Thanks to the latest NAEE weekly round up for alerting me to what's occurring in Wales. I was fleetingly in the Principality recently but failed to spot this.
The Curriculum for Wales initiative is in full swing and you can see endless videos about it on YouTube. For example, here [Where a delusional chap says that "This is an exciting time for the young people of Wales" because there's a new curriculum], here [where Prof Graham Donaldson expounds on the four purposes at the heart of the curriculum ], and here [which is an OECD webinar focused on the new curriculum which they had a hand in].
The four purposes are to support young people to be:
- ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives
- enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work
- ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world
- healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society
These are timeless matters, and there's the rub because the curriculum does not appear to be of its time. Try searching for "climate" on the curriculum website on on the curriculum for Wales blog on the Welsh government website and you'll see what I mean. No wonder the young people of Wales are not excited.
There's also no mention of ESDGC which used to be at the heart of sustainability education in Wales, or so some said.
More seriously, I don't see how you can build a curriculum around those purposes. That is, I can't see how these purposes lead to a specific curriculum. How, for example, do you start from the purposes and finish up with science or maths? Beats me.
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