University news

The University of Glasgow has collaborated with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) on a project that’s empowering practitioners to realise the Curriculum for Wales.

Funded by the Welsh Government, the Camau i’r Dyfodol research project was designed to support education professionals in Wales to advance practical understandings of progression in learning as they worked to realise Curriculum for Wales (CfW).

Findings from the fourth and final phase of the project have now been shared in a report that offers key recommendations to support the coherent and sustainable realisation of the CfW, across all schools in Wales.

The report is published at a time when all four UK nations are engaged in curriculum review, reform or development, making its findings relevant to wider discussions about curriculum design and implementation across the UK.

This is a major step forward in understanding how the Curriculum for Wales (CfW) can be realised in practice, with learning from previous phases attracting positive feedback from educators and policy makers.

The report found that uncertainty over accountability was seen as a barrier to change, and that language, volume and vagueness of the curriculum framework documents were barriers to realising CfW coherently.

Curriculum design requires specific professional knowledge and skills that teachers may need to develop. It also pointed out that the CfW has been realised across the system in very different ways, drawing on different curriculum models and underpinning philosophies.

A representative from the Welsh Government said: "The partnership with CAMAU has been an important part of our approach to Curriculum realisation, ensuring our approach is grounded in evidence and the experiences of schools. CAMAU’s work continues to directly inform our professional learning support as we move as a system beyond initial Curriculum rollout into sustained continuous improvement.”

Dr Sonny Singh, Principal Investigator at the University of Wales Trinity St David, commented: “Our Phase 4 findings show that the future of Welsh education depends on greater consistency and coherence across the system. By clearly recognising the Curriculum for Wales as a purpose-led process model and building trust-based accountability, we can support schools to deliver genuinely learner-centred education.”

David Morrison-Love, Principal Investigator at the University of Glasgow, added: "The project enabled us to work with people from across the Welsh education system and has advanced our understanding of national curriculum reform. We would like to thank everyone who took part and we hope this work can help in realising the educational potential and possibilities this curriculum holds for the children, young people and teachers of Wales."

The report sets out four recommendations for the Welsh Education system drawn from the evidence and findings across all four phases of the Camau i’r Dyfodol project, with the aim of providing Welsh Government with an evidence-base to support curriculum realisation:

• Support consistent understanding of CfW as a process model of curriculum design
• To strengthen system integrity, enable professional learning opportunities and ways of working that align with the nature of CfW
• Reduce, refine and clarify the curriculum framework to create internal coherence
• Provide clearer guidance on the integrated nature of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

Feedback on the project from educators has been positive, with on teacher commenting: “I think that this is probably the closest we’ve got to so far in, what - five years of working on this?- to ‘ohh - we can define what our curriculum is. We’ve just developed the understanding of what the purpose of Curriculum for Wales is, you know, what the thinking behind it is - what we’re trying to achieve by that as a nation, not just as a school.”

The Camau I’r Dyfodol project involved more than 400 education professionals from across all levels of the Welsh Education system and was designed to advance practical understandings of learning progression and support coherent realisation the Curriculum for Wales.

The Principal Investigators at the University of Glasgow's School of Education were Dr David Morrison-Love and Dr Kara Makara Fuller.

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First published: 30 July 2026