Roll-out of the Curriculum for Wales is well underway. It began in September 2022 and extends to Year 9 this September. This means the first learners studying for qualifications under the new curriculum will be those who start Year 10 in September 2025 and complete Year 11 in June 2027.
GCSEs and other qualifications are being reformed to align with the Curriculum for Wales – work begun by the regulator, Qualifications Wales in 2019 and taken on by the awarding body, WJEC. Most qualifications will start being taught in September 2025, although some won’t be introduced until 2026 or 2027.
The basis for reform was set out in correspondence between Qualifications Wales and the Welsh Government in early 2019. There have been different views on the right time to develop the qualifications to test and demonstrate learning under the Curriculum for Wales. Teaching union, the NASUWT says “it is a failure of the whole implementation … that the curriculum was set in place first without any idea of how learners would gain qualifications from it”. However, Qualifications Wales said from the outset that the curriculum should define qualifications, not the other way round.
In January 2024, Qualifications Wales issued a ‘statement of policy intent’ for the new “national 14-16 qualifications”. Prior to this, there were a number of consultations:
This resulted in a set of principles Qualifications Wales has used to shape its decisions on which qualifications aimed at 14 to 16 year olds are eligible for public funding. It was decided that the GCSE brand would be retained but individual GCSEs be reformed. Three ‘guiding principles’ were adopted, which were that the qualifications:
- relate to, and support, the aims and purposes of the new Curriculum for Wales;
- be available in Welsh and English; and
- contribute to a coherent and inclusive offer.
The consultation proposed which GCSEs would be created under each of the six Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLE) that make up the Curriculum for Wales. Qualifications Wales published its decisions in October 2021. The six AoLEs do not have the same number of qualifications associated with them, with these ranging from three in the cases of Health and Well-being, and Mathematics and Numeracy, to eight in the case of Languages, Literacy and Communication.
Decisions about GCSEs in Welsh (as a subject) were deferred until March 2022 when Qualifications Wales announced there would continue to be different qualifications for learners in a Welsh-medium setting and an English-medium setting respectively. This was, despite perceived shortcomings in the current GCSE Welsh Second Language and the single continuum for studying Welsh under the new curriculum.
The long-term aim remains to have one overarching Welsh language qualification for all learners, although Qualifications Wales decided there remains a need for separate qualifications due to learners’ varying exposure to the language. There will be an additional qualification for learners in English-medium settings who are ready to progress further and more quickly in their Welsh language skills.
The Welsh Language Commissioner has some concerns about the arrangements for qualifications in Welsh (as a subject) as set out to the Senedd’s Children, Young People and Education Committee, which is scrutinising the implementation of the Curriculum for Wales.
These proposals offered a high-level description of the new GCSEs – but they were not draft versions of the qualifications themselves.
The final decision about which GCSEs will be available and what they will look like came in June 2023 when Qualifications Wales also published the approval criteria for 29 qualifications (27 GCSEs, Level 2 Award in Additional Core Cymraeg and Level 2 Additional Mathematics). The baton then passed to WJEC to produce the qualifications (see next but one section).
Qualifications Wales published its Decisions Report in January 2024. In addition to GCSEs, there will be:
- A Personal Project on any subject of the learner’s choice. This will be available at entry level, level 1 and level 2 and will be equivalent to 60 ‘guided learning hours’ (GDH), which is equivalent to half of a GCSE.
- A suite of 28 ‘Skills for Life’ and 19 ‘Skills for Work These will be available at entry level, level 1 and year 2 (60-240 GLH).
- Qualifications in work-related subjects: 13 Vocational Certificates of Secondary Education (VCSEs) (level 1-2) plus three others to be determined and 15 Foundation qualifications (entry level and level 1) (120-140 GLH).
- Foundation qualifications in eight general subjects as well as Welsh (to be confirmed) (120 GLH).
These qualifications will be introduced in September 2027, whereas the new GCSEs will be introduced in either September 2025, September 2026 or September 2027.
Following Qualifications Wales’ publication of the approval criteria for the new GCSEs, WJEC began its own consultation process. It consulted on outlines of these qualifications, setting out the high-level focus, structure, unit purposes and assessment approach. This was undertaken in two batches between October and November 2023.
WJEC published a consultation summary in January 2024, along with the final qualification outlines. In April 2024, WJEC submitted for Qualifications Wales' approval the draft specifications for the 17 GCSEs and 1 non-GCSE qualification it had published qualification outlines for.
17 of these qualifications will be taught from September 2025. GCSE “The Sciences” (Double Award) will not be introduced until September 2026 – the same time as the GCSE “Integrated Sciences” (Single Award).
Next steps in qualifications development
WJEC has published the draft specifications of the qualifications being introduced in 2025, with the final versions to be published from September once they are approved by Qualifications Wales. WJEC says a comprehensive assessment pack for each qualification, including detailed assessment arrangements and sample assessment materials, will be published in December, followed in January 2025 by guidance for teaching.
WJEC will develop qualification outlines and follow a similar process for the remaining dozen or so qualifications to be introduced from September 2026.
A summary of which GCSEs and related qualifications will be introduced and when is available on WJEC’s and Qualifications Wales’ websites.
Related policy developments
The Welsh Government has consulted on draft statutory guidance for schools on meeting the curriculum requirements for 14 to 16 year olds. These differ to those aged 3 to 14, reflecting that learners take decisions about which qualifications to study towards.
The proposed new guidance sets out a ‘14 to 16 Learner Entitlement’, consisting of four components, including an emphasis on planning for post-16. This reflects other policy developments for ages 14-16 and upwards, including the “Transitions to Employment” report by Hefin David MS, the Review of Vocational Qualifications and the Young Person’s Guarantee ‘national conversations’.
Article by Michael Dauncey, Senedd Research, Welsh Parliament
