Welsh school curriculum overhaul given go-ahead

The curriculum changes will see an overhaul of what and how our children learn. Credit: PA

The Education Minister, Huw Lewis, has confirmed that Wales will press ahead with plans to overhaul the school curriculum here.

Proposals include making digital sills a priority, giving more freedom to teachers, and creating smoother transitions between subjects and year groups.

The announcement has been broadly welcomed - although questions remain about how the changes will be implemented.

Watch full coverage from Wales at Six:

The national curriculum of 1988 has survived to the present day in Wales, but been described by the Education Minister as "cumbersome and outdated."

Huw Lewis confirmed to Assembly Members that he was accepting, in full, the recommendations of an independent report by Prof Graham Donaldson, published in February.

Watch: February 2015 - Review calls for radical overhaul of curriculum

Its recommendations included:

  • Making digital skills a key priority across all subjects

  • A less prescriptive curriculum - with teachers given more freedom around what to teach

  • Smoother transitions during different stages of education than the key stage we have currently

  • Broader areas for learning replacing individual subjects

  • External testing being 'kept to a minimum'

We asked the Education Minister for clarification on what his acceptance of all of Prof Donaldson's recommendations would mean for external testing.

He told Wales at Six that the controversial annual reading and numeracy tests for 7 to 14-year-old children "are going to continue... certainly for the forseeable future."

The proposals for the curriculum are broadly similar to the model used in Scotland, and would likely take close to a decade to see fully implemented here.

The Education Minister announced a search for pioneer schools who will help shape the new curriculum, and an Independent Advisory Group that will oversee progress.