Curriculum for Wales 2022: What Every Teacher Needs to Know

<p>The Curriculum for Wales (CfW) came into full statutory effect from September 2022 for primary schools. It replaces the 2008 National Curriculum — a significant change to how Welsh schools plan and deliver learning.</p> <h2 class="article-section-heading">The six Areas of Learning and Experience</h2> <p>The curriculum groups learning into six Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs), replacing the old subject-based structure:</p> <p><strong>Expressive Arts</strong> — Art, Dance, Drama, Film and Digital Media, Music. The arts are treated as a unified area rather than separate subjects.</p> <p><strong>Health and Well-being</strong> — Physical Education, PSHE, RSE. Significantly expanded and now includes relationships and sexuality education for all ages.</p> <p><strong>Humanities</strong> — History, Geography, Religion and Values and Ethics (RVE), Business and Social Studies. More integrated than the previous NC.</p> <p><strong>Languages, Literacy and Communication</strong> — English, Welsh (both compulsory), and Modern Foreign Languages.</p> <p><strong>Mathematics and Numeracy</strong> — Mathematics plus the cross-curricular numeracy strand.</p> <p><strong>Science and Technology</strong> — Science, Design & Technology, Computing. An integrated STEM approach.</p> <h2 class="article-section-heading">What's genuinely different</h2> <p>The CfW gives schools significant freedom to develop their own curriculum within the national framework — more teacher agency than the English NC. Schools develop topics and sequences rather than following a centrally prescribed order. This requires more planning but allows genuine responsiveness to local context.</p> <p>The Welsh history and culture strand is more prominent than before — Estyn inspections now specifically look at how schools address Welsh history, identity, and the Welsh language. The history of Black, Asian, and ethnic minority communities in Wales is also explicitly included.</p>