The new programmes of study have been designed to give teachers a less precriptive, more flexible framework for teaching, meeting more easily the needs of individual students.

Announced by the Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families, Ed Balls, the new curriculum will free up around a quarter of the school day to enable teachers to give more help to pupils struggling to master the basics in English and Maths, while stretching high achievers and reducing duplication in the curriculum.

The curriculum is designed to raise standards across the board and prepare pupils for the demands of today's world, teaching them skills such as financial capability and economically useful languages. Yet the classic components of the curriculum that have stood the test of time will remain � elements such as algebra, historic dates and the World Wars.

The programmes of study will be laid before Parliament and schools will receive these programmes of study in September 2007 for teaching from September 2008. The new secondary curriculum website will be launched in September. There will then be a three-year period from 2008 to 2010 for schools to implement the new programmes of study.

• For further information and details of the programmes of study, visit the QCA website.
• Read the DCSF press notice.