Secondary Education: Curriculum

(asked on 20th March 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) creative subjects and (b) a choice of foreign languages are offered to all secondary school students.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 25th March 2019

All state maintained secondary schools must teach art and design, music and a modern foreign language (MFL) to pupils at Key Stage 3 (pupils aged 11 – 14). Drama is taught as part of the English curriculum and dance is included in PE & sport. At Key Stage 4 (pupils aged 14 – 16), there is a statutory entitlement for every pupil to take an arts subject and a MFL leading to a recognised qualification, if they wish to do so. Academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum. Ofsted is also currently undertaking a consultation on its proposed new education inspection framework. The consultation runs until 5 April. Under its proposals, inspectors will assess the extent to which schools, including academies, are providing a broad and balanced curriculum for their pupils which helps them acquire knowledge, understanding and skills in all aspects of their education.

Between 2016 and 2020 the Government is spending almost £500 million on a range of arts and cultural education programmes. The Department has also launched a £4.8 million MFL Pedagogy Pilot to support secondary schools in delivering a high quality languages education.

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