There’s currently one subject dominating discussion among teachers in Wales – the implementation of Curriculum for Wales.
Some schools started delivering the new curriculum in September, while others are preparing to do so next September.
But almost everyone has the same thought – where is this going, how will it progress and develop?
While we don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future of Curriculum for Wales, we can look to the experiences of schools and teachers in Scotland for an idea of what we can expect.
After all, Curriculum for Wales shares much of its DNA with Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.
They both have similar models and visions – CfW has the four purposes while CfE has the four capacities – and they were both heavily influenced by the work of Professor Graham Donaldson.
Wales is a few years behind Scotland, whose new curriculum was introduced in 2010, but ultimately, we are on the same journey.
Now, Scotland is embarking upon another major education reform following a series of reports and reviews in recent years, with changes planned right through the system from the early years to qualifications.
We’ve done lots of work with schools in Scotland and judging by our recent conversations with colleagues there it’s clear they don’t believe the CfE vision has yet been achieved.
The OECD came to a similar conclusion in its report into CfE last year following an independent review.
All this should be ringing alarm bells closer to home.
We recently held a series of face-to-face workshops across Wales looking at assessment, accountability and progression, during which we had many conversations with teachers.
They are interested in what’s happening in Scotland and what the latest reforms could ultimately mean for Wales.
So, what can we learn from Scotland’s CfE experience? What unintended consequences have happened there and how can we avoid them happening here? Here are some of our thoughts.
Variation
Whenever we do a session on CfW, variation comes out repeatedly as a concern. The OECD report raised similar concerns in Scotland. In some ways, the autonomy in CfE and CfW is a reaction against prescription, but has it gone too far? We need to find that middle ground between prescription and flexibility. Teachers should have enough autonomy to respond to pupils’ needs but not so much that variability makes it impossible to judge standards.
Policy fatigue
We need to simplify education policy. There are so many reforms taking place in education in Wales, with changes to curriculum and assessment being the most prominent, that teachers are feeling fatigued. To support teachers to create a local curriculum that works in their school, we need to give them the time and space to do that. The Welsh Government can start by delaying other policies.
Clarity about what learning is
There was an interesting panel discussion about CfE at the recent Scottish Learning Festival. Among other things, it revealed a lack of clarity about what learning is and how it happens. There are many different pedagogical approaches, but there was no agreement about the best approach from the panel – should it be knowledge-based, skills-based, learner-led?
The Welsh Government should clearly set out its expectations in this area – what learning is, how it happens, what curriculum is and how teachers should be developing those things.
What’s the point of leadership if you’re not leading people’s understanding?
Transition
With little or no coherence in prior learning or knowledge, secondary schools struggle to know what pupils have learned at primary level under CfE, making transition even more difficult than it already is. This lack of specificity of knowledge, skills and experience leads to repetition and gaps. The solution is to develop a common core content at primary level that’s small enough to still allow for flexibility and autonomy in how it is taught.
These are just some of our thoughts and recommendations. For more, listen to the latest episode of the Impact podcast – Crystal Ball.
The bottom line is, we need to have a national conversation about how to make CfW a success before it’s too late. We can see what’s happened in Scotland and how they’re faring more than a decade after implementation. If we’re to avoid the same outcome, we need to act now. Let’s not leave it until it’s already gone wrong and someone has said we need to change, let’s do it now while we still have the opportunity to make that change.