Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to include the Commonwealth as part of the curriculum.

The Commonwealth is covered within the citizenship curriculum, which all schools are encouraged to teach as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. Citizenship forms a core part of the statutory National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4 and includes content on the UK’s relations with the rest of Europe, the Commonwealth and the wider world. Primary schools can choose to teach citizenship at Key Stages 1 and 2, following the non-statutory framework for citizenship, which includes opportunities for pupils to discuss topics of school, local, national, European, Commonwealth and global concern.

There is also scope within history programmes of study for pupils to be taught about the Commonwealth. In Key Stage 3, pupils are taught about British history from 1745 to 1901, and this can include teaching about the end of the British Empire and Britain’s place in the world since 1945.

As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools have flexibility over how they deliver these subjects, so they can develop an integrated approach that is sensitive to the needs and background of their pupils.