Question 1

What is the national curriculum, and who has to follow it?

Accepted Answer

A statutory framework setting out the subjects and content that must be taught — and the crucial point is that **a large proportion of English schools are not required to follow it**, which surprises most parents.

**Who must follow it.** **Local authority maintained schools** in England. They must teach the national curriculum subjects and the programmes of study for each key stage.

**Who does not have to:**

**Academies and free schools**, which are funded by central government under a funding agreement rather than by the local authority. They must provide a **broad and balanced curriculum** including English, maths, science and religious education, but they are not bound by the national curriculum programmes of study.

**Independent (private) schools**, which must meet the independent school standards, including a broad curriculum, but set their own content entirely.

**Home educators**, who need follow no curriculum at all.

**Since the majority of English secondary schools are academies**, the national curriculum is not, in practice, national.

**What all state-funded schools must do regardless:** teach English, maths, science and RE; provide relationships and sex education and health education in line with statutory guidance; enter pupils for national assessments; and follow the same **qualification specifications** at GCSE and A level — which is the real constraint, because exam specifications shape teaching far more than curriculum documents do at that stage.

**The key stages:** Key Stage 1 (ages 5–7), Key Stage 2 (7–11), Key Stage 3 (11–14) and Key Stage 4 (14–16), with statutory assessment points.

**Religious education** is compulsory in state schools, and parents have a **right to withdraw** their child from it and from parts of sex education. Maintained schools without a religious character follow a locally agreed syllabus.

**Collective worship** is a legal requirement in England and Wales, widely not complied with, and subject to a right of withdrawal.

**The devolved nations differ entirely.** Scotland uses Curriculum for Excellence; Wales has its own curriculum introduced recently; and Northern Ireland its own — so cross-border comparisons are frequently invalid.

Question 2

What is home education, and what are the rules in the UK?

Accepted Answer

Educating a child outside school, which is lawful in the UK — and the legal duty is frequently misunderstood, because it is not a duty to send a child to school. The actual legal duty. Parents must

Question 3

How do you become a teacher, and what routes exist?

Accepted Answer

Through one of several routes to qualified teacher status, which differ mainly in whether you train mostly at a university or mostly in a school, and in whether you are paid while training. The

Question 4

What is the difference between an academy, a free school and a grammar school?

Accepted Answer

Three different things frequently confused, because two describe governance and one describes selection. The governance categories: Maintained school. Funded and overseen by the local authority,

Question 5

How much do subject choices at 14 actually matter?

Accepted Answer

More than they feel like at the time, and less than the anxiety around them suggests — they close some specific doors at 18 and very few permanently, which is the balance worth communicating to a

Question 6

Why are there several exam boards, and how are they regulated?

Accepted Answer

Because qualifications in England are delivered by competing awarding organisations rather than by the state — a market structure, overseen by a regulator whose job is to ensure that the same grade

Question 7

What is careers guidance in schools meant to do?

Accepted Answer

Help young people make informed decisions about education, training and work — and there is a statutory framework behind it that most parents and pupils have never heard of, which means entitlements

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