Secondary schools in England will be told not to start GCSE courses before Year 10, Education Secretary Lucy Powell announced on Sunday 8 November.
The instruction will be written into the new national curriculum for Years 7 to 9, covering pupils aged 11 to 14. The Department for Education (DfE) says the full document will be published later this year.
What changes for pupils
Many schools now bring GCSE material into Year 9 to spread the workload. A report carried by AOL said Powell told the Sunday Times she was opposed to “early exam factories”.
She also plans to trim the content of GCSEs themselves, so courses can be taught within the two years of Year 10 and Year 11.
According to Brit Brief, the curriculum will say schools should not start GCSE specifications early for large groups of pupils. Nor should they routinely make children narrow their choices sooner or enter exams ahead of schedule.
Teachers will still be able to stretch high achievers or groups who are ready to move faster, the government confirmed.
GCSEs themselves are not being scrapped. Pupils will still sit them at the end of Year 11, and the reports seen so far do not say how the new rule will be enforced.
What children will study instead
The DfE says Key Stage 3 should be a richer experience, with more time to understand subjects in depth. Coverage of the announcement says the proposed curriculum puts more weight on oracy, reading, numeracy, and digital and technical skills. It also covers drama, PE, music and modern languages.
Powell told the Telegraph, as carried by Yahoo, that drama will become a distinct module within English at Key Stage 3 for the first time. Language lessons are to become more conversational.
The BBC reported that the DfE wants a “more engaging offer” in subjects that have seen fewer pupils take them.
Why the government is doing it
Two reviews found that pupils were becoming disengaged in their early teens, hurting attendance and achievement, the DfE said. It says persistent absence rises sharply between Year 6 and Year 9.
The department also pointed to a survey commissioned by the International Baccalaureate. It found 57% of teachers said GCSE preparation was the main influence on the Key Stage 3 curriculum.
The change reverses the direction set under Michael Gove, the former Conservative education secretary. His reforms prioritised English, maths and science, made exams harder and made GCSEs linear, with all papers sat at the end of Year 11. The BBC said this pushed teachers to prepare pupils for exams sooner, at the expense of unexamined parts of subjects.
Powell told the Telegraph that disengagement and absence are at their worst in Key Stage 3, especially among white working-class boys. She said a narrow curriculum could also raise the risk of pupils later ending up not in education, employment or training.
In an article for LBC, she wrote that schools would no longer be able to eat into Key Stage 3 to begin GCSE courses early.
Reaction
Lib Dem education spokeswoman Munira Wilson welcomed the focus on breadth but warned against “micromanaging” teachers, according to the BBC.
She said a new curriculum would not on its own bring children back into classrooms, pointing to anxiety and unmet mental health needs. Schools also could not widen their arts and language teaching without enough specialist staff, she said.
The full national curriculum is due before the end of 2026.
Sources: AOL (Sunday Times interview report), LBC, Yahoo News, Brit Brief, BBC News
