Designing a Curriculum for Wales: Balancing Consistency and Flexibility to Meet Learner Needs

The curriculum is the backbone of any education system, and it plays a critical role in shaping the learning experiences of students. In Wales, the Curriculum for Wales guidance has been introduced to help schools develop their own curriculum, providing a framework for tailored learning and development. But what does this mean in practice? What does it take to design a curriculum that meets the needs of learners, while also meeting the requirements set out in legislation?

According to the guidance, the vision for curriculum that schools have developed should guide curriculum design. This means that schools should have a clear understanding of what they want their curriculum to achieve, and how it will support learners in making progress towards the four purposes of the curriculum.

To meet the curriculum requirements set out in legislation, schools must ensure that their curriculum is broad and balanced, suitable for learners of different ages, abilities, and aptitudes, and provides for appropriate learner progression. It must also include all 6 Areas of Learning and experience, cover every statement of what matters, and include the mandatory curriculum components of religion, values and ethics, relationships and sexuality education, Welsh and English. Additionally, schools must embed the mandatory cross-curricular skills, incorporate a range of assessment approaches that support learner progression, and provide choice for learners in what they study at 14 to 16 while still ensuring every learner has learning in each Area.

Designing a curriculum that meets all of these requirements can be challenging, but it is essential to ensuring that learners have access to a high-quality education that meets their needs. Schools must be able to balance the need for consistency with the need for flexibility, creating a curriculum that is both consistent across Wales while also providing the flexibility to meet the needs of individual learners.