Schools are to be judged on new enrichment benchmarks, the government has announced, despite record numbers cutting extracurricular activities due to funding constraints.
The Department for Education will publish a new set of enrichment benchmarks for schools across five categories: civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, sport and physical activities and developing wider life skills.
Ofsted will consider whether schools are meeting the expectations as part of its inspections, with information made available to parents through new school profiles, the Department for Education added.
But it comes as the highest ever rates of school leaders reported cutting spending trips, sports and extracurricular activities due to funding constraints, according to a Sutton Trust report.
It is also at least the fifth set of expectations announced by Labour for schools since they took power.
Government has already announced it will set expectations for behaviour and parental engagement in the upcoming schools white paper, as well as post-16 study and new careers education targets.
General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Pepe Di’lasio, said the “randomly announced” benchmarks “will be added to the many expectations over which schools are judged without a word about how this will be resourced.”
“The stark reality is that many schools have had to cut back extracurricular activities because government funding is so desperately inadequate.”
What are the benchmarks?
The DfE said the new benchmarks will ask schools to “ensure every child has access to activities across the five categories of enrichment”.
Civic engagement can include volunteering and democracy activities, while arts and culture can including visits to museums and galleries. For nature, outdoors and adventure, the DfE said activities could include climate education, time outdoors and residential camps. For developing wider life skills, examples of cooking, debating, managing finances and coding were given.
The announcement came alongside the newly published curriculum and assessment review, but was not part of Professor Becky Francis’ recommendations.
Pupils who participate in enrichment activities have a higher probability of progressing to higher education and being in employment, the Education Policy Institute has previously found.
But half of schools reported cutting spending on trips and outings last year, while more than a quarter (27 per cent) spent less on sports and extra curricular activities due to tighter budgets, according to research by The Sutton Trust.
The charity said in April 2024 that cuts to spending were at the highest level since it began polling in 2017.
Speaking at the Confederation of School Trusts conference last month, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said extra-curricular activities have been “optional extras for too long” and “must become a fundamental part of the education of every child”.
“The sports teams, the debate clubs, the visits to museums, the trips to the theatre,” Phillipson said, “they don’t take away from academic achievement, they add to it”.
The DfE said Ofsted will “consider as part of routine inspection how this expectation is being met”.
School profiles will be launched with information of enrichment activities shared for parents, the DfE added. They will be piloted with small user groups this academic year, before being fully launched in 2026/27, the DfE said.
‘Watershed moment’
The benchmarks were not recommended by Francis’ curriculum and assessment review, published today.
Francis did recommend the government strengthen expectations of the enrichment offer for 16-19 study programmes. But the review did not mention schools.
Francis said the benchmarks were “outside our purview” and her review “made no recommendations about the nature” of extra curricular activities.
Natalie Perera, chief executive of the EPI, said enrichment “provides longer-lasting benefits to young people through the development of soft skills, improved health, cognitive development, and through establishing new friendships.”
But she added government “will need to set out how disadvantaged young people are fully able to access such activities, as they often have both direct and indirect costs to parents”.
Ruth Marvel, chief executive of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, said the announcement was a “watershed moment that will ensure every pupil, no matter their background, can experience an enriched education and have equitable access to the activities and experiences that engage, inspire and develop, as a complement to the academic curriculum”.
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