Curriculum Review: Ebacc to the Future

Curriculum Wars, Again The 2025 Curriculum & Assessment Review – progress or regression? This week, we wade into the newly published Curriculum and Assessment Review — the biggest rethink of England’s education system since 2014. Chaired by Becky Francis, the report promises a “world - class curriculum for all.” But behind the polite phrasing lies a familiar battlefield: knowledge versus skills, rigour versus relevance, freedom versus control. Has the pendulum swung again? Or are we just circling the same deb ates under new branding? What Is English For, Anyway? The review calls for a clearer sense of purpose — including a firmer distinction between English and literacy .  Could this finally kill off the endless reproduction of GCSE question types at Key Stage 3?  Or will “clarity” just mean more bureaucratic fog?  Remember when KS3 had its own curriculum and the Year 9 SATs actually tested something worthwhile? Drama Returns to the Stage The report reintroduces drama — not as an afterthought, but as a formal part of English, alongside reading and writing.  Nostalgia or necessity?  Can English teachers still teach drama with confidence? Or has that expertise gone the way of the OHP and the acetate pen?  When it’s done wel l, drama deepens understanding and builds voice; when it’s bad, it’s awkward theatre therapy. The Oracy Framework: Finding Our Voices, Losing Our Minds? A new National Oracy Framework is coming to “complement” reading and writing.  The idea: oracy underpins learning, wellbeing, and citizenship.  The worry: it becomes another smorgasbord of “amuse - bouches” that distracts from the main course of English.  If it’s about real talk — debate, interpretation, Socratic dialogue — brilliant.  If it’s another round of la minated sentence stems and group talk rubrics, not so much. Grammar in Use, Not Grammar in Theory At last, someone’s said it: move theoretical grammar out of primary and focus on grammar in use at Key Stage 3.  Re - sequencing grammar so it’s taught when students can actually use it.  A revised GPS test focusing on application, not terminology.  Imagine a “literacy passport” — a driving theory test for writing — taken when students are ready. Diagnostics and the Year 8 Test A national diagnostic test in Engl ish at Year 8: to identify reading weaknesses before it’s too late.  Were SATs a good thing?  Because every child who can’t read at secondary is a failure of the system, not the child.  Measure it and it will come. GCSE English: The Return of Purpose (Maybe) The review proposes a total rethink of English Language and Literature at Key Stage 4.  More focus on the nature and expression of language .  Greater range of text types — possibly multi - modal or media - based.  But will this mean deep analysis or “describe yo ur favourite app” nonsense? Broadening the Canon Keep Shakespeare. Keep the 19th - century novel. Keep poetry. But add more “diverse and representative” texts.  Sounds fine, unless “diverse” just means “short and modern.”  Without a central list, we risk tokenism — or a slide back to the 1980s: Angel Delight, pastel colours, and low expectations. “The best that’s been thought and said — by everyone.” EBacc: The Empire Strikes Out The review doesn’t quite kill the EBacc, but it quietly prepares the obituary.  A “rebalancing” of accountability measures signals its long fade.  The arts and technical subjects might finally be allowed to breathe again.  But will schools trust that the accountability system really means it?  Is this the end of “five pillars o f rigour,” or just a rebrand before the next election? The Broader Frame: Inclusion, AI, and Moral Purpose Beyond English, the review leans heavily into digital literacy, sustainability, and moral education Are we educating people or optimising products?  Civic education from Year 1: universal virtue or creeping ideology?  AI readiness: the new “future - proofing” theology. Implementation and Irony The report promises “professional autonomy within entitlement.”  A phrase so elegantly meaningless it could only h ave been written by a committee.  Is it genuine trust, or centralisation in polite language?  And who will train teachers to deliver all this nuance? “It’s a middle path no one will walk.” “Or as we call it in schools — another thing to fake.” The review’ s English reforms are a time machine: part 1990s drama classroom, part 2010s accountability regime, part 2030s AI marketing deck. But the question remains the same: What do we really want English to do : teach communication, preserve culture, or save souls? From SATs nostalgia to Shakespeare’s survival, it’s all here — the eternal drama of English education. The cast has changed, the set is modernised, but the script? Still a tragicomedy of good intentions. Schools Week Link: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/interview-becky-francis-on-the-big-ideas-in-her-curriculum-review/