Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “School leaders will welcome the recognition in the interim report that the current curriculum and qualifications are overcrowded with content. They will support the commitment to review specific subjects, make improvements and ensure all pupils are represented in the curriculum.

“NAHT are pleased that the negative impact of the EBacc, the excessive volume of assessment from GCSE’s, the ineffective resit policy and the need for a range of vocational and technical qualifications post 16 are all acknowledged and will be subject to further exploration. We hope this does result in clear recommendations for positive change.

“However, primary school leaders will be disappointed that there are clearly no plans to reduce statutory tests for children. This is missed opportunity to reduce the negative impacts, costs and resources required for phonics, the multiplication check and the grammar, punctuation and spelling tests. Scrapping these unnecessary tests will not reduce standards.

“School leaders will have questions about how the call for evidence responses were analysed, the results of that analysis and how the priorities the review have been identified. They want to be heard and involved in this review and will want to know the plans for engagement going forwards.”