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October 2023

Updates to the Curriculum for Wales Framework guidance –your feedback welcomed

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The Curriculum for Wales Framework guidance is updated annually in January. A consultation on some of the proposed changes for 2024 is open until 13th November, and your feedback is welcomed.

The revised section of guidance under consultation has been developed by practitioners and other partners and is aimed at making the guidance clearer and more user-friendly. The changes make it shorter and more focussed, using hyperlinks to related areas of guidance and supporting materials rather than repeating information that’s available elsewhere. It is intended to support schools, PRUs and other education settings with the practical steps of designing, implementing, and maintaining the ongoing review of their curriculum.

Significantly, the ‘Journey to curriculum roll-out’ section is proposed to be replaced by   ‘Continuing the journey, reflecting that all schools are now using Curriculum for Wales. This will become statutory guidance in line with the rest of the Framework guidance.

The draft guidance for feedback on is available online here along with 7 questions in the online response form.

Estyn: Inspecting for the Future (2024-2030)

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With a new inspection cycle starting in September 2024, we’re keen to hear your views on how we can best design and deliver our arrangements. The changes we adopt will build on the work we’ve already undertaken to evolve our practices.

Our aim is to bring external inspection and providers’ internal evaluation processes closer together. Better alignment of these processes will help support our ambition to improve the quality of education and training for children, young people, and lifelong learners.

We’ve made significant progress over recent years. The removal of summative judgements; the increased focus on professional dialogue – including through the well-established nominee model; increased discussion with classroom teachers and our inspection reports accompanied by an explanatory version for parents are just a few examples of how we’re evolving our approach. 

You can learn more about how these changes are making a difference by clicking on our Changes to Inspection YouTube playlist.

How our inspection approach is evolving

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We’ve made significant progress over recent years. The removal of summative judgements; the increased focus on professional dialogue – including through the well-established nominee model; increased discussion with classroom teachers and our inspection reports accompanied by an explanatory version for parents are just a few examples of how we’re evolving our approach. 

You can learn more about how these changes are making a difference by clicking on our Changes to Inspection YouTube playlist.

How our inspection approach is evolving

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Assessment within Curriculum for Wales – new resources

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New resources designed to help practitioners explore assessment arrangements within Curriculum for Wales are now available on Hwb.

The resource ‘playlists’ are a suite of professional learning modules aimed at supporting practitioners, schools and clusters to develop classroom assessment practice.

The first tranche of the new playlists will focus on ‘Creating the Culture’ to enable evolution of assessment practice.  More playlists will be developed over the year to explore other aspects of assessment.

The playlists were developed by George MacBride, Honorary Research Fellow at Glasgow University who helped develop the CAMAU Workshops. They include references to academic studies and research that will help schools and settings in their thinking around the way assessment arrangements fit alongside their curriculum.

The materials, focusing on creating the culture for assessment, draw from the same principles as the recently-published Camau i’r Dyfodol practical materials. They provide a further lens for practitioners to consider and develop their assessment arrangements in Curriculum for Wales.

Bethan Moore, Crownbridge Special School said “The playlists are an appropriate and relevant resource the I can use within my school context and share with others across the cluster and beyond.  The idea is great to share effective  practice in order to secure professional learning and I believe it can promote communication between schools.”

Whilst the playlists are available here, they can also be found via the ‘Workshops and activities’ resource section on Hwb which features a range of supporting materials for curriculum and assessment.

Curriculum Design Pilot – sharing the learning

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Curriculum for Wales is asking the teaching profession to think differently about curriculum design – moving from a model of lesson planning and delivery to a more sophisticated approach of designing learning with purpose. To help practitioners make the change, work is underway to create case studies and resources through co-construction.

As part of this, Welsh Government facilitated a curriculum design pilot between January and June this year. Schools used a ’backwards design’ approach to see if it could be helpful in a Curriculum for Wales context.

Two practitioners from 30 schools attended 12 x 2.5 hour online sessions, working together to understand the principles of the backwards design approach. Also working alongside Initial Teacher Education leads, regional and local professional learning leads and advisors, they used the online Eduplanet21 – The Understanding by Design (UbD)™ Institute to develop their understanding.

Using a model of appreciative enquiry, the group then reflected on what can be applied to their own context and what might be more broadly useful to support practical application of our principles of curriculum design in Wales.

The pilot will continue in the autumn with 30 more schools being invited to join. An update will be provided in Dysg, the schools newsletter. Use the links below if you don’t already receive Dysg:

Subscribe to education and training news (Dysg post 11) | GOV.WALES

Subscribe to education and training news (Dysg pre 11) | GOV.WALES

What did we find out?

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