Back in 2017, GCSE subjects started to be steadily reformed, designed to have “new, more demanding content”. Over a period of three years, each subject received not only a new curriculum, but also the now-familiar 9-1 grading system.
The new curriculum was received positively at the time, with 63% of you saying you liked the new specification. Additionally, even more said that it better prepared students for A-Level. It was a promising start for the reformed curriculum.
Now however, there is discontent among teachers. In October, 76% of secondary teachers felt as if there was too much content to cover in their GCSE classes. This is up compared to when we last asked in 2019, when it was 69%. This difference may have been affected by learning loss during various lockdowns in the Covid-19 pandemic.
This discontent is felt across all subjects, with more than half of teachers saying they had too much content in their curriculum to do it justice.
History teachers were by far the most discontent, with 95% feeling there was too much content in their curriculum. Maths teachers were happiest, although two-thirds still said that they were teaching too much.
So this got us thinking – what area of the curriculum would you like to remove if you could? Also, if there was space in the curriculum, what would you like to add?
Subject Articles
Over the next few weeks, we’ll publish articles focussing on individual subjects:
