Abercynon Community Primary School is proud to have been selected by the Welsh Government as a Curriculum Pioneer School charged with developing a new curriculum for Wales.
In 2015 our application to join the Pioneer School network was successful and we were involved in the early stages of developing the thinking, structure and principles underpinning the new curriculum for Wales. Since then, as a Curriculum Pioneer school for Languages, Literacy and Communication (LLC) we have been working together as part of an all-Wales partnership team to design and develop the new curriculum for Wales.
Our role in the next year has been extended to refine the curriculum in response to the consultations and working closely with other schools both locally and nationally sharing our vision, knowledge, understanding and experience of the new curriculum with other schools.
In particular we have been selected as the Lead Practitioner School in our area for LLC, supporting schools with this specific area of the new curriculum. We will also be trialing and testing the new curriculum first from April 2019 ready for full implementation in 2022.
This is a very exciting time for staff and pupils at Abercynon Community Primary School.
Advances in technology and globalisation have transformed the way we live and work. These changes have profound implications for what, and how, children and young people need to learn.
This new approach was informed by Professor Graham Donaldson's independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales in February 2015 which provided the foundations for a twenty-first Century curriculum shaped by the very latest national and international thinking.
How are we moving forward as a school?
The principles of enrichment and experience have been a driving force in our curriculum development. We engage our learners at the beginning of our connected learning topics through carefully planned 'Immersion' days and ensure that opportunities are taken to highlight the four purposes in our learning experiences and as focused weeks. Our learners are at the heart of decisions made with a focus on carefully chosen skills which makes learning purposeful and relevant.
We are passionate about learning languages and have a Spanish specialist immersing children in a half hour weekly class session from Nursery to Yr 6 as well as working towards the Cymraeg Campus Bronze Award for our Welsh language development. Our pupils take part in the Urdd Eisteddfod every year which develops their recital, music and art abilities and we are developing our reading skills through the Bookslam competition. The Lead Creative Schools programme has enriched creativity and allowed children to work with specialists in storytelling, poetry, art and filmmaking as well as developing our outdoor learning experiences.
Staff and pupils have been upskilled with a focus on developing the DCF across the school. We are providing innovative learning experiences through using technology like VR headsets to support other areas of the curriculum as well as digital collaborative learning. Our digital leaders have supported other schools, training them on aspects of coding the use of Teams and Minecraft.
We have set up a number of councils which are allowing children to have their voices listened to and for them to be more knowledgeable and impact on decisions made in school. In particular the new curriculum group are learning about the changes and making decisions about how we should learn.
We hope you are able to see that your children are developing all of these important lifelong skills at Abercynon Community Primary School. If you have any questions about how we are developing the curriculum then please ask as we are very happy to talk to you about approaches we are taking in the classroom.
Likewise, we are committed to working together. We are keen to involve parents in our curriculum delivery to ensure we provide a broad and balanced curriculum with purposeful experiences. If you can help us in any way with any knowledge, skills or expertise you may have to offer then we would be delighted to hear from you.
The first element of the new curriculum to be developed was the Digital Competence Framework (DCF).
Like literacy and numeracy it applies across all subjects, developing skills and confidence in learners that make them adaptable to changes in technology over time. The framework has four strands of equal importance. Each has a number of elements which explore the detail within it.
The principles of enrichment and experience have been a driving force in our curriculum development. We engage our learners at the beginning of our connected learning topics through carefully planned 'Immersion' days and ensure that opportunities are taken to highlight the four purposes in our learning experiences and as focused weeks. Our learners are at the heart of decisions made with a focus on carefully chosen skills which makes learning purposeful and relevant. We are passionate about learning languages and have a Spanish specialist immersing children in a half hour weekly class session from Nursery to Yr 6 as well as working towards the Cymraeg Campus Bronze Award for our Welsh language development. Our pupils take part in the Urdd Eisteddfod every year which develops their recital, music and art abilities and we are developing our reading skills through the Bookslam competition. The Lead Creative Schools programme has enriched creativity and allowed children to work with specialists in storytelling, poetry and filmmaking as well as developing our outdoor learning experiences. Staff and pupils have been upskilled with a focus on developing the DCF across the school. We are providing innovative learning experiences through using technology like VR headsets to support other areas of the curriculum as well as digital collaborative learning. Our digital leaders have supported other schools, training them on aspects of coding the use of Teams and Minecraft. We have set up a number of councils which are allowing children to have their voices listened to and for them to be more knowledgeable and impact on decisions made in school. In particular the new curriculum group are learning about the changes and making decisions about how we should learn.