Around half of secondary schools in Wales won’t start the new curriculum for Wales as planned next term. The biggest reform of education in Wales for decades will roll out in primary schools and for year sevens in secondaries from September - but scores of secondaries say they are not ready and will take up the offer from the Welsh Government to delay until 2023.
Unions have long warned that preparations for the new curriculum had stalled thanks to Covid disruption. Revealing on Twitter that “over half of secondary schools will start teaching their new curricula to year 7 from September” Education Minister Jeremy Miles said he was “really pleased”.
The Minister did not give an exact figure but a Welsh Government spokesman confirmed that around half of secondaries would start the new curriculum from next term, as planned, and half not.
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Responding to warnings that the pandemic meant schools weren’t ready for the massive change after Covid disruption, the Minister announced in July, 2021, that high schools could delay the start of the new curriculum to September, 2023. High schools not ready to start the new system for Year 7 at the start of next term can delay until September, 2023, and rollout to Years 7 and 8 together. Meanwhile, primaries and maintained nursery schools still have to start the new curriculum from this September.
Prestatyn High is one that has decided to delay to September, 2023. Headteacher Neil Foley is a supporter of the new curriculum but said his staff need more time to prepare. You can get more education news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
“We have not signed up to start fully in September, we are piloting for the next academic year. Welsh Government allowed for this delay due to the disruption of Covid. We are looking forward to it. I could talk for a very long time about the new curriculum but I believe the greatest benefit for schools is to be able to manipulate the curriculum for what is best for their pupils. The new curriculum can now be applicable, engaging and bespoke for each school.”
Neil Butler, Welsh Secretary of teaching union Nasuwt said: "This is significant. The Nasuwt understands that there is little preparedness for the new curriculum in secondary schools but it would have taken a great deal of moral courage from headteachers to delay implementation. The Education Minister should be congratulating those schools that have delayed implementation because they know that to launch the curriculum before their teachers are ready could be damaging to the children's education. The Welsh Government has yet to publish guidance on how the new curriculum is to be assessed. So they themselves are not ready let alone the schools."
Eithne Hughes, director of the Association of School and College Leaders Cymru, said the number of schools not launching the new curriculum next term was a sign of how tough things were as they emerged from the disruption of Covid.
“We do not share the Education Minister’s apparent delight, in his tweet today, that 50% of secondary schools in Wales will be delivering the new curriculum for Year 7s from September. Schools do not feel they are being given the time and support they require to bring in the fundamental reforms the Welsh Government has planned and which should mark an exciting landmark moment for education in Wales.
“Instead, leaders are weighed down by the bloated portfolio of educational reforms that are being railroaded through with undue haste, hot on the heels of two years of incredible upheaval and disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Our schools are still in turmoil and leaders have no headspace for doing the necessary work to develop and embed the new curriculum. They should be enthused but are instead running on empty.
“The Education Minister needs to take a step back and recognise that if he is to take leaders with him on this exciting journey, he must allow them the time and support they require to recover from the pandemic. Only then will they have the energy and enthusiasm to devote to making the introduction of the Curriculum for Wales a success for all learners across Wales."
Schools are dealing with planned reforms to the school day and year, tertiary post-16 education and the Additional Learning Needs reform, which has been delayed. New accountability structures are also imminent.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We are delighted that around half of secondary schools in Wales will begin to teach the new curriculum from September. We appreciate the challenges the whole of education has faced during the pandemic, and that’s why we provided flexibility so secondary schools had the option to roll out their new curricula from next year instead.
“All schools continue to work towards the new curriculum and we are looking forward to it being taught in all secondary schools in Wales from September, 2023. We have committed an extra £35m to further support the roll out of the new curriculum this financial year.”
The new curriculum at a glance
The new curriculum for Wales does not set out a detailed plan for exactly what schools should be teaching. Teachers will be given more freedom over what is taught rather than following a strict plan. In secondaries traditional subject boundaries will be incorporated into six "areas of learning and experience". Subjects will be part of faculties and new qualifications will be taught from 2025. The biggest changes are likely to be in secondaries.
What school leaders said about training offered for the new curriculum and leadership
The long awaited Welsh Government-commissioned Leadership Review for schools, published on May 17, details comments from a number of school leaders that training for the new curriculum had been lacking. The review, commissioned by the previous Education Minister Kirsty Williams, highlights variations in the quality of school leadership training overall and calls for a clearer, more strategic programme.
Under the current system, the regional consortia receive the largest proportion of Welsh Government funding for leadership training and development, including delivering the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH). The National Academy for Educational Leadership (NAEL) also receives direct funding from the Welsh Government and training is also offered by private providers and local authorities.
But the review, which took views from more than 300 people, including 169 senior school leaders, said there was “a deep consensus, from those interviewed, about the need to improve the quality of leadership provision in Wales, even further”.
School leaders did not mince their words telling the review their views on leadership training for the new curriculum in particular. And there were harsh words for the regional school improvement service.
One respondent told the review: “The consortium is using schools across the region to share practice which is not always of the highest quality” while another said, “regions are the main players, but they are variable in quality in terms of value for money and impact”.
A sense of frustration around the training available to leaders to help their schools deliver the new curriculum was clear.
“We are literally a year away from delivering a new curriculum and the training does not reflect this. Where is the curriculum leadership provision, it’s just not there! Surely this has to be a national priority right now not school improvement?,” one leader told the review while another said: “There is a new national coaching and mentoring programme but how will that help us deliver the new curriculum. We seem to get what is offered but not what we need.”
The report, led by Professor Alma Harris from Swansea University, said there was appetite and moves by all involved to improve school leadership training but concluded: “Based on our data, the leadership offer in Wales is currently viewed to be in the “hands of too many competing bodies”. In a self-improving system who is leading on leadership? At present, in Wales, the answer is everyone and no-one.”
Education Minister Jeremy Miles said action was being taken to boost professional development for school leaders. In a written statement today (WEDS MAY 18) he said: “I said in my speech to head teachers in February, 2022, that I am not yet convinced our professional learning offer is as accessible, coherent and consistent as it could be and I signalled my commitment to change that.
“The work on developing a truly national entitlement that brings together a package of professional learning support that everyone will be entitled to and benefit from is already underway. The National Professional Learning Entitlement will be available from this September and co-construction with practitioners is progressing.”
The Written Statement also revealed that the Welsh Government’s new school improvement guidance would be published at the end of June. Mr Miles said the guidance would “align understanding across the system of what good looks like – from the realisation of the new curriculum, to our focus on equity, to our future investment in schools.”
