Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

Q: What does the National Academy for Educational Leadership (NAEL) do?

A: Its mission is ‘Inspiring Leaders: Enriching Lives’, but essentially it’s there to help Wales achieve its ambitions for learners by supporting and developing leaders in Wales. Their website covers it in detail.

Q: So what is an Associate?

A: Associates enable the Academy to deliver on its aims by doing things like helping other leaders develop their capability at school, cluster or consortia level, endorsing leadership provision (or not!), supporting design of provision, and research. Two cohorts are in place, and the next is recruiting now – it’s a real opportunity for colleagues. 

Q: When did you become an Associate – and why? Continue reading →

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

Routes for Learning materials help practitioners assess the early communication and cognitive skills of learners with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD).

As part of the wider reform of curriculum and assessment arrangements, and to reflect the latest research in the field, the materials are now being updated. On 28^th January, revised materials will be made available for feedback. In February, practitioners are invited to join events to discuss the developments and offer feedback in person.

The materials currently in use were published in their original form in 2006 and are well regarded across the UK and internationally. They have been translated into various European languages and used as far afield as Nigeria. The suite of materials includes: Continue reading →

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

The Curriculum for Wales is an opportunity to think differently about education. With the launch of Qualifications Wales’ first public consultation on qualifications to support the curriculum, Chief Executive Philip Blaker says tomorrow’s 16-year-olds need the right offer.

Testing the future

As Wales’ ambitious new curriculum moves closer to becoming reality, it’s inevitable that questions will arise about how the curriculum will be enacted.

As the independent regulator of qualifications, we know the change in approach intended by the curriculum offers the opportunity to re-think how we expect 16-year-olds to demonstrate their attainment. Without doubt, we have skin in the game.

How do we measure success in learning? What do we want our young people to know by the time they leave school? What should they be able to do? How can we give Wales’ learners their best chance of success? Qualifications can’t answer all these questions. Indeed, we shouldn’t ask them to – qualifications can only be part of someone’s educational experience and shouldn’t be seen as a substitute for a rounded curriculum and broad educational experience. Continue reading →

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

In the absence of an index we hope you find this latest list useful for finding items you might want to read or view.

New curriculum and assessment arrangements

Assessment within Curriculum for Wales – Supporting Learner Progression

New podcast! Teachers talk about using the feedback to refine the curriculum

Working on curriculum refinement this Autumn: a teacher bares all

Your feedback on the draft curriculum – report now available

What makes the new curriculum so different? The external advisory group gives its views.

The new curriculum’s external advisory group – what’s it thinking during this refinement phase? (Part 1).

Continue reading →

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

Following the publication of the initial assessment proposals in April 2019, a significant amount of feedback was received. Many were supportive of our direction of travel but there was a call for greater clarification on some aspects. The feedback was invaluable in helping us further shape our thinking on assessment and has resulted in updated guidance which truly reflects the culture change we plan to achieve with Curriculum for Wales. The Assessment Advisory Group has been at the heart of this process, with membership including: practitioners, academics and representatives from Regional Consortia, Estyn and Qualifications Wales.

In January 2020, we will be publishing guidance to support schools and settings as they start to think about how they will about plan, design and implement their new school curriculum – assessment will be a fundamental part of this. This blog post outlines some of the key messages in relation to assessment, giving you an indication of what you can expect to see in January.

The purpose of assessment Continue reading →

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

The National Professional Enquiry Project (NPEP) is a central part of Wales’ new approach to Professional Learning that will help practitioners fully develop and realise the new curriculum.

The Project is a partnership between Welsh Government, Regional Consortia, Cardiff Metropolitan University,  the University of Wales Trinity St David(UWTSD), Bangor University and a national network of Lead Enquiry Schools (formerly Professional Learning Pioneer schools).

The schools involved are currently undertaking a range of enquiries exploring the professional implications of the new curriculum, supported by a partner Higher Education Institution (HEI). An area on Hwb has been established for NPEP, where schools’ enquiries are organised by enquiry theme.  This will enable the wider schools network to keep up to date with ongoing enquiries and will also encourage and support all  practitioners to develop as professional enquirers.

Continue reading →

Gweler neges debyg yn Gymraeg

Professional learning will be central to ensuring that all school staff have the professional knowledge and skills to deliver on the education reforms that are well underway in Wales. In this blog, we describe the programme of professional learning that Consortia will provide to prepare schools for the challenges ahead.

The learning will be free to access and includes common national elements complemented by regional elements. It will be available to senior leaders from January 2020 and to others from later in Spring Term.

Regional teams have designed the programme such that it maps to the National Approach to Professional Learning. It is differentiated by career milestones so that practitioners at different milestones receive relevant knowledge and skills to effectively realise the curriculum.

Who will support the delivery of the programme? Continue reading →