The Welsh government has published plans for a new national school curriculum which will see children taught lessons under six new broad areas of learning.

The plans have been created by teachers across Wales and the government says the new curriculum will break down barriers and restrictions of traditional subjects.

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Education in Wales is devolved and these changes are seen as the largest reform to education in the country in a generation.

Under the draft new curriculum, teachers will be offered more flexibility to teach subjects under six "areas of learning and experience" (AoLE).


They are:

:: Mathematics and numeracy

:: Science and technology

:: Humanities; languages

:: Literacy and communications

:: Health and well-being

:: Expressive arts

The biggest change will see all lessons, like maths and science, interlinked and taught under these new key areas.

Year seven pupils will be taught the new curriculum from 2022.

Wales's education minister, Kirsty Williams, told Sky News the reforms were about creating a curriculum fit for the modern world.

She said: "The current curriculum was designed in 1988 - before the fall of the Berlin Wall, before we were all carrying around computers in our pockets - and it's only right that we completely look at again at the nature of education in Wales and what we're teaching our children.

Image: Kirsty Williams said the reforms aimed to create a curriculum fit for the modern world

"We've been working with our teaching professionals. This is a curriculum designed by our teachers and built for our children ensuring that they will have the knowledge, the skills and experiences that will allow them to be successful individuals when they leave the Welsh education system."

English and Welsh, religious studies and relationships and sexuality education, will be statutory up to 16 years old.

There will also be changes to how a child's progress is monitored.

Key stages will be removed and replaced with "progression steps" for each AoLE.

These will set out expectations for what children aged five, eight, 11, 14 and 16 should be achieving and will inform the design of the curriculum in each school.

GCSE exams will remain, while Wales phased out SATs in 2005.

The Welsh government has set aside £44m to help train teachers in the new curriculum.

But it is a fraction of what is needed, according to Tim Pratt from the Association of School and College Leaders in Wales

He said: "Although £44m sounds a good amount of money, when you divide it down to the number of teachers and support workers in Wales it comes in at about £650 per person which is to last the next three years.

"Well that's really not enough to ensure the job is done properly."

Early versions of the new curriculum came under criticism from some teaching bodies who described it as "poorly defined".

The government says the first full draft contains much more details and will form part of a nationwide consultation that runs until mid-July.

Ms Williams said the new curriculum will provide teachers with more freedom.

She added: "What it does is take away the straight jacket of the national curriculum and the confines it has put our teaching professionals in.

"We'll be providing our professionals with a framework of what we expect them to do in our schools rather than a rule book, allowing them to really tailor make lessons that really meet the needs of the individual children in their classrooms."