GCSE natural history proposed subject content

In March 2025, the Department for Education confirmed that the subject content for a new natural history GCSE would be developed and consulted on following the completion of the Curriculum and Assessment Review. The Review’s final report was published in November 2025 and the department is now in a position to share proposed subject content for consultation.

This new natural history GCSE will provide students with a knowledge rich, coherent, satisfying and worthwhile course of study. Our intention is that the GCSE will appeal to students from a variety of different backgrounds and will be enriching wherever in the country they live.

Throughout the content development process, we have been guided by the principle that students should have the opportunity to engage with, learn about, and understand the natural world as it exists all around them. We have therefore ensured there is substantial coverage of habitats, species, and human influences found in the UK. We have also applied this to the fieldwork requirements. Fieldwork is an essential element of the study of natural history and our intention is that it can be delivered flexibly, adapted to the diverse contexts in which schools operate. We have suggested a number of ways in which schools may wish to deliver fieldwork requirements but we are not prescribing a single approach to delivery that all schools must follow. We believe this will support schools to deliver rich and meaningful experiences that are both practical and tailored to local contexts.

The natural history GCSE will give students the opportunity to work towards a rigorous qualification that is internationally recognised and accepted in school and college performance tables. Our intention is that the GCSE will support students to progress to further academic and vocational study, training or employment. Study of the natural history GCSE will particularly complement study of biology and geography GCSEs, and will give students a good foundation on which to study A levels such as environmental science. It will also support progression to post‑16 vocational options, including relevant V Levels and T Levels.

The GCSE sits alongside initiatives such as the National Education Nature Park, whose cross‑curricular resources support learning in other GCSE subjects while helping all young people connect with the natural world and understand their role within it.

The department has worked closely with and would like to thank Cambridge OCR, who put forward the proposal for the GCSE, and our subject experts, Stephanie Holt of the Natural History Museum and Elena Lengthorn of the University of Worcester, who have hugely contributed to the development of the proposed subject content, ready for public consultation.

We would also like to thank the other awarding organisations and the many stakeholder organisations and individual experts we have worked with for their constructive engagement to date.

The department is now seeking views on the proposed subject content via this public consultation.