Developing a Purpose Led Curriculum for Wales

This chapter describes the unique way in which Curriculum for Wales has been developed and how this transformational change is being supported. Since 2014 Wales has been engaged in developing, for the first time, its own curriculum, moving from a product orientation to a process oriented curriculum model. Following the 2015 Successful Futures report, which set the direction for Curriculum for Wales, all parts of the education system, led by teachers from ‘pioneer schools’, have co-constructed the curriculum. Pioneer groups developed a Digital Competency Framework, a curriculum framework and an approach to pedagogy based on teacher professional enquiry. Curriculum for Wales is based around four purposes, supported by a national framework that sets out the skills and knowledge for schools to design their own curriculum through a process of ‘subsidiarity’. Key elements of the framework include the Areas of Learning and Experience, Statements of What Matters, Principles of Progression, Descriptions of Learning, the Relationships and Sexuality Education Code and guidance on human rights and careers and work-related experiences. These are supported by non-statutory frameworks for literacy, numeracy and digital competence. Approaches to assessment are based on the principles of assessment for learning. As part of the process of curriculum implementation that began in September 2022, work continues to support practitioners in the development of research-informed pedagogy and to share effective practice.