Understanding Your Child’s Curriculum

A child’s curriculum will vary throughout the years they attend school – from nursery right through to prep school, or a primary school, senior school and further afield into Sixth Form. There’s a lot to keep an eye on when it comes to your child’s studying journey, which is where this guide will come in handy in guiding you through the biggest features of your child’s curriculum.

The different key stages

At nursery school age your child will be learning from the EYFS curriculum – Early Years Foundation Stage framework. This is where your child will learn about their personal and emotional needs, the beginnings of building their reading and writing skills, as well as learning to count. A lot of these experiences will be taught through play time, social interactions and the art of good communication.

This is then taken through to the 4 main key stages. These are where your child builds on the skills they have been taught as a toddler and slowly developed to take them through to GCSE level. Your child will learn about the specifics of individual subjects, like History, Biology and modern languages, from when they head into year 7.

Your child will then have the chance to choose specific subjects to study at GCSE level, key stage 4. The subjects they enjoy the most, and the ones they perform the best in, are usually what children go for, but there’s also the subjects they will need at A Level if it’s applicable to them.

After the compulsory elements of a child’s curriculum

Once they have completed their GCSEs, which is at key stage 4, they will have the choice to go on to further study or a different way of learning. For a lot of students they will head on to Sixth Form to study A Levels, which is key stage 5. Other students may go on to college, take on an apprenticeship or head into employment.

What you can do to help your child with their studies

Having a dedicated study space for your child, building their confidence through learning at home, and making them learn to love their curriculum all help throughout a child’s journey. 

The curriculum your child will take on slowly increases in difficulty, which shouldn’t feel too jarring as they develop their skills. However, there will be homework, further revision and extended coursework to take on, so your child will need to be prepared for those developments in their studies.