3. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the rollout of the new curriculum in Wales? OQ57662

I thank Laura Anne Jones for the question, Llywydd. Research reports consistently highlight the strong commitment, motivation and progress that schools are making in the most radical curriculum reform for a generation. We work closely with regional and local partners to ensure all schools receive the support they need as they move towards the curriculum implementation in September of this year.

First Minister, with its implementation drawing nearer, none of us want to see the new curriculum fail, so how are you going to address the research commissioned by your very own Welsh Government that suggests that only 53 per cent of education practitioners feel well placed to design their own curriculum ready for September 2022, with 67 per cent of them believing that their school is in need of additional support? First Minister, even though flexibility is very welcome and a key component of the new curriculum, do you not agree that we need some sort of truly national professional learning programme that provides consistency and support for all, whilst allowing that flexibility, in how to plan and deliver the correct content needed for exams—exams that we still don't know what they will look like? First Minister, education has been heavily set back during the pandemic, as you know. Do you agree with me that teachers need this framework support now to ensure that success of the new curriculum?

I agree that it's very important to go on supporting teachers and headteachers as they work towards the implementation of the new curriculum, but I do think that an enormous amount of help of that sort has been provided since that research was carried out, as the Member knows, back in July of last year. The Minister introduced new flexibilities in the introduction of the new curriculum, and, at the same time, suspended a large number of other duties that schools have to undertake in order to create space for schools to develop their own implementation plans for the curriculum. In September we followed that up with a national framework—exactly the sort of measure that the Member was asking for—a national framework with additional guidance for the curriculum roll-out, a new national network established, a professional network. It held 60 sessions right across Wales in the autumn term, with more to follow—those sessions focusing on curriculum design and indeed on qualifications. Then, in December of last year, in our draft budget, we set out major investment over the whole three-year period specifically to support schools in implementation of the new curriculum, and followed that up with further national guidance published in January of this year.

I think the Welsh Government, working with local authorities, regional consortiums, and with programme leaders as well as with Estyn are doing everything we can to make sure that the enthusiasm that is there for the new curriculum at the local school level is being supported by national frameworks, guidance that is nationally available, funding that is available nationally in all parts of Wales. And on Thursday of this week, as well as there being a round-table on the Conservative cost-of-living crisis, Jeremy Miles, as the education Minister, will be meeting all headteachers in Wales to discuss further ways in which their efforts can be supported. 

First Minister, as a former teacher, I take pride in my close connections with schools in my constituency, all of whom report to me very favourably on the speed of the roll-out of the new curriculum. Indeed, a few weeks ago, I enjoyed a virtual visit to Aberdare Town Church in Wales Primary School where year 6 pupils were keen to show me their fantastic work on Cynefin, a central tenet of the new curriculum. It's clear that there's excellent practice already out there. So, in addition to the comments you've already made about training and networks, what assurances can you give us that that excellent practice is being captured and shared?

Well, Llywydd, I thank Vikki Howells for that. It's a real report from the front line by somebody who knows exactly what it is to be on the front line of our education service. And exactly what Vikki Howells has reported this afternoon, Llywydd, is my own experience of talking to headteachers and to school leaders at subject level as well. I understand, of course, with everything schools have had to cope with in the last two years, working on curriculum reform is a challenge, but it's a challenge that our schools are meeting with real enthusiasm. They see the enormous possibilities that the new curriculum provides. I think they genuinely appreciate the way in which its roll-out is being developed alongside the profession and with the integral voice of the profession in the way it is being developed. And for that reason, professional learning and making sure that the work that is being done in one part of Wales is shared with schools elsewhere is absolutely at the centre of the way in which we think this curriculum is going to succeed. I mentioned the national network in my previous answer, Llywydd, but it's a really good example of the way in which this is a curriculum not made in Cathays Park, but is being made every day in classrooms up and down Wales by dedicated and committed school staff who want to make it a success.