---
title: "Science education in England"
chunk: 1/14
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_education_in_England"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:21:10.973540+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Science education  in England is generally regulated at all levels for assessments that are England's, from 'primary' to 'tertiary' (university). Below university level, science education is the responsibility of three bodies: the Department for Education, Ofqual and the QAA, but at university level, science education is regulated by various professional bodies, and the Bologna Process via the QAA. The QAA also regulates science education for some qualifications that are not university degrees via various qualification boards, but not content for GCSEs, and GCE AS and A levels. Ofqual on the other hand, regulates science education for GCSEs and AS/A levels, as well as all other qualifications, except those covered by the QAA, also via qualification boards.
The Department for Education prescribes the content for science education for GCSEs and AS/A levels, which is implemented by the qualification boards, who are then regulated by Ofqual. The Department for Education also regulates science education for students aged 16 years and under. The department's policies on science education (and indeed all subjects) are implemented by local government authorities in all state schools (also called publicly funded schools) in England. The content of the nationally organised science curriculum (along with other subjects) for England is published in the National Curriculum, which covers key stage 1 (KS1), key stage 2 (KS2), key stage 3 (KS3) and key stage 4 (KS4). The four key stages can be grouped a number of ways; how they are grouped significantly affects the way the science curriculum is delivered. In state schools, the four key stages are grouped into KS1–2 and KS3–4; KS1–2 covers primary education while KS3–4 covers secondary education. But in private or 'public' (which in the United Kingdom are historic independent) schools (not to be confused with 'publicly funded' schools), the key stage grouping is more variable, and rather than using the terms ‘primary’ and 'secondary’, the terms ‘prep’ and ‘senior’ are used instead.
Science is a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland; state schools have to follow the National Curriculum while independent schools need not follow it. That said, science is compulsory in the Common Entrance Examinations for entry into senior schools, so it does feature prominently in the curricula of independent schools. Beyond the National Curriculum and Common Entrance Examinations, science is optional, but the government of the United Kingdom (comprising England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) provides incentives for students to continue studying science subjects. Science is regarded as vital to the economic growth of the United Kingdom (UK). For students aged 16 years (the upper limit of compulsory school age in England but not compulsory education as a whole) and over, there is no compulsory nationally organised science curriculum for all state/publicly funded education providers in England to follow, and individual providers can set their own content, although they often (and in the case of England's state/publicly funded post-16 schools and colleges have to) get their science (and indeed all) courses accredited or made satisfactory (ultimately by either Ofqual or the QAA via the qualification boards). Universities do not need such approval, but there is a reason for them to seek accreditation regardless. Moreover, UK universities have obligations to the Bologna Process to ensure high standards. Science education in England has undergone significant changes over the centuries; facing challenges over that period, and still facing challenges to this day.

== History ==

=== Up to 1800 ===
Gillard (2011) gives a documented account of science curriculum and education during this period. According to his work, the teaching of science in England dates back to at least Anglo-Saxon times. Gillard explains that the first schools in England (that are known of) were created by St Augustine when he brought Christianity to England around the end of the sixth century—there were almost certainly schools in Roman Britain before St Augustine, but they did not survive after the Romans left. It is thought the first grammar school was established at Canterbury in 598 during the reign of King Ethelbert. Gillard also mentions that in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, science (in the form of astronomy) was already part of the curriculum in the early schools of the 600s. As the founding of grammar schools spread from south to north of England, science education spread with it. Science, as it is known today, developed from two spheres of knowledge: natural philosophy and natural history. The former was associated with the reasoning and explanation of nature while the latter focused more on living things. Both strands of knowledge can be identified in a curriculum provided by a school in York run by Alcuin in the 770s and 780s. Subsequent Viking invasions of England interrupted the development of schools, but despite this, through the ages, education in England was provided by the church and grammar schools (which were linked to the church). The link between church and school started to change in the 1300s when schools independent of the church began to emerge. University education in England started in Oxford in the 1100s (although there is evidence that teaching began there in the 1000s). Like pre-university education, science at Oxford University was initially taught in the form of astronomy (as part of the quadrivium). The Renaissance spurred physical inquiry into nature which led to natural philosophy developing into physics and chemistry, and natural history developing into biology; these three disciplines form natural science, from which interdisciplinary fields (or at least their modern versions) that overlap two or all three branches of natural science develop. This emerging trend in physical inquiry does not appear to have been reflected in the science curriculum in schools at the time. Even in universities, the changes to science education that were necessary as a result of the Renaissance occurred very slowly. It was not till the 1800s that the science curriculum and education recognised in England today at all levels truly began to emerge.