It is “no wonder” that more than half of Welsh secondaries will not be implementing the new curriculum in September, according to school leaders’ union NAHT Cymru.
The union’s director, Laura Doel, has said “schools are under enormous pressure” and do not feel ready to implement the new Curriculum for Wales.
She made her comments after the Welsh education minister, Jeremy Miles, revealed on social media yesterday that “nearly half of secondary schools will teach the curriculum from September”.
Ms Doel welcomed the phased approach to implementation in secondary, which means the sector can delay rollout of the new curriculum until September 2023.
However, she called for primaries to also be given “some flexibility” as they, too, are under “immense pressure” but have been given no choice and must introduce the changes in time for the new school year.
Ms Doel said: “Schools are under enormous pressure from Covid and the challenge of implementing the new curriculum. We have repeatedly told this to the government and the minister responded with some flexibility by allowing secondary schools to have a phased start to the new curriculum. The fact that half of secondary schools are delaying their start shows that they don’t feel ready.
“Following the two damning independent reports on consortia support for leaders and the new curriculum, it’s no wonder they don’t feel ready. It’s only right that they should be able to take their time to get this huge change right and ensure our learners get the very best of what the new curriculum will have to offer.”
She added: “Unfortunately, primary schools have not been afforded that opportunity. Those leaders continue to be under immense pressure and we urge the government to offer some flexibility to those primary settings who feel they need it.
“We all want to see a successful rollout. I don’t see the sense in sticking to an arbitrary deadline that could hinder the process further down the line.”
Yesterday, Mr Miles said on Twitter that he had now received the “full list” of schools planning to introduce the new curriculum and “nearly half of secondary schools will teach the curriculum from September”. He added that “this remains a tremendous effort”.
Mr Miles had originally said, on Monday, that he was “really pleased that over half of secondary schools” would start teaching their new curricula in Year 7 from September.
In his tweets yesterday, he added that he was looking forward to the new curriculum being taught to all pupils in Years 7 and 8 from September 2023.
In July last year, it was announced that Welsh secondary schools would be given more time to introduce the new curriculum because of the pandemic.
Mr Miles said at the time that secondary schools had faced “specific challenges” - such as managing qualifications owing to the cancellation of the exams - and that had, in some instances, “affected their readiness for curriculum delivery”.
“In 2022, schools that are ready to roll out the curriculum to Year 7 may do so but this will not be mandatory until 2023, with rollout to Years 7 and 8 together,” he said.
However, the teaching unions in Wales have long warned that preparations were stalling because of the pandemic.
There is also concern that it is not just the curriculum that is changing - Wales is also introducing a new system for supporting children with special educational needs and new qualifications are in the process of being designed.
At the end of last month, the NAHT conference, in Telford, heard that, on top of dealing with Covid, Welsh schools “are going through some radical reform, and it’s everything”.
