National Curriculum in England

1 Where it came from

The National Curriculum was first introduced by the Education Reform Act 1988 and has been revised several times since; the current framework for key stages 1 to 4 is published by the Department for Education. It is statutory for maintained (council-run) schools. Academies and free schools must teach a broad and balanced curriculum and many follow it closely, and international schools around the world teach it as the "British curriculum". An independent Curriculum and Assessment Review published its final report on 5 November 2025, and the government accepted most of its recommendations; detailed new subject content is expected to follow later.

2 The big ideas

• Key stages. Key stage 1 is Years 1 and 2 (ages 5 to 7), key stage 2 is Years 3 to 6 (7 to 11), key stage 3 Years 7 to 9 (11 to 14) and key stage 4 Years 10 and 11 (14 to 16). Reception, the year before Year 1, follows the Early Years Foundation Stage.
• Programmes of study. Each subject has a programme of study for each key stage, and English and maths are set out year by year in the primary years, so a parent can read exactly what Year 3 maths covers.
• Phonics first. Early reading is taught through systematic synthetic phonics: children learn the sounds that letters and groups of letters make and blend them to read, with books matched to what they have been taught.
• Fluency in number. Times tables up to 12 × 12 are expected by the end of Year 4, and formal written methods for the four operations follow in key stage 2.
• National checks, few of them. A handful of statutory checks sit at fixed points, and schools report the results; between them, teachers assess in their own way.

3 What a lesson looks like

A Year 4 morning, as an illustration. The class starts with ten minutes of times tables: a quick chant of the 7s, then a timed sheet where each child tries to beat their own best, because the multiplication tables check comes in June. The maths lesson moves on to fractions: equivalent fractions on a fraction wall, then a few problems to reason about together. After break comes English: the class reads a chapter of a shared novel, the teacher models a paragraph, and children write their own, with a focus on one grammar point such as fronted adverbials. The afternoon is history or science, and the day ends with a story read aloud.

4 Reading and math

Reading starts with daily phonics in Reception and Year 1, often from a published programme, and the phonics screening check in Year 1 asks each child to read a short list of words, some of them made-up, to see whether they can blend sounds. From Year 2 the weight moves to fluency, comprehension and a lot of grammar, punctuation and spelling, which the key stage 2 tests in Year 6 check. In maths, many schools teach for mastery: the class moves through small steps together, with concrete objects and pictures before abstract numbers, and quick daily practice of number facts. The Year 4 times tables check is 25 questions on screen with six seconds for each, and it has no pass mark.

5 The adult's job

In school, the teacher plans from the programmes of study and the school's chosen schemes. At home, a parent's job is mostly to keep reading and number facts going: read with the child daily, listen to them read the phonics books they bring home, and practise times tables a few minutes at a time in Years 2 to 4. A family that has moved to England, or is homeschooling with England's curriculum in mind, can use the programmes of study as a checklist for each year.

6 How progress is checked

Statutory checks at fixed points: the Reception baseline at the start of Reception, the phonics screening check in Year 1 (retaken in Year 2 by children who did not meet the standard), the multiplication tables check in Year 4 and the key stage 2 tests in Year 6 in reading, maths, and grammar, punctuation and spelling, with writing teacher-assessed. GCSEs at the end of Year 11 are graded 9 (highest) to 1. In between, schools assess against their own curriculum and report to parents each year.

7 Strengths and criticisms

8 What the research says

This page describes a system rather than testing it. What the sources give is the structure, from the Department for Education's framework: the key stages, the programmes of study and the statutory checks, including the Year 4 multiplication tables check (25 questions, six seconds each, no pass mark, arrangements for 2025 to 2026 unchanged). The Curriculum and Assessment Review's final report, published on 5 November 2025 with the government's response the same day, was described by commentators as evolution, not revolution, and recommends among other things an oracy framework. Evidence on systematic phonics and on mastery teaching is covered on the science of reading and teaching for mastery pages.

9 How to try it

1. Find the year. Count from age: a child who is 6 on 1 September is going into Year 2. Our curriculum finder lines England's years up with US grades and other countries.
2. Read the programme of study. For English and maths, read your child's year and the one before it; the gaps are what to practise.
3. Keep phonics going in Reception and Year 1. Ten minutes a day of sounds and blending, then a book that uses only those sounds.
4. Times tables in small doses. Three to five minutes a day from Year 2, building to all tables by the end of Year 4; a multiplication chart and a fact fluency sheet help, and in Year 4 a few rounds of six-second tables show what the check feels like.
5. Do not drill for SATs early. Wide reading and secure number facts do more for Year 6 than practice papers in Year 4.

10 Using Peabody with it

• Numbers on PeabodyEight doors from counting to algebra; pick "Small steps (teaching for mastery)" on your child's grown-up page to match how many English schools teach.
• Six-second tablesIn the Math Dojo: 25 times tables, six seconds each, shaped like the Year 4 check. No pass mark: the missed ones become the practice list.
• Fact fluency sheetsPrintable times tables practice for the Year 4 check, with answer keys.
• Peabody libraryFree books by reading level, including decodable books for the phonics years.
• Curriculum finderEngland's years beside US grades, Scotland's P1 to P7 and the rest, and how to set your child's curriculum on Peabody.

Peabody is free and has no ads. Pages on peabody.kids are for children; pages here are for the adults teaching them.

11 Programs that follow it

Programs and materials often named with this approach: National Curriculum in England (Department for Education), Early Years Foundation Stage, Key stage 2 tests (SATs), Year 4 multiplication tables check, GCSEs.