Cross Ash Primary School

The new Curriculum for Wales has begun rolling out across Wales, in what is one of the biggest changes in education Wales has ever experienced.

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The curriculum has been designed to help prepare young people to thrive and succeed in today's world, equipping them for the future and building on  their ability to learn new skills. The new curriculum has at its heart the Four Purposes, which aim to support children to be:

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• ambitious, capable learners ready to learn throughout their lives

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• enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work

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• ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world

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• healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society

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Subjects are now grouped into six Areas of Learning Experience which are referred to as AoLEs:

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• Expressive Arts

• Health and Well-being

• Humanities

• Languages, Literacy and Communication

• Mathematics and Numeracy 

• Science and Technology

 

The new curriculum will also include three cross curricular responsibilities of literacy, numeracy and digital competence.

The links below will provide you with more information about the New Curriculum:

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Education in Wales is Changing:

https://youtu.be/0jEaastz224

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Let’s Get Started: A Guide for Children, Young People and Families

https://bit.ly/3kUU1MQ

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A Guide To The New Curriculum For Parents and Carers

https://bit.ly/3KZ1AN5

 

How are we developing the Curriculum for Wales at Cross Ash?

Under the new Curriculum for Wales, schools are responsible for designing their own curriculum and assessment procedures. This is no small task and at Cross Ash we are approaching this steadily to ensure the curriculum we design is both coherent and relevant to the needs and interests of our pupils, with knowledge and skills being built on progressively while still being authentic and engaging. Teachers have undertaken training days to help prepare them for the new roll out and we have begun to adapt our teaching styles, topics and planning in order to incorporate these new ideas and Areas of Learning. We have sought stakeholder opinion on concepts and contexts to be taught and have fed this into our plans for the future. Pupil voice is also key to the design of our new curriculum and pupils will continue to influence many aspects of their education, ensuring their engagement.

Now more than ever, young people need to be adaptable to change, capable of learning new skills throughout life and equipped to cope with new life scenarios.

Advances in technology and globalisation have transformed the way we live and work. These changes have profound implications for what, and how, children and young people need to learn. After all, tablets and smart phones didn’t even exist when the last curriculum was introduced in 1993.

 

Schools and teachers need more flexibility to respond to this environment, using a new curriculum which will promote high achievement and engage the interest of all children and young people to help them reach their potential.

 

The new curriculum will bring this about by making learning more experience-based, the assessment of progress more developmental, and by giving teachers the flexibility to deliver in more creative ways that suit the learners they teach.