PROJECT SETS PATH FOR SUPPORTING SCHOOLS

This week sees the launch of a new project aimed at supporting schools through the process of curriculum transformation, focusing on progression and assessment.

Prof Medwin Hughes, DL, Vice-Chancellor, Jeremy Miles, MS, Minister for Education and Welsh Language, Prof Dylan Jones, Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Camau i’r Dyfodol / Steps to the Future is a 3-year project undertaken by the Welsh Government in partnership with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (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. 

Jeremy Miles, MS, Minister for Education and Welsh Language made a commitment in February 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 learner
• enterprising, creative contributor
• ethical, informed citizens
• healthy, confident individuals.

 The project builds on the original CAMAU project which involved the partnership between 2018 and 2020 and aims to develop the system capacity in learning progression necessary to advance the renew and reform agenda in Wales. 

Professor Dylan E Jones, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at UWTSD said: “The university is delighted to continue our work with the Welsh Government and the University of Glasgow on this important project. The aim is to support the Welsh education system to realise sustainable, progression-based curricular reform. We are at a critical point in Welsh education, as we move out of the pandemic into reform, bringing together the experiences we have gained from the original CAMAU project and international expertise to ensure that all partners in the education system work together in understanding learning progression”.

National Network Conversations will be established to create spaces for schools, settings and educational partners to reflect on progression and assessment in the context of their own personal practice and share their experiences and approaches. A Co-construction group will be established at the outset of the project to guide activities, focus and outputs, and ensure that it engages with the entire education sector in Wales.

The project will:

• Bring together all educational partners, from schools and settings to Estyn, to use their own experience and expertise to build a shared understanding of progression, supporting participants to learn from each other.
• Build understanding of how this shared understanding can be developed effectively for all Welsh pupils through curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy.
• Support 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 carried out 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.

Professor Medwin Hughes, DL, Vice-Chancellor said: “Working with government to supporting our education system is ingrained within this University. Our campuses in Carmarthen and Swansea were established as centres for teacher education and I am very proud of the University’s track record.  I am delighted that we will continue to work with the Welsh Government and the University of Glasgow, as well as our network of schools and education providers on the Camau i’r Dyfodol project.  Our aim always is to ensure that every young person has the opportunity to achieve their potential”.

Further information:  Curriculum for Wales Blog