Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales: Implementation - Estyn response

1 Pioneer schools

Estyn agrees with the principle of subsidiarity that encourages ownership of curriculum reform by the teaching profession. A particular strength of the pioneer model is its engagement with schools as a whole organizations, including middle as well as senior management. Because the model has the school as its basic unit, the interdependencies of the curriculum, assessment, pedagogy and leadership are more likely to be considered in the round. A danger of the model is that ‘non-pioneer schools’ feel ‘outside the loop’. Regular, high-quality communication is needed to mitigate this danger.

Curriculum reform requires balancing of national direction, expert advice and harnessing of practitioner expertise. The Digital Competence Framework approach of doing this worked well. A useful feature of the DCF process was having a small but representative steering group that would sift the best ideas from pioneer schools and experts and communicate them with the wider group. It is good to understand that the intention is to ‘scale up’ this DCF approach to the more complex context of wider curriculum reform.

2 Professional learning and ITET

The underperformance of the ITET sector in Wales is well documented (eg Tabberer, Furlong and Estyn reports). ITET in Wales needs to look internationally for best practice because of the limitations of the provision here. New accreditation arrangements for ITET, based on the most recent Furlong report, are being developed, and it is too early to judge the success of these new arrangements. A key criterion will be the extent to which partner school are involved in the leadership and management of the new courses.

Successful Futures provides a coherent vision for curriculum reform and sets clear expectations for the outcomes for learners (‘the four purposes’). The vision for professional learning is developing. Regional consortia operate various models of professional learning and most are based on school-to-school support. There has not been enough evaluation of these models and there is too much regional variation. We need a consistent all-Wales national model for professional learning, delivered regionally. The OECD ‘learning organisation’ model is a promising development that has the potential to bring coherence to this policy area.

Leadership capacity shortfalls exist across the education system in Wales as noted in several Estyn Annual Reports, and it is good to hear the commitment to establish a Leadership Academy.

3 Governance arrangements – Advisory Board, Change Board and Strategic Stakeholder Group

The governance arrangements for education reform programme are changing. The various boards provide suitable mechanisms for advising, scrutinising and challenging decisions made by the Programme Board. It is good to understand that the Programme Board is to be strengthened and widened.