A new curriculum for Wales has arrived

From September 2022, the way children and young people learn in schools will change, to prepare them better for a changing world. Schools will create their own curriculum that is tailor made for the children in their care and the communities they serve.

"Bynea New Curriculum Summary"

Designing a curriculum is a journey....

not a destination!

Curriculum design is an ongoing process of continuing improvement.  At Ysgol Y Bynea, we recognise that we have both mandatory and statutory duties. 

The Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021 puts mandatory duties on schools - things they are legally required to do.  Schools must also have ‘due regard’ to statutory guidance when carrying out their duties.

The School Staff and the Governing Body have jointly adopted our curriculum and assessment arrangements through ratification of policy and practice. It is continually kept under review through the school's self evaluation processes. 

Practitioners, learners, parents, carers and the wider community are consulted with regularly.  Curriculum design is constantly reviewed in light of feedback from these stakeholder. eg  Questionnaires, Pupil Voice Groups, Curriculum Design Events.     

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is at the heart of our school’s planning, policies, practice and ethos. As a rights-respecting school we not only teach about children’s rights but also model rights and respect all relationships.  Our belief in “restorative approaches” ensures that every child is listened to. 

A Purpose Driven Curriculum

Our curriculum is designed to enable every learner to aspire to the four purposes. 

Our Aims

At Ysgol Y Bynea, we are proud to be an inclusive school where we work together to challenge, inspire, and motivate all children to become successful, confident, and caring citizens of our diverse world. We strive to create a safe, happy, and respectful environment where everyone feels valued and supported. Our school community promotes resilience, ambition, and a strong sense of wellbeing, encouraging every child to thrive in both health and learning. We nurture a culture where pupils are happy, believe in their potential, take responsibility for their learning, set ambitious goals, and grow as independent, respectful learners ready to contribute positively to the school and wider community.

Our Aim for All Children at Ysgol Y Bynea:

•Wellbeing and Safety - We ensure every child feels safe, healthy, and secure in all  

   areas of school life, from the classroom to the playground and beyond.

• Ambition and Lifelong Learning - We nurture ambitious, curious, and independent

   learners through high-quality teaching, the development of strong core skills, and a

   passion for learning.

• Respect and Responsibility - We promote good manners, self-respect, and respect

   for others and the environment, encouraging pupils to contribute positively to

   school life and the wider community.

• Creativity, Culture, and Citizenship - We inspire children to become confident,

   principled citizens who value creativity, celebrate diversity, take pride in the Welsh

   language and culture, and understand their role in protecting the world around them.

We aspire to achieve these aims by:

• Championing Pupil Voice and Wellbeing - Prioritising the mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing of our pupils and ensuring their voices are central to school life, in a culture that respects children’s rights.
• Delivering High-Quality, Inclusive Teaching and Learning - Providing excellent teaching within a creative, inclusive, and resource-rich environment that supports diverse learning needs and promotes independence, enquiry, and collaboration.
• Offering a Broad, Evolving Curriculum - Delivering an innovative and forward-thinking curriculum that is enriched by pupil input, challenges learners, and develops essential skills such as investigation, communication, and cooperation.
• Setting High Expectations and Promoting Success - Maintaining high and consistent expectations for all pupils, families, and staff, encouraging every learner to reach their full potential and celebrating good behaviour, effort, and achievement.

• Creating a Safe, Stimulating Learning Environment - Maintaining a school environment that is welcoming, clean, organised, and safe, where pupils feel motivated, respected, and ready to learn.
• Fostering Strong Partnerships and Global Awareness - Working closely with parents and the wider community, providing enriching extra-curricular opportunities, and helping pupils understand their role in both their local environment and the wider world.

To further support learners, we have developed "child friendly" four purposes to enable pupils to recognise their own success.   

