Secondary schools will be told not to teach GCSEs early as part of a major shake-up of how children in Years 7 to 9 are taught.
The government plans to make Key Stage 3 a more distinct education phase, urging schools to focus less on exams and more on a “richer, more engaging” experience.
The changes come in response to two reviews that found pupils were increasingly becoming disengaged in their early teenage years, affecting attendance and achievement, the Department for Education (DfE) said.
The move will mark a reversal of the approach taken by the previous Conservative government to focus the first three years of secondary school on core subjects and on doing well in assessments.
Former Education Secretary Michael Gove prioritised English, maths and science, while raising grade boundaries, making exams harder and limiting resits.
He also made GCSEs linear, meaning they are sat all in one go at the end of Year 11 instead of over the course of Key Stage 4.
These reforms meant teachers started preparing pupils for exams at an earlier stage at the expense of teaching unexamined parts of their subject.
Education Secretary Lucy 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.”
She added that ringfencing Key Stage 3 studies would allow for “more time to develop deeper understanding, as well as a richer experience that will engage more young people in their passions”.
The DfE has pledged a “more engaging offer” in subjects like drama, PE, music and languages, which have seen a decline in students taking them, when it publishes its new curriculum later this year.
It says persistent absence nearly doubles among pupils between Year 6 and Year 9, from 13% to 15%.
The department pointed to a recent survey commissioned by the International Baccalaureate that found GCSE prep dominated Key Stage 3 learning in England, with 57% of teachers saying it was the leading influence on the curriculum.
“The pressures of GCSEs and an overcrowded curriculum are resulting in too many children receiving a narrower offer during Key Stage 3 and being rushed towards exams without grasping the fundamentals or developing deeper understanding,” Powell said. “I’m putting a stop to that.”
A 2015 Ofsted report suggested that Key Stage 3 may be “wasted years”, echoing the view at the time that pupils aged 11-14 lacked a clear motivation to work hard.
However, the government faced criticism at the time that its reforms made each exam far more significant, meaning teachers refocused lessons only on what could come up in them.
Reacting to the DfE’s announcement on Sunday, Lib Dem education spokeswoman Munira Wilson MP said school was “more than drilling kids for exams” but cautioned against “micromanaging” teachers.
She added that a new curriculum “alone won’t get children back into the classroom”, noting that “too many pupils are missing school because of anxiety and unmet mental health needs” while “schools can’t offer more drama, music and languages without the teachers to teach them”.
