the GCSE examinations replaced the earlier, separate GCE O-level and CSE examinations, the syllabuses were still initially devised entirely by the examination boards, whereas since the implementation of the National Curriculum the syllabus outline is determined by law. Thus much of the attention surrounding the claimed dumbing down of GCSEs[9] is, indirectly, a criticism of the National Curriculum.
Public schools are free to choose their own curriculum and examinations and many have opted for the more demanding[10][11] IGCSEs which are not tied to the National Curriculum. It is claimed that this is creating a two-tier system with state school pupils losing out. From time to time ministers have suggested that state schools may be given funding to enter pupils for IGCSE examinations[12] but a study was undertaken by QCA[13], which concluded that IGCSEs do not follow the programmes of study required by the Key Stage 4 of the National Curriculum and therefore could not be offered as a state-funded alternative.
Although the primary purpose for the National Curriculum was to enable league tables and inform parental choice, many parents or guardians still fail to get the school of their choice[14] and there is concern that the league tables have a detrimental effect on pupils:
focus on league tables had resulted in pupils being pressured to attain high grades and so opt for subjects that are seen as easier to get good marks in such as art, drama and history. The result has been for the more difficult mathematics in subjects such as chemistry and physics being dropped.[15]
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