Teaching GCSE topics younger risks turning schools into ‘early exam factories’, Powell warns

Pushing GCSE subjects on younger pupils risks turning England’s secondary schools into “early exam factories”, the education secretary has said, warning that it is increasing disengagement from education.

Lucy Powell wants schools to end the widespread practice of teaching GCSE topics to pupils in year 9 or earlier, before they officially start in year 10, and says she plans to reduce the amount of GCSE content to make it easier to fit into the official timetable.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the proposals would be included in the government’s overhaul of the national curriculum to be published in early 2027, as part of its plans to tackle school disengagement as well as the disadvantage gap between pupils from rich and poor backgrounds and the rising number of young people not in education, employment or training.

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Powell said: “The early years of secondary school should be a time when children are excited to go to school and engage in the specialist and much broader teaching on offer, and where they find their passion and develop a love of learning.

“Instead, we’ve seen worrying trends of disengagement and high levels of persistent absence, with the disadvantage gap stubbornly large and too many leaving school without the knowledge and skills they need to thrive.

“That’s what our exciting and engaging new national curriculum aims to address as part of our wider education reforms.

“What’s more, the pressures of GCSEs and an overcrowded curriculum are resulting in too many children receiving a narrower offer … and being rushed towards exams without grasping the fundamentals or developing deeper understanding. I’m putting a stop to that.”

Many secondary schools start introducing GCSE-level material to pupils in year 9 as a way of spreading out the course content. But Powell told the Sunday Times she was opposed to “early exam factories” and that plans to reduce GCSEs’ content would enable the courses to be taught comfortably within the allotted two years of year 10 and year 11.

The new curriculum will say schools “should not start GCSE specifications early for large cohorts or see children routinely required to narrow their options earlier or entered earlier for exams”, the DfE stated.

However, the new policy will not be compulsory, and schools will retain the flexibility to teach GCSEs to younger students whom they judge to be capable of coping with it.

Powell said slimmed-down GCSEs would give schools “more time to develop deeper understanding, as well as a richer experience that will engage more young people in their passions and prepare them better for the fast-changing world they will grow up in”.

Powell also said she supported new efforts to help the government and other groups improve educational outcomes for children from white working-class communities.

“A child’s background should never mean opportunity belongs to someone else,” she said.

“But right now, too many white working-class children are falling behind at every stage of their education.”