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Building on strengths and removing barriers – preparing for the Curriculum for Wales
Approaching the Curriculum for Wales
Since the publication of the Curriculum for Wales 2022 the teaching profession across Wales has had the opportunity to reflect on its current practice and consider how this might change when delivering a purpose-led curriculum. Further guidance to support schools has been provided in the Welsh Government document The Journey to 2022.
Although schools have faced a challenging time during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasingly those we speak to are beginning to reconsider their planning for Curriculum for Wales. This has also involved considering what they have learnt from this period that they may want to develop further, for example the use of digital platforms.
We don’t advocate a particular approach to curriculum planning or delivery. However, through inspection and thematic work we are able to gather and bring together a range of emerging approaches we see across Wales.
In May 2018, we published a thematic report looking at Curriculum innovation in primary schools.
This report provides a useful starting point. You could use the toolkit to see where your school is on the curriculum journey or explore the links to specific case studies.
We produced a similar report for secondary, all-age and special schools in November 2020, Preparing for the Curriculum for Wales.
All of our visits for this report were carried out prior to the pandemic. It was pleasing to see how positive staff were about the opportunities the Curriculum for Wales provides. Staff welcomed the freedom to develop and deliver a curriculum that is personalised to their learners and were inspired by this approach.
What’s working well?
We have recently hosted the first in a series of webinars which look at this report in more detail. Overall, our engagement with schools shows us that leaders and their staff remain enthusiastic about the opportunities the Curriculum for Wales presents.
Where emerging plans are working well:
- leaders show a clear commitment to and understanding of the Curriculum for Wales
- schools are developing a strong, ambitious vision for their curriculum, teaching and learning, and outcomes for pupils
- schools focus on improving teaching and learning, developing a common understanding of the ‘how’ of teaching
- senior leaders encourage staff to take considered risks to improve curriculum design and planning; where this works particularly well there is flexibility on the approach across disciplines or areas of learning and experience
- school-to-school collaboration, for example between primary and secondary schools, is used effectively to understand what the progression of pupils from 3 to 16 looks like
Curriculum for Wales
Ensuring success
But what are some of the barriers that need to be overcome to ensure the successful implementation of the Curriculum for Wales?
- Finding time to think strategically
- Providing professional learning opportunities to ensure all staff understand the curriculum design process
- Developing an understanding of the link between the curriculum and pedagogy
- Developing stronger partnership working between schools
Next steps – Watch our first webinar and sign up for our future webinars
The aim of sharing these strengths is to encourage you to take this opportunity to reflect on your current practice and consider ‘how might I do things differently’.
If you missed our first webinar you can find the recording of that here.
The next two webinars will look more deeply at the themes in this report and schools will share with you how they have approached their developments of Curriculum for Wales.
Further details of these will be discussed in the our Curriculum for Wales webinars series, so book your place now!
- 7 September: Developing a vision for teaching
- 15 December: Trialling and evaluating authentic learning experiences
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