Curriculum for Wales is a topic we keep coming back to here at Impact Wales, whether it’s on our podcast, on our blog, or occasionally in the wider media.
And that’s with good reason – it is, after all, the biggest and most significant reform to take place in education in Wales since devolution, changing teachers’ role to one of both teacher and curriculum designer.
We’ve shared our own views on Curriculum for Wales many times, both before and since its launch, and we will continue to do so as it develops.
But what do teachers think of the policy that they have been tasked with implementing in the classroom?
Well, we were recently approached by ITV News, who asked us if we could survey teachers on their behalf to get an answer to this very question.
So, before Christmas we launched a survey with the aim of finding out what teachers think about CfW now.
We asked the following questions:
- Do you think CfW is raising standards for learning across Wales?
- What do you feel is needed in education to close the disadvantage gap?
- Do you feel you have the right support to make CfW a success for your learners?
We also left room for comments so teachers could share their thoughts in greater depth.
We are extremely grateful for all the responses we had – 319 in total, evenly split between primary and secondary teachers – and the comments provided, some of which were very long and detailed.
The main findings came as a surprise to us. In the first question 81% of primary and 77% of secondary teachers said they think CfW is not raising standards. We knew there would be concerns but we were not expecting such an overwhelmingly negative response.
In the third question, 86% of primary and 80% of secondary said they do not have the right support to make CfW a success for their learners. Again, this came as a surprise, especially as the OECD has praised Wales for the amount of support being given to teachers and the co-construction of the curriculum.
For question two – what is needed to close the disadvantage gap – we were astonished by the level of negativity in a lot of the comments and how detailed some of the criticisms were.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of responses concerned more funding, more staff and smaller class sizes.
One teacher wrote: “More funding. Teachers need more time, schools need more resources, we need more LSAs and intervention to support pupils struggling because of disadvantage.”
Another said: “Systematic review and overhaul of funding across Wales. There is an over reliance on PDG and other grant funding which changes year on year making it very difficult to plan strategically.”
There was also criticism of the Welsh Government, regional consortia, local authorities and Estyn. But some respondents provided detailed criticisms of CfW itself.
One wrote: “CfW contains positive aspirations but a total lack of coherent structure. It represents an overcrowded curriculum of vague and easily misunderstood content. Due to the focus on teacher autonomy, many schools are effectively lost in implementing anything other than a less rigorous version of their previous curriculum…WG need to work closely with middle tier partners to improve guidance and resources for schools.”
Another wrote: “The descriptions of learning need to change. They are so vague and don’t allow teachers to have a consistent approach from school to school. We need the knowledge and skills for each AOLE to be specified so teachers know exactly what children should be expected to know and do for the progression steps.”
Even with the usual caveats that come with a survey of this nature, it’s clear to see there is much discontent about CfW among teachers in Wales.
The next two months is a pivotal moment in education in Wales as our education minister Jeremy Miles is running for election as the new First Minister of the Senedd.
This means that his record as education minister and the policies he has delivered will be under scrutiny like never before.
We hope that the views expressed by teachers in our survey will help raise these key issues in the national news, and ultimately influence the direction of education policy in the future.
We are grateful that ITV News gave us an opportunity to gather such important feedback and we hope that it forms part of the national conversation around the future of CfW.