Case Study: Deall y Daith Ddysgu

Background

According to the Guidelines to Curriculum for Wales: 

‘A shared understanding of progression, developed through professional dialogue, is integral to curriculum design and improving learning and teaching.’ 

This need to encourage clusters to come together to establish a mutual understanding of progress along the 3-6 year old learning continuum was the trigger for us, as a Partneriaeth region, to establish a working group of Language, Literacy and Communication experts from the Bro Preseli and Caer Elen cluster schools.

The Aim of the Project

Traditionally, the focus of many discussions between primary and secondary schools is the transition process in terms of learner welfare. Estyn's 'Support for curriculum design and delivery' document states the following:

'In the past, this work has focused too heavily on pastoral transition and not strongly enough on supporting pupils to build on their learning from primary school and accelerate progress during secondary school.'

• Develop a mutual understanding of what good teaching looks like and what progression looks like

• Ensure familiarity with one another's work 

• Build a learning continuum around a particular skill

• The cluster becomes self-sufficient and discussions continue

Our purpose in this project was to bring a cluster of schools together to talk about the academic transition process, focusing specifically on Welsh within Languages, Literacy and Communication. We wanted them to shape their own learning continuum around an aspect of their choice so that the expectations and the journey were clear to everyone in the cluster.

Next steps

Following on from the project, the cluster schools have continued to work together at an Area of Learning and Experience level. They have held regular meetings and, looking at the other skills, have followed the same idea of deciding on progression and sharing ideas on how it can be made certain through stimulating activities and experiences.

Partneriaeth continues to be part of the discussions, but the cluster is now self-sufficient and leads the discussions itself.