Sharing expertise to support the development of the New Curriculum for Wales

Key educational partners shared their expertise at a workshop hosted by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) as part of a major project to support the development of the new Welsh Curriculum.

Camau i’r Dyfodol / Steps to the Future is being undertaken by the Welsh Government in partnership with UWTSD and the University of Glasgow.  It is designed to help develop new knowledge and support the realisation of Curriculum for Wales by bringing together teachers, educational partners, and researchers to co-develop new capacity, ways of thinking and resources to build upon existing practice.

Central to this process will be the integration of learning progression, curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy so as to better respond to the needs of individual learners.

The project builds on the original Camau project which involved the partnership between 2018 and 2020 and aims to develop new insight into learning progression and what it means in the context of the new Curriculum for Wales.

It aims to:

Build understanding of how this shared understanding can be developed effectively for all Welsh pupils through curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy, supporting development of practice that can realise the ambitions of the new Curriculum for Wales, including looking past implementation to the long-term evolution of the curriculum.

Ensure change is meaningful and manageable for schools and settings, and that it is conducted in an inclusive, evidence-informed manner with equity, integrity, and alignment between all parts of the system.

Provide an evolving evidence-base, which can feed back into the system and provide practitioners with new knowledge about progression-based curricula, professional practice, and educational change. 

 As the project progresses, the partnership will be producing resources and outputs to aid practitioners to reflect on their practice, share their experiences and support further discussion within their schools or settings. These resources will be published through Hwb, the Welsh Government’s resource portal.

The workshop took place at UWTSD’s Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea on January 12 and was attended by more than 50 practitioners from a range of settings.

Representatives from primary, secondary, and special schools were joined by regional consortia officers and other middle-tier organisations, government officials and researchers from UWTSD and University of Glasgow.

Professor Dylan E Jones, Deputy Vice Chancellor at UWTSD said: “We are proud that the University, via Yr Athrofa, is making such an important contribution to the knowledge base supporting the national curriculum reform journey. It reflects the major developments undertaken by Yr Athrofa as it builds its influence within the education system in Wales.”

Chris Davies, Manager, Professional Learning, at Powys County Council said: “It’s great to be here with the Camau project to work on this co-constructed project finding out different solutions and working together in regard to looking at development of progression and assessment within the new Curriculum for Wales.”

Leanne Prevel, deputy head teacher at Gelliswick Primary School in Pembrokeshire said: “It’s really exciting to be here, collaborating with colleagues from across our country on a project of real significance. It’s an exciting time in the development of the new Curriculum for Wales, listening to and learning from colleagues to be able to support our own journey and those of colleagues from across the whole of Wales today.”

Note to Editor

Note to Editors

Jeremy Miles, MS, Minister for Education and Welsh Language has made a commitment to make national support available for developing progression and assessment within the context of the new curriculum and the four purposes at its heart of enabling:

ambitious, capable learners

enterprising, creative contributors

ethical, informed citizens

healthy, confident individuals.