How the National Science Reforms are Already Embedded in HEP Science

Curriculum and Assessment Review in 2025

When I read Professor Becky Francis’s reflections on science education — from her EEF guidance in 2023 through to the final Curriculum and Assessment Review in 2025 — it’s hard not to smile. Every key idea she highlights is already woven into the heart of HEP Science.

In 2023, the EEF reminded us that high-quality science teaching builds curiosity and critical thinking. That principle sits at the foundation of every HEP Science lesson. Our curriculum was deliberately built to nurture scientific thinking from the earliest years, not as an afterthought, but as a thread that runs through retrieval, talk, reasoning, and reflection. Curiosity is the engine that drives everything we do.

By 2025, the Government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review called for more consistency and cohesion in primary science and a clearer definition of high-quality practical work. That’s precisely what our structured lesson sequence and enquiry models achieve. Each topic is coherent across a year group and vertically connected through Key Stage 1 and 2. Practical science in HEP Science isn’t a “wow” moment, it’s a thinking process. Children plan, test, reason, and revisit ideas so that the practical work strengthens conceptual understanding rather than distracts from it.

Triple Science Entitlement

Then, in her Schools Week interview, Professor Francis underlined the importance of high standards for all pupils and the triple science entitlement. That inclusive ambition has driven HEP Science from day one. Every resource, every CPD session, every progression map exists to make sure no child is quietly filtered out of future scientific opportunity. Our Year 6 unit: Preparing for Secondary Science was designed specifically to close that gap, building confidence so that all pupils can step into Key Stage 3 ready to succeed, and if they wish, to take triple science later on.

So while national policy is catching up, the HEP Science community is already living it.

We’ve spent the last four years proving that clarity, coherence, and inclusion in primary science aren’t merely ideals on paper; they’re practices in classrooms. And that’s exactly what schools, leaders and learners across the country are seeing every day through HEP Science