What Does the 2025 Curriculum Review Mean for School Leaders?

After months of consultation, Professor Becky Francis and her expert panel have delivered their final recommendations on the future of England's curriculum and assessment system, and the government has responded with decisive action. For school leaders, the message is clear: significant change is coming in September 2028.

With September 2028 being just under three years away, it's easy to consider leaving this for now and tackling it later. However, the schools that will navigate this successfully are the ones that will begin building their readiness now.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been unequivocal about the ambition: to create "a world-leading curriculum rich in knowledge, strong on skills, and taught by top-class teachers." But as Francis herself reminds us, excellence doesn't spread through mandate alone - it spreads through ownership, thoughtful adaptation, and schools that already understand their own strengths and development areas.So let's take a look at how you can start to do this now.

Why Waiting Until 2027 Would Be a Mistake

Yes, the final curriculum arrives in Spring 2027 with implementation in September 2028. That sounds like plenty of time. But consider what's actually required:

  • Understanding your current curriculum strengths and coherence gaps
  • Evaluating subject sequencing and progression across key stages
  • Auditing enrichment provision against new entitlements
  • Reviewing how your curriculum serves all learners, particularly disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND
  • Building staff capacity and expertise in new areas (like primary citizenship)
  • Aligning your approach with reformed accountability measures
  • Ensuring personal development provision meets new expectations

So, ask yourself: what can we improve now that aligns with the reform direction?

What You Can Actually Do This Academic Year

Know Your Starting Point Through Strategic Audit

You cannot adapt effectively without baseline clarity. This means moving beyond general impressions to evidence-based understanding of your current position. We have a range of audits that align with the new Ofsted framework and are a great starting point for assessing what's working well and what to focus on next.

Curriculum and Teaching Audit

Conduct a systematic review of your curriculum's quality, coherence and implementation. Key questions include:
  • Where is subject sequencing strongest? Where are the gaps in progression?
  • How well does our curriculum support the full range of learners, including those with SEND?
  • Which subjects are content-heavy and could benefit from the planned curriculum streamlining?
  • How effectively do we develop disciplinary knowledge alongside substantive knowledge?
  • Where are the opportunities to strengthen oracy, reading and writing across the curriculum?
The Francis Review emphasises that reforms must build on existing strengths. Knowing what's already working well means new developments enhance rather than undermine current provision.

Achievement Audit
With new accountability measures on the horizon and the review's sharp focus on raising standards for all pupils, understanding your achievement patterns is critical:
  • Which groups are thriving and which face barriers to progress?
  • How effectively does achievement in primary translate to secondary success?
  • Where are the transition points where pupils - particularly disadvantaged pupils - disengage or fall behind?
  • How well does your curriculum enable pupils to meet ambitious endpoints?

The review highlights that "high standards and inclusion should be two aspects of a unified concept." Your achievement data should reveal whether this is your reality or aspiration.

Personal Development and Well-being Audit

With the new enrichment entitlement and mandatory citizenship coming, now is the time to audit breadth:

  • What enrichment currently exists across the five statutory categories?
  • How equitably is enrichment accessed and do all pupils genuinely benefit?
  • How well do we develop character, resilience and life skills?
  • Where are our strengths in personal development, and where are the gaps?
  • How effectively does our PSHE/RSE provision prepare pupils for modern challenges (media literacy, financial literacy, online safety)?

Remember: Ofsted will be checking this. Having clarity on your current offer means you can develop provision strategically rather than reactively.

Build Ownership Through Co-Creation

When teachers and support staff feel like co-creators rather than recipients of reform, resistance falls and innovation rises. This means starting meaningful conversations now:

  • What do staff think is working well in our current curriculum?
  • What frustrates them about current content or assessment burdens?
  • What would they protect at all costs?
  • Where do they see opportunities for the curriculum to better serve all pupils?

Good communication is the best antidote to anxiety and misinformation. As the review notes, the "missing step between intention and realisation" is often implementation. Co-creation bridges that gap.

The government is explicitly committing to involving teachers in testing and designing programmes of study. Take the same approach in your school.

Invest in People, Not Just Processes

Professor Francis is clear: sustainable reform is about people, not papers. The review consistently emphasises that system success depends on teacher and leader capacity.

This is the year to:

  • Strengthen your CPD offer, particularly around curriculum thinking and sequencing
  • Build peer learning and subject leader networks
  • Create space for professional dialogue about curriculum intent and implementation
  • Develop expertise in areas you'll need (e.g., oracy frameworks, citizenship content)
  • Treat curriculum adaptation as meaningful intellectual work, not compliance tasks

Review Your Transition Support

The review highlights sharp increases in disengagement and non-attendance at the start of secondary, with disadvantaged pupils, including white working-class children, particularly affected. KS3 becomes a "lost period" where initially high-achieving children fall behind. Try to review your transition support now:

  • How well do you maintain momentum from KS2 into KS3?
  • Where do pupils typically struggle in early secondary?
  • How effectively do you identify and address gaps before KS4?

Building strong transition support now sets you up for success when new Year 8 testing arrives.

Your Action Plan for This Term

Don't wait for the final curriculum document in 2027. Build strategic readiness now:

Immediate Actions:

  1. Audit your current position across curriculum quality, pupil achievement and personal development provision
  2. Identify your strengths to protect and build on during reform
  3. Map the gaps where your provision doesn't yet align with review priorities
  4. Open staff conversations about curriculum vision and priorities
  5. Review your enrichment offer against the five entitlement categories

This Academic Year:

  1. Develop your curriculum narrative about what you're building and why
  2. Strengthen transition support between primary/secondary and across key stages
  3. Invest in CPD around curriculum design, oracy, citizenship and inclusive practice
  4. Begin modest improvements in areas aligned with reform direction (you don't need permission to reduce unnecessary curriculum burden or improve enrichment access)
  5. Monitor emerging guidance on Progress 8 reform and new assessment requirements

Looking Ahead:

  1. Engage with consultation on Progress 8 and other reforms (make your professional voice heard)
  2. Participate in subject networks to share emerging practice
  3. Plan for Spring 2027 curriculum publication and staff training needs
  4. Build stakeholder understanding with governors and parents about reform direction
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