The national curriculum
Key stage 3 and 4
Key stage 3
Compulsory national curriculum subjects are:
- English
- maths
- science
- history
- geography
- modern foreign languages
- design and technology
- art and design
- music
- physical education
- citizenship
- computing
Schools must also provide:
- relationships, sex and health education - parents can ask for their children to be taken out of sex education
- religious education (RE) - parents can ask for their children to be taken out of the whole lesson or part of it
Key stage 4
During key stage 4 most pupils work towards national qualifications - usually GCSEs.
The compulsory national curriculum subjects are the ‘core’ and ‘foundation’ subjects.
Core subjects are:
- English
- maths
- science
Foundation subjects are:
- computing
- physical education
- citizenship
Schools must also offer at least one subject from each of these areas:
- arts
- design and technology
- humanities
- modern foreign languages
They must also provide relationships, sex and health education, and religious education (RE) at key stage 4.
English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
The EBacc is a way to measure how many pupils in a school choose to take a GCSE in these core subjects:
- English language and literature
- maths
- the sciences
- history or geography
- a language
Find out more about the EBacc.