From Curriculum and Assessment Review to Reality: Implementing Knowledge-Rich Climate Change Education

At Climate Adapted Pathways for Education (CAPE), we welcome the Curriculum and Assessment Review, and the government’s response, as an important step forward for knowledge-rich climate change education. For the first time, there is clear recognition that climate change education should run through the curriculum - from Geography and Science to Design & Technology and Citizenship - and that children and young children need a secure understanding of the systems, causes, and consequences that shape human-induced environmental change.

The review rightly highlights this must be coherent, well-sequenced teaching that builds disciplinary and conceptual knowledge across key stages. The government’s commitment to strengthen climate change content within and across subjects, while maintaining a curriculum that is rich in knowledge, is a clear signal of intent and aligns closely with CAPE’s long-standing belief that high-quality climate change education depends on clarity, rigour, and deep understanding.

Importantly it is a vital step that provides the national mandate that many school leaders have been calling for in recent years.

But the real challenge lies ahead: implementation.

At CAPE, we have a saying when it comes to climate change education, ‘take it slow to get it right’. The urgency of climate change is clear, and with it comes growing pressure on schools to act quickly. Teachers and school leaders will feel the need to respond immediately, yet deep, high-quality curriculum change takes time, professional learning, and clarity of purpose. The scale of this work requires coherence, expertise, and space to think.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review set out an ambitious vision but realising it in schools requires more than intent. It demands a coherent approach to implementation, one that builds expertise, supports teachers, and ensures depth and consistency across the curriculum. Turning ambition into classroom reality depends on how we develop teacher expertise, design curricula and pedagogy grounded in evidence, and build collective capacity across the system.

Curriculum and pedagogy grounded in evidence

The curriculum must be high quality, and the pedagogy that follows should be grounded in what we know works, including direct instruction, clear modelling, and deliberate practice. But we also need to understand what supports a knowledge-rich curriculum: time for subject-specific planning, access to credible resources, and opportunities for teachers to deepen disciplinary expertise. Climate change education cannot rely on goodwill or enthusiasm; it needs structure, expertise, and rigour. To support this, CAPE will be publishing curriculum guidance for climate change education in primary Art, Geography, and Science early in 2026. This guidance has been designed with subject specialists, subject associations, and expert partners to help schools embed this work coherently across their curriculum.

Building green skills through deep knowledge

If we want to support the green energy transition, we must recognise that knowledge and skills are inextricably linked. The Curriculum and Assessment Review highlights the importance of green skills, a welcome step in preparing children and young people for the future. But these skills cannot exist in isolation; they depend on deep, knowledge-rich learning that enables understanding, reasoning, and application. The strongest contribution schools can make to the green economy is through high-quality teaching that builds knowledge and develops the associated skills, not by treating skills as standalone outcomes.

System leadership

Delivering the ambitions of the Curriculum and Assessment Review will depend on system leadership, the capacity of schools and trusts to collaborate, share expertise, and shape national direction from the ground up. This is urgent work, and what we do not have time for is every school or trust working in isolation. Collective sharing of what works, and of the progress already being made, is critical.

Across our alliance, we have already seen what this looks like in action. Schools in Caister Primary Federation, Northern Star Academies Trust, and REAch2 Academy Trust have demonstrated system leadership both in decarbonising their school estates and in prioritising curriculum and pedagogy for climate change education. For those trusts and federations already leading the way, there is now an ethical responsibility to bring others with them: to share what works, to build collective capacity, and to ensure that every school has access to the knowledge, professional development, and expertise to deliver high-quality climate change education.

Developing expertise at scale

We cannot leave teachers to write new schemes of work in isolation or without professional development. From Climate Wise Schools, our 11-month professional learning programme, we know how complex and long term this work is. The Department for Education must learn from what already works. We must build on the Education Endowment Foundation’s mechanisms for professional development and focus on building knowledge, motivating teachers, developing teaching techniques, and embedding practice. These mechanisms are what turn professional development into real classroom change.

Looking forward, not back

As we move forward, we must take care not to repeat past approaches that limited progress. We should also avoid slipping back into the 1990s and early 2000s focus on Education for Sustainable Development. This cannot be an opportunity that turns into doing the same things again that have not brought about change. We need to look forward, responding to the realities of climate denial, misinformation, and accelerating environmental change, rather than return to frameworks that were fit for purpose 20 years ago. Climate change education today must be grounded in disciplinary knowledge and evidence.

Turning ambition into action

The Curriculum and Assessment Review has set the direction, but now schools, trusts, and national partners must turn ambition into action. The work ahead will demand courage, collaboration, and a shared commitment to quality. At CAPE, we will support our schools and trusts through this next chapter, guided by high-quality evidence and by what we know works, helping them translate policy into coherent, knowledge-rich climate change education that empowers every child and young person to understand, respond to, and develop resilience in a rapidly changing world.