Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to prevent duplication and gaps in climate education and sustainability across different subjects and qualifications.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review recommended earlier sequencing and updated climate change, nature and sustainability content within the national curriculum subjects of geography, science, citizenship and design and technology, as well as ensuring the curriculum is coherently and logically sequenced and allows space for schools to support mastery of core concepts, effective transitions, and progression through each key stage of education.

The government accepted these recommendations in its response, and work is underway to refresh the curriculum in line with the Review’s recommendations. In doing so, the department will follow the curriculum principles as set out in the Review of coherence, subject mastery and depth, making sure that programmes of study and subject content are grounded in relevant and important knowledge and disciplinary skills. We are testing this with stakeholders ahead of publishing draft content for a public consultation which will open this September.