Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021

CHAPTER 2 CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS

General

19 Introduction

(1) This Chapter sets out curriculum requirements.

(2) References in this Chapter to a curriculum are to a curriculum for any of the following—

(a) registered pupils at a maintained school, except those over school age;

(b) registered pupils at a maintained nursery school;

(c) children for whom funded non-maintained nursery education is provided.

(3) In this Chapter—

(a) references to pupils are to registered pupils at a maintained school or maintained nursery school, except those over compulsory school age;

(b) references to children, in relation to funded non-maintained nursery education, are to children for whom that education is provided.

Curriculum requirements

20 The four purposes

The curriculum must enable pupils, or children, to develop in the ways described in the four purposes.

21 Progression

The curriculum must provide for appropriate progression.

22 Suitability

The curriculum must be suitable for pupils, or children, of differing ages, abilities and aptitudes.

23 Breadth and balance

The curriculum must be broad and balanced.

24 Areas of learning and experience and cross-curricular skills

(1) The curriculum must make provision for teaching and learning that—

(a) encompasses each of the areas of learning and experience, including the mandatory elements within the areas of learning and experience, and

(b) develops the mandatory cross-curricular skills.

(2) The provision for teaching and learning encompassing the mandatory element of Relationships and Sexuality Education must be developmentally appropriate for pupils, or children.

(3) The provision for teaching and learning encompassing the mandatory element of Religion, Values and Ethics must accord with Part 1 of Schedule 1, except where subsection (4) applies.

(4) This subsection applies where the provision for teaching and learning is made—

(a) for pupils in a class in which the majority of the pupils are below compulsory school age at the beginning of the school year;

(b) for children for whom funded non-maintained nursery education is provided.

(5) If the curriculum applies to pupils who have completed the school year in which the majority of the pupils in their class attained the age of 14, it must offer those pupils a choice of teaching and learning within each area of learning and experience.

25 Power to impose further curriculum requirements

(1) Regulations may specify further requirements with which a curriculum for a maintained school must comply so far as it applies to pupils within subsection (2).

(2) The pupils are those who have completed the school year in which the majority of the pupils in their class attained the age of 14, but are still of compulsory school age.

(3) The regulations may, among other things, specify provision—

(a) that must be made in a curriculum;

(b) that must not be made in a curriculum.

(4) The regulations may make provision by reference to courses of study (for example, so as to require a curriculum to make provision for a minimum number of courses of study, or for courses of study specified in the regulations).

(5) In this section, “course of study” means a course of education or training that—

(a) leads to a form of qualification or set of forms of qualification approved under Part 4 of the Qualifications Wales Act 2015 (anaw 5) or designated under Part 5 of that Act, or

(b) is designated by the Welsh Ministers under section 34(8) of that Act.