NEWS: GCSEs Reviewed to Focus on Life Skills and Enrichment

A major review of England’s curriculum has called for fewer exams and more time for activities such as sport, plays and work experience

As reported in the Guardian, a review of England’s curriculum has recommended scaling back the volume of content and the emphasis on exams, calling instead for greater focus on life skills and “enrichment”.

Led by Professor Becky Francis, the review argues that pupils should spend less time in exam halls and more time “on all of those amazing other things that schools do”, including sport, drama and work experience. Experts say such changes would help prepare students for life beyond school as well as improve wellbeing.

Among its proposals, the review suggests cutting around three hours from the total length of GCSE exams and reducing the course content of several subjects, including history and the sciences. It also calls for an overhaul of grammar tests in primary schools and a rollback of policies introduced by former Conservative education secretary Michael Gove.

According to a government spokesperson, the changes would “encourage students to study a greater breadth of GCSE subjects including the arts, humanities and languages alongside English, maths and science”.

Ministers said they would also support the review’s emphasis on climate change and sustainability within the national curriculum, and confirmed that citizenship lessons will become compulsory in primary schools, covering topics such as media and financial literacy, law and democracy.

The government said it plans to publish the revised national curriculum by spring 2027, with schools expected to begin teaching it from September 2028.