Learning & Experiences

Across all Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs),

the application of numeracy, literacy and digital competency is robustly planned for.  Teachers are expected to plan and deliver learning objectives pitched appropriately to the learners' needs.  Lessons have success criteria (which also include numeracy, literacy and/or digital competency) to ensure the learners are aware of the particular skills they are looking to develop within that lesson. In addition to literacy, numeracy and digital competence, teachers plan for incidental welsh and opportunities to address relationships and sexuality education in line with the new CfW.

The curriculum elements of Religion, Values and Ethics are routinely addressed through Big Questions and are stage appropriate.

 Relationships and Sexuality Education is appropriately and progressively taught using an agreed cluster plan.  This is part of the school's health and well-being curriculum.  

Our curriculum also incorporates, where appropriate, opportunities for learning and consideration of cross-cutting elements. These allow learners to:

• consider local, national and international contexts
• develop understanding of relationships and sexuality education
• recognise, understand and promote human rights and diversity
• identify with careers and work-related experiences

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are purposefully promoted and taught to enable pupils to make links to the real world. These have been mapped out across the school to ensure suitability and progression.  Pupils are encouraged to identify links between their own learning and the SDGs.

Planning & Assessing for Progression

Our planning has been designed to ensure vertical and horizontal progression.  This means we consider both the depth of learning as well as the breadth, whilst ensuring we build upon prior knowledge.  We work closely with our partner schools (Coedcae Cluster Partnership) to develop a "Baseline Map".  This ensures that all learners receive equity of learning and experiences whilst in primary school and allow Coedcae Comprehensive School to plan for learning that will secure further progress. 

Our curriculum supports opportunities and experiences to develop the key concepts, knowledge and skills as described in the 27 statements of what matters. We use the descriptions of learning within each progression step as a starting point for our planning.  This is aligned with the school's expectations for learners, and broken down into a smaller steps of knowledge, skills and understanding (KS&U).  

As a school we have robust assessment arrangements in place. We draw upon a range of information to ensure every pupil is supported appropriately. We place huge value on the importance of "formative" and "in the moment" assessment which enables the staff to facilitate immediate progress.  Parents receive regular information on their child's progress, and are given help to understand their next steps in learning.

Assessment arrangements include:-

• On-entry assessment

• Day to day formative assessment

• Identifying, capturing and reflecting on learner progress over time

• Understanding group progress

• A shared understanding of the principles of progression

• Learner progress meetings

• Opportunities to plan and refine progression and assessment     

  practices–in school and across cluster,

• personalised assessments

• parent/carer involvement

Learning Together

We believe that every member of the school community, including pupils, staff and parents, are learners.  Together we develop as a learning organisation, using information from research, working with other schools, making strong links with local businesses and the using real world contexts to build a culture for improvement.

Mentally Healthy

There is a whole school and cluster approach to well-being enabling pupils to understand their own and others’ emotions.  This is in line with the Health and Well-Being AoLE, and is integrated throughout the school day, and throughout the curriculum itself. 

Every opportunity is used to promote the vision of “Every child can be the best they can be!”

Further Information

We have developed a comprehensive Curriculum for Learning Policy which is updated regularly.  This can be viewed through our  "Curriculum Policies Page".  All policies are ratified by the Governing Body. 

Review and refinement

Our school curriculum will be kept under review in order to respond to the outputs of professional inquiry, the changing needs of learners and social contexts and needs. The reviews will take into account the views of stakeholders and will be signed off by the Governing Body. We will publish a summary of our curriculum and revise the summary if changes to the curriculum are made during the review process.

Headteacher : Mrs T. Morgan 10.08.2022

Chair of Governors: Mr D. Charles 10.08.2022

Review date:- September 2023

Welsh Gov leaflet for parents:-

https://hwb.gov.wales/api/storage/4e66c555-73aa-44ee-93e5-1e612906f1d2/220208-parents-carers.pdf

Welsh Gov leaflet for children:-

https://hwb.gov.wales/api/storage/9db0a2c4-aa34-4498-9187-d92fc6bbf676/220208-children-young-people.pdf