The CAMAU project
Camau i’r Dyfodol builds on a project completed in 2020 – again in partnership between ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø and University of Glasgow and supported by Welsh Government. The project worked with educational professionals and focused on learning progression in the development of the Curriculum for Wales 2022. Follow the link below to learn more about that project, including both the interim and final report of findings
Phase 3 begins
The project team is seeking practitioners to join Phase 3 which focuses on curriculum development.
Camau i'r Dyfodol Launch
In February 2022, the Minister for Education and Welsh Language made a commitment to make national support available for developing progression and assessment within the context of the new curriculum and the four purposes at its heart.
In response, we are delighted to announce the launch of the Camau i’r Dyfodol – Steps to the Future project. This 3-year project, being carried out in partnership with the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø and the University of Glasgow, represents our long-term commitment to supporting schools and settings through the process of curriculum transformation, focusing on progression and assessment.
Camau i’r Dyfodol supports our collaborative ambition through building capacity and bringing together the expertise and experience of the education sector to co-develop a shared understanding of progression for all learners that is meaningful, manageable, and sustainable. This will include provision of support through our National Network Conversations, which create spaces for schools and settings and educational partners to reflect on progression and assessment in the context of their own personal practice and share their experiences and approaches.
Our ambition for the Camau I’r Dyfodol project and these conversations, and all support regarding purpose, progression and assessment, is to:
- Bring together all educational partners, from schools and settings to Estyn, to use their own experience and expertise to build a shared understanding of progression, supporting participants to learn from each other.
- Build understanding of how this shared understanding can be developed effectively for all Welsh pupils through curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy.
- Support development of practice that can realise the ambitions of the new Curriculum for Wales, including looking past implementation to the long-term evolution of the curriculum.
- Ensure change is meaningful and manageable for schools and settings, and that it is carried out in an inclusive, evidence-informed manner with equity, integrity and alignment between all parts of the system.
- Provide an evolving evidence-base, which can feed back into the system and provide practitioners with new knowledge about progression-based curricula, professional practice, and educational change.
As the project progresses, we will be producing resources and outputs to aid practitioners to reflect on their practice, share their experiences and support further discussion within their schools or settings. These resources will be published through Hwb.
As these conversations kick off the project’s work, we will be establishing a co-construction group to guide the project’s activities, focus and outputs, ensuring that it engages with the entire education sector in Wales.
Keep an eye on the Curriculum for Wales blog to stay up to date on the work of Camau I’r Dyfodol, which will include news on upcoming events and published materials.
Project Partners
Project Description
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The Camau i’r Dyfodol project (Steps to the Future) is a joint project of the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø and the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Welsh Government. The project is designed to develop new knowledge and support the realisation of Curriculum for Wales. It will do this by bringing together teachers, educational partners, and researchers to co-develop new capacity, ways of thinking and resources to build upon existing practice. Central to this process will be the integration of learning progression, curriculum, assessment and pedagogy. The expertise and experience of all those with roles in the education system are essential for the work of the project. At the same time, everyone across partner organisations and education settings can learn as we work together to take understanding of learning progression forward in the realisation of Curriculum for Wales for all children and young people.
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Realising a new national curriculum is a long-term process rather than a single event in time. The Camau i’r Dyfodol project has four phases that take place over three years. In phase 1, we will learn from people where they are in the process and what would help them to move forward. It will help to identify priorities and draw ideas from a range of evidence from schools, research, and international practice. In phases 2 and 3 we will work with teachers and other educational partners to co-construct project outputs that will advance practical understandings of learning progression. The nature of the outcomes will be decided in partnership with project participants and will be designed to share approaches to progression that help to build confidence and capacity for those working in a range of settings. In phase 4, we will work with participants from across the system to identify what is needed to continue to build capacity among school professionals beyond the life of the project. What we learn collectively from each phase will feed back into the Welsh system and contribute to national and international understanding of learning progression and educational change.
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Co-construction and equity sit at the heart of the Camau i’r Dyfodol project with a recognition that no single solution can come from any one partner. Everyone will be able to engage with this work whether this is by local development in individual classrooms and schools, in educational organisations, through national network conversations or directly as part of the project’s activity. Schools continue to face a range of demands following the pandemic which means that engagement must be meaningful, manageable and valuable to people. We will work with a range of educational partners including those in schools, regions, the middle tier, HEIs, Estyn, Qualifications Wales and Welsh Government to help co-develop ways of thinking, associated resources and project outputs. The Camau i’r Dyfodol Project believes that change led by those at the heart of the system provides the best opportunity for sharing expertise, building confidence, fostering coherence across the system and for supporting the different people and organisations who matter in education in Wales to realise their new curriculum.