DfE Curriculum Review: Three Big Changes Coming to Primary Education

Written by Kapow Primary team

Published on 13th October 2025

Last Updated: 13th October 2025

The Curriculum and Assessment Review’s interim report, published in spring 2025, signaled a significant shift in how the national curriculum may evolve – and primary schools are already starting to prepare. While the final recommendations won’t be published until late autumn 2025, the direction is clear.

The curriculum must do more to reflect a rapidly changing world – socially, technologically, and globally – and give children a stronger foundation for future learning across the full breadth of primary education, not just in core subjects.

At Kapow Primary, we have a dedicated team not only monitoring these developments but actively building future priorities into our curriculum design. We know change can bring uncertainty – but you can feel confident we’re already thinking ahead.

Three key themes are emerging: sustainability and climate change, digital and AI literacy, and achieving the right balance between breadth and mastery at KS1 and KS2. In this post, we explore each and show how Kapow is helping schools stay ahead.

1. Sustainability and climate change

The interim report highlights that our curriculum must do more to prepare young people for the global environmental challenges they will face. Climate change and environmental issues are among the biggest challenges today’s children will face, and the review stresses that the curriculum must prepare them for a rapidly changing world.

For primary schools, this means sustainability and climate education must move from the sidelines to the centre – becoming a core part of learning across all subjects.

This has been an integral part of the curriculum at Kapow, even before the curriculum review:

  • Eco-Schools partnership: Our curriculum content is mapped to the ten Eco-Schools topics, helping schools working towards Green Flag status show how their teaching supports whole-school sustainability.
  • Geography and sustainability: Our Geography scheme of work has always included climate and sustainability education – directly addressing gaps in the 2014 curriculum.
  • Sustainability progression: We’ve embedded a clear progression of knowledge and skills for sustainability across RSE & PSHE, Geography and Science, so teachers don’t need to ‘add in’ sustainability – it’s already there, structured and sequenced.
  • Sustainability collection: We’ve created a collection of sustainability lesson plans – one for each year group – designed to support a whole-school approach. Each lesson builds on the last, following our progression framework to provide purposeful, age-appropriate activities.

 

2. Digital skills and AI literacy

Another clear theme in the interim report is that the curriculum must keep pace with rapid technological change. The rise of artificial intelligence and the spread of digital information mean that children need more than just coding skills – they need to understand how technology shapes the world around them, how to use it safely and respectfully, and how to think critically about the information they encounter online.

For primary schools, this means strengthening computing and media literacy from the early years, so pupils leave Year 6 as confident, safe, and curious digital learners – ready to navigate and question the online world.

We’ve built this thinking into our curriculum already:

  • AI in the curriculum: We’ve introduced a dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) unit into Year 6 Computing, giving pupils early opportunities to explore how artificial intelligence works and what it means for society.
  • Critical thinking across subjects:  Many of our subjects explicitly build critical thinking. In Music and Art, pupils evaluate creative work; in History and Geography, they investigate evidence through enquiry cycles; and in D&T and Computing, design processes encourage questioning and improvement.
  • Critical thinking in RSE & PSHE:  Our refreshed RSE & PSHE scheme of work (launching in 2026 and inline with new guidance) includes a dedicated strand on critical thinking. Whether it’s learning about nutrition in Healthy Me or staying safe online in My Online World, pupils are taught to question and evaluate the information they encounter.
  • Digital and online safety:  Our Computing and RSE & PSHE schemes together fully cover Education for a Connected World. We also map our content to the Teaching Online Safety in Schools guidance. This alignment is supported by clear documentation, and we continue to strengthen it through regular updates.
  • Kapow’s online model: As a digital platform, Kapow Primary also gives teachers and pupils everyday opportunities to learn through technology – reinforcing digital literacy not just as a subject, but as a key part of modern learning.

 

3. Breadth, depth, and mastery 

The interim report raises a familiar concern: the primary curriculum is overloaded. Teachers are struggling to cover everything in sufficient depth, which can hinder pupils from truly mastering key concepts – especially in core subjects like English and Maths.

At the same time, the pressure to fit everything in often squeezes out time for foundation subjects, narrowing the breadth of pupils’ learning.

For KS1 and KS2, the review is considering streamlining the curriculum – creating more space for pupils to secure core knowledge while still accessing the full range of subjects. The focus is likely to shift towards depth and mastery, rather than rushing through overloaded programmes of study.

It’s a challenge we’re already addressing through our curriculum design:

  • Clarity on key knowledge and skills: Each unit clearly sets out the essential knowledge, skills, and vocabulary pupils need to master, with built-in recall activities to reinforce learning over time.
  • Responsive streamlining:  If feedback shows a lesson feels overloaded, we refine it quickly – keeping content purposeful, manageable, and focused on what matters most.
  • Embedding wider priorities: We intentionally build in key themes like oracy, sustainability, and climate change across foundation subjects. That means no extra timetable pressure – just thoughtful, progressive integration.
  • Collections with purpose: Our themed collections revisit and reinforce progression documents, helping schools celebrate key events without straying from long-term curriculum goals.

While we don’t yet know the final shape of the curriculum, the direction is clear – and at Kapow Primary, we’re already helping schools prepare. By embedding sustainability, digital and AI literacy, and a balanced approach to breadth and mastery across our schemes, we’re making sure you don’t have to wait to adapt.

As changes unfold, you can trust that we’ll continue to respond quickly and thoughtfully – keeping your school one step ahead and giving you the confidence to focus on what matters most: inspiring and supporting every pupil.

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