Through consistent and diligent collaboration with our stakeholders (practitioners, learners, parents, carers, governors and the wider community); PARTNERIAETH (Partnerism), our local education consortium; and the Gwyr Family Cluster schools, an agreed vision was developed of the actions that would underpin the design of our curriculum;   actions that are now bearing fruit as we move towards realising our Curriculum and our learning continuum from one Progression Phase to the next.

As a Welsh Government Innovative school – a Curriculum Lead School for the Humanities and a Lead School for Professional Learning – Ysgol Gyfun Gŵyr has been fortunate to be at the heart of the Welsh Government’s plan to map out and develop Graham Donaldson’s vision of delivering a Curriculum for Wales 2022.

From the outset, the school has been progressive in experimenting with and piloting an alternative Curriculum for Years 7-9 across our AoLE. The outcome of this work is that we are now able to move towards the confident delivery of Curriculum for Wales to Year 7 learners across the 6 Areas of Learning and Experience in September 2022.

Furthermore, our aim is to pilot Curriculum for Wales to Yr 8 in September 2022 and to Yr 9 in September 2023 BEFORE it is made statutory in 2023/2024.

Strong linguistic skills are crucial to every aspect of life. As a result, our aim across the various languages taught at Ysgol Gyfun Gŵyr is to develop confident and articulate communicators – citizens who are proud of their Welsh culture and identity, within a changing international context. We want our learners to see the relevance of the languages they speak, not only in an educational context but also beyond the walls of the classroom.
We aim to develop individuals who embrace plurilingualism and can make connections between languages, understanding the roots and origin of words. We want to see young people who are excited by the richness of literature, and who use literature to identify ideas and emotions, to develop assured values and to appreciate their culture and the wider world. We work together as an Area of Learning and Experience to develop transferable skills that can be further developed and deepened across the range of languages taught.
We aim to do all this through encouraging enquiring, creative and independent learners, with high standards, who can face lifelong challenges.

What Matters:

• Languages connect us
• Understanding languages is key to understanding the world around us
• Expressing ourselves through
• languages is key to communicating
• Literature ignites the imagination and inspires creativity

Our vision for Mathematics and Numeracy learners is that each individual becomes a confident mathematical thinker who is excited by solving problems and facing challenges. We want to see our learners have the opportunity to critically analyse and compare data: local data, Welsh data and world data. They should also be able to interpret information and data to assess risk and use their numeracy skills across the curriculum to make effective choices. We want our learners to be open to a range of methods and ideas and to understand that making mistakes is an integral part of the learning process. Our aim is for all learners to take risks and realise that trial and error are part of the learning process in order to succeed. This will enable them to appreciate the beauty of this area of learning.

What Matters:

• The number system is used to represent and compare the relationships between numbers and sizes.
• Algebra uses symbol systems to express the structure of mathematical relationships.
• Geometry focuses on relationships relating to shape, space and position, and measurement focuses on quantification of phenomena in the physical world.
• Statistics represent data, probabilities model odds, and both support informed conclusions and decisions

A curriculum that stimulates curiosity and finds challenge in the past and present, which helps pupils to be ethical, informed and confident citizens of their habitat and the wider world in the context of the twenty-first century. A teaching programme rooted in their square mile, but with global horizons, roof ensure that our pupils recognise the challenges facing their generation, to make them aware of their moral responsibilities, whether current or historic, and to give them the ability to tackle them. Our aim is therefore to ensure that Humanities Learners are ambitious lifelong learners with strong cross-curricular and problem-solving skills who can contribute boldly and creatively in life and work. We ensure that our pupils have the opportunity to develop confidence, mental resilience and empathy and contribute to ensuring a generation of healthy, confident individuals.

What Matters:

• Enquiry, exploration and research inspire curiosity about the world: its past, present and future.
• Human events and experiences are complex and varied, and are interpreted and represented in different ways.
• Our natural world is diverse and dynamic, influenced by human processes and actions.
• Human societies are complex and diverse, and are guided by people’s actions and beliefs.
• Informed, self-aware citizens address the challenges and opportunities facing humanity, and are able to take meaningful and ethical action.

All children should have access to a wide range of learning opportunities, so that they can discover and develop their own individual talents and interests and confidence build, self-expression and and growth mindset. We as an Expressive Arts Area of Learning and Experience aim to nurture the talents of all children, so that they are well prepared for the next stage of their education. Participation in the Arts helps to foster and positive attitude among students by developing a wide range of such qualities as collaboration, enthusiasm, passion, inspiration and ambition. It will also help students feel an important sense of belonging. In partnership with our cluster of primary schools and local community groups, we aim to create a culture of learning through the Arts that is accessible to all students and to the wider community. Our aim is to ensure that Expressive Arts are encouraged and celebrated in school and to find an Arts subject for all students to gain creative, independent skills-based learning as well as the academic side available to Expressive Arts.

What Matters:

• Exploring Expressive Arts deepens our artistic knowledge and contributes to our understanding of identities, cultures and relationships.
• Response and reflection, both as an artist and an audience, is an essential part of learning about and through Expressive Arts.
• Creative work combines knowledge and skills using the senses, inspiration and imagination.

Science and Technology play a vital role in our everyday lives. Our vision for this area is that learners develop essential skills as they enquire and evaluate evidence in a robust and consistent way and are able to make informed decisions in all aspects of their lives. The world of Science and Technology is a rapidly changing one, and so learners will receive a number of opportunities to think creatively, to take risks and to innovate and evaluate in order to prepare them for the future. A number of important Scientific and Technological developments have also emerged in Wales and the local area, and we will celebrate these achievements in our work.

What Matters:

• Being curious and looking for solutions is essential to understanding and predicting phenomena.
• Design and engineering thinking offers technical and creative ways to meet society’s needs and demands.
  The world around us is full of living things that depend on each other to survive.
• Matter, and the way it behaves, defines our universe and forms our lives.
• Forces and energy offer the basis for understanding our universe.
• Computer science creates the basis for our digital world.