Curriculum for Wales

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:45 pm on 8 February 2023.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:45, 8 February 2023

Well, I think that's a really important point and, as you say, it reflects one of the points that Sam Kurtz was making in his question as well. There is a balance to be struck, isn't there, as you're changing an entire system between central direction and the kind of flexibility and devolution, if you like, to schools of the ability to design and implement a curriculum that works for their communities and their learners. And, in a sense, there's an inherent tension there. 

I'm clear that it's a curriculum for Wales, and so the professional learning and resources available to teachers in any one part of Wales through their consortia, for example, should be available to those in any part of Wales. So, one of the initiatives that we've taken at the end of last year is to provide a common access point so that any practitioner in any part of Wales can access all of that professional learning and resources. I think that's an important part, but it's not the end of the story. The other aspect is to make sure that there's a consistent framework for accountability across the system, which is what we have with the new approach that Estyn is rolling out, either through the national network, as I mentioned earlier, or, crucially, through the work of clusters.

And I think we also saw, by the way, very effective cluster working in our visit to Llangynwyd, when we met with a primary school head as well. I thought that seemed to me to be a very strong set of working relationships, and that's what we need to see. If there's any head in any school in Wales that has reservations about whether their cluster is working in the way they would want to see, I would really encourage them to make that a priority, because I think it's pretty fundamental to the success of the reforms.