Sut y gwariwyd y cynllun £500,000 gan Lywodraeth Cymru i ddatblygu deunyddiau addysgu yn y cwricwlwm newydd, pa ddeunyddiau a gynhyrchwyd, pwy a'u cynhyrchodd a faint o ysgolion a gafodd y wybodaeth?
I am committed to ensuring all our schools and settings are best supported as they implement the new Curriculum for Wales from September. As part of that process, and separately to curriculum design support and professional learning, work is well underway developing resources and supporting materials for schools and settings. The production of Welsh medium and bilingual education resources represents an ongoing programme of work with a budget of some £3.2 million; much of which (with the exception of resources for supporting current qualifications) is now aligned to supporting the Curriculum for Wales. That funding was supplemented in our last budget to enhance the level of support we can make available to schools and settings.
Within this process, we are prioritising development of new resources linked to notable changes in curriculum requirements and agreed priorities. A National Network conversation for practitioners was held in the autumn term to help further inform needs in this area. Resources currently in development via a wide range of suppliers include new bilingual resources covering aspects of curriculum and assessment design and development, as well as those covering curriculum areas, including:
· Reading, international languages and British Sign Language
· Mathematics and numeracy
· Careers and work related experiences
· Media literacy and misinformation, politics, children’s rights and global citizenship
· Music and dance
· Welsh history, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic histories and contributions
As one of our priorities, we have taken the opportunity to strengthen our approach to early years learning and produced a suite of resources to support practitioners in schools and non-maintained childcare settings in readiness for implementation of the Curriculum for Wales. Our curriculum for non-maintained settings was published bilingually on 10 January as part of our programme of support. Further bilingual resources cover curriculum aspects such as child development, outdoor learning and play, and play-based learning. We are working with the sector to deliver a national training programme to support the consistent use of the resources and embed effective pedagogical practice in early years. All of these resources, including the curriculum itself, have been co-constructed with the sector.
We have also worked with the non-maintained sector to understand what additional needs non-maintained childcare settings might have to implement the new curriculum for non-maintained nursery settings published this month from September. That work will continue this year, and beyond, to ensure that settings feel appropriately supported to implement their new curriculum and to ensure that our younger learners continue to receive excellent support no matter where they access their education provision.
As noted above, another notable area of development has been in regard to Welsh history. The Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities, Contributions and Cynefin in the New Curriculum Working Group, led by Professor Charlotte Williams OBE, published their final report in March 2021. That contained recommendations focused on the development of new educational resources, workforce training and professional learning, and Initial Teacher Education. A budget of £500,000 was allocated to implement recommendations across all of these areas; not only the production of teaching resources.
Of that amount, £200,000 is supporting the development of materials that enable teachers to design their curriculum to reflect Wales’ diverse histories and communities, including the development of a Welsh history timeline and an interactive map. These resources will be available bilingually to all schools and settings via the online learning platform Hwb later this year. In December I announced that copies of History Grounded authored by Dr Elin Jones were being distributed to all schools across Wales bilingually as part of supporting materials to help practitioners’ realise Welsh history in the curriculum.
In the spring, a National Network conversation will take place specifically on Welsh history in all its diversity, which will engage directly with the teaching profession to explore in more depth the nature of support they need in this area. Consequently, funding has also been set aside to support the outputs from this. We are also working with stakeholders, including historians and academics, to look at further ways of supporting teachers as we move towards the implementation of the Curriculum for Wales. An annual report on the progress made in implementing the working group’s recommendations will be published in the spring.
I fully expect the process of developing resources and supporting materials to continue over this period of curriculum implementation, as we work closely with practitioners and others to identify and respond to the needs identified by the profession.