Curriculum for Wales

“A school’s curriculum is everything a learner experiences in pursuit of the four purposes. It is not simply what we teach, but how we teach and crucially, why we teach it.” Welsh Government. 

At Oldcastle Primary School we believe that every child should have the opportunity to access an enriching curriculum that challenges, inspires and excites them. We believe that every child should access opportunities to unlock  lifelong learning, knowledge and skills that will enable them to become successful, happy human beings. 

We have designed an inspirational curriculum that allows every child to participate fully in their learning. Through rigorous, coherent and progressive sequences of lessons, our pupils gain a detailed knowledge and understanding of Wales and the world, exploring both the past and the present day. 

The Curriculum for Wales

The Curriculum for Wales has been introduced across all areas of Wales, following a review by Professor Graham Donaldson. The curriculum review suggested a purpose-led, progression based curriculum with a local context to embed real-life, authentic learning experiences. The Curriculum for Wales runs along a 3 years - 16 years continuum. 

Subjects within the curriculum have been combined into six Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs). These six areas are: 

• Expressive Arts
• Health & Wellbeing
• Humanities
• Literacy Language and Communication
• Mathematics
• Science & Technology

There are three cross-curricular skill elements of the Curriculum for Wales: 

• Literacy - Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening
• Numeracy
• Digital Competence

Mandatory elements of the curriculum should be taught across Areas of Learning and Experiences within lessons. The mandatory elements of the curriculum are:

• Values and Ethics
• Relationships and Sexuality Education
• Diversity
• Careers
• Human and Children’s Rights

What are the Four Purposes?

Curriculum for Wales is a purpose-led curriculum, which means that we consider the purpose of education rather than focusing only on what content must be learned.

The Four Purposes of Curriculum for Wales are to support our children to become:

• ambitious, capable learners ready to learn throughout their lives 
• enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work 
• ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world 
• healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

Progression

The progression reference points for the Curriculum for Wales are identified as Progression Steps. As a rough guide, Progression Step 1 will be covered at 5 years old, Progression Step 2 at 8 years old, Progression Step 3 at 11 years old, Progression Step 4 at 14 years old and Progression Step 5 at 16 years old. Progression is based on stage, not age and pupils will make progress at different rates. 

All forms of assessment should inform teaching and learning and ensure that misconceptions are identified and addressed and progress is made. Formative assessment, that is assessment for learning, is embedded within all classroom learning environments, such as the use of questioning, discussions, written work and peer and self assessment.