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The Curriculum Review, a welcome step forward but the need for action is urgent

Tutor Trust CEO, Ed Marsh, reflects after the release of the government's flagship curriculum review. Having digested for 24-hours, it was a good moment to reflect on the direction it sets out and what needs to happen next.

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The Curriculum Review is a welcome step forward but the need for action is urgent. Tutoring is one of the few interventions consistently proven to close attainment gaps — the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) evidence review finds that well-implemented tutoring can deliver in excess of 3 months of additional learning.

Curriculum reform matters

Yes, but as we see daily, curriculum alone cannot overcome the long shadow of COVID-19.

Twenty-four hours after the release of the government's flagship curriculum review, I thought it was a good moment to reflect on the direction it sets out and what needs to happen next. The Curriculum and Assessment Review: Building a world-class curriculum for all marks a significant and positive moment for education in England. The ambition to modernise and streamline the curriculum, strengthen assessment, and ensure it better reflects the diversity of modern Britain is both welcome and overdue.

At the Tutor Trust, we particularly welcome the review’s focus on equity and inclusion. Our work with schools across the North of England gives us a clear view of what works: when pupils receive high-quality, targeted tutoring, their confidence grows, their attainment accelerates, and their engagement with school deepens. Tutoring is one of the few interventions consistently proven to close attainment gaps — the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) evidence review finds that well-implemented tutoring can deliver in excess of 3 months of additional learning.

...when pupils receive high-quality, targeted tutoring, their confidence grows, their attainment accelerates, and their engagement with school deepens."
Ed Marsh, Tutor Trust CEO

The ongoing impact of lost learning

The review rightly looks to the future — but the present reality remains uneven. The effects of the pandemic are still felt in classrooms every day:

  • The attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is wider than before COVID-19, according to the Education Policy Institute and National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER, 2024)
  • In primary schools, pupils eligible for free school meals in Years 3 and 4 remain six to seven months behind their more affluent peers in reading and maths
  • Persistent absence has become entrenched, with one in five pupils missing 10% or more of school sessions (DfE data, 2025)

This means that even as we renew what is taught, many pupils are still struggling to access the learning in front of them. Without intensive, personalised support, reforms risk leaving behind those who most need them.

Curriculum reform must go hand-in-hand with intervention

The review’s proposals — including slimmer content, greater emphasis on knowledge depth, diagnostic assessments at Key Stage 3, and a broader approach to citizenship, media, and financial literacy as summarised by The Guardian — are steps in the right direction. But the success of these ideas depends on whether pupils can meaningfully engage with them.

To achieve that, three system priorities stand out:

  1. Link diagnostics to real intervention: Identifying learning gaps must immediately trigger targeted support — through tutoring, small-group sessions, and structured catch-up. Assessment without follow-through won’t move the dial.
  2. Close the disadvantage gap as the test of success: A world-class curriculum means little if it’s not accessible to every child. The review’s reforms should be judged not just by curriculum quality, but by whether they narrow the gap between pupils from different backgrounds.
  3. Embed tutoring into the mainstream: The National Tutoring Programme demonstrated what’s possible, but it must now evolve from a pandemic measure into a permanent feature of our education system — integrated within school timetables, aligned to diagnostics, and delivered by well-trained tutors. 

From ambition to action

The review sets out an ambitious blueprint. The challenge now is implementation. Schools will need time, resources, and capacity to translate this vision into reality — especially when attendance, behaviour, and wellbeing pressures are already high. 

At The Tutor Trust, we see every day that when pupils receive high-quality tutoring, they don’t just catch up academically- they reconnect with learning itself. This is what true recovery looks like: a system that enables every child to access and thrive within a rigorous, enriching curriculum. 

We warmly welcome the curriculum review’s direction. But for it to succeed, recovery and reform must move together. Only then can we make this a turning point — not just for policy, but for pupils.
 

Curriculum reform matters, es, but as we see daily, curriculum alone cannot overcome the long shadow of COVID-19."
Ed Marsh reflects on the Curriculum Review 2025