3. Will the Minister provide an update on the roll-out of the Welsh Government's Curriculum for Wales? OQ59074

Yes. [Laughter.] In September, all schools and settings will be working with the Curriculum for Wales as it rolls out through to the 2026-27 academic year. Our ongoing support to the profession is key to successful implementation, and my annual report each July is how we communicate widely on progress and priorities.

I'm very grateful to you, Minister, for that answer. Since the introduction of the Curriculum for Wales, the Welsh Government has emphasised that the purpose of pupil assessment is to inform the way that teachers support pupils. However, the lack of an identifiable and clear assessment framework has left one local headteacher in Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire concerned about the pupil transition from primary to secondary education. To ensure a correct path for pupil progression and learning, a clear assessment framework is key to establishing distinct targets, yet some teachers are finding the CfW's progression code and six areas of learning and experience ambiguous. Given the concerns of this headteacher in my constituency, what is the Minister doing to reassure teachers over smooth pupil transitions to key stage 3, and how is the Welsh Government intending on levelling the new curriculum with the existing GCSE exam system? Diolch.

Well, I would encourage the headteacher in his constituency to engage with the Camau project, which we are funding through the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, which provides resources to support schools in their development of new assessment approaches. It's fundamental, really, that at the heart of the new curriculum is that assessment is there to support the progression of individual learners. It's not there for accountability. That's a very fundamental shift. It's crucial to the curriculum, but it does involve changes in pedagogy and in teaching and learning practice. I would encourage him as well to work with his cluster to make sure there's a consistent approach to assessment and progression across the cluster, and I'd also encourage him or her to engage with the national network conversations, which have been and will continue to be a source of further information and professional learning in relation to assessment.

Minister, I hope you enjoyed your visit to our excellent schools in Ffaldau and Llangynwyd last week.

When we were there we visited in Llangynwyd the arts lesson that was going on, and what struck me with the new curriculum was that they were using that art session to develop issues around identity, around mental health, as well as actually teaching very good skills in art. And then they were incorporating that into other aspects of the curriculum being taught in other lessons. It was, I think, quite a revelation in the way the school had really taken on board the new curriculum. So, partly in answer to Sam's question, but also partly to ask for your reflections on that, how do we make sure that the very best practice in developing the new curriculum, and integrating it with that flexibility across the school, is done, just as they were doing in Llangynwyd?

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.