Vision and Context
Blaendulais Primary School serves the communities of the Dulais Valley. Our curriculum is designed to reflect our learners’ heritage, language and local environment (river, valley and post‑industrial landscapes) so that learning is relevant, ambitious and rooted in place.
The four purposes are the starting point and aspiration for all learning: to develop ambitious, capable learners; enterprising, creative contributors; ethical, informed citizens; and healthy, confident individuals.
Aims
Our curriculum will:
Enable every learner to make sustained progress towards the four purposes, with integral skills in literacy, numeracy and digital competence and this will be embedded across learning.
Be broad and balanced, responsive to learner voice, place‑based, and coherent 3–11.
Meet all mandatory elements and AoLEs (Areas of Learning and Experience).
Provide clear assessment arrangements to support progression, not just attainment.
Curriculum Design Principles
We design our curriculum by asking: What to teach and why? How to teach it? How will it realise the four purposes? We engage learners, families and community partners in this ongoing design conversation, ensuring alignment with national guidance while reflecting our local context.
Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs)
Expressive Arts, Health and Well‑being, Humanities, Languages, Literacy and Communication, Mathematics and Numeracy, Science and Technology are planned coherently with clear knowledge, skills and experiences and purposeful links across Areas.
Cross‑Curricular Skills (mandatory)
Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Competence are integral to all learning and are planned, taught and assessed progressively.
Four Purposes in practice
Medium‑ and long‑term planning begins with explicit four‑purpose intentions and progression, ensuring learning experiences foster the characteristics described by the framework. Planning documentation and learner reflection make these intentions visible.
The National Literacy & Numeracy Framework (LNF)
The Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) has been designed by the Welsh Government (WG), so that our children develop excellent literacy and numeracy skills during their time at school. It provides all learners aged 5-14 years with clear annual expected outcomes for literacy and numeracy.
The LNF is designed to help teachers embed literacy and numeracy into all subjects.
The LNF sets the skills we expect learners to develop.
Within literacy we expect learners to become accomplished in:
- oracy across the curriculum
- reading across the curriculum
- writing across the curriculum.
Within numeracy we expect learners to become accomplished in:
- developing numerical reasoning
- using number skills
- using measuring skills
- using data skills.
Teachers use the LNF to:
identify learners who may benefit from intervention or who are working beyond age-related expectations.
develop curriculum content to ensure that all learners have opportunities to develop and refine the skills set out in the LNF
integrate literacy and numeracy into their teaching – whatever the subject matter
inform discussions with parents/guardians, learners and other teachers about learner performance
help learners with their own self-assessment activities and planning for learning
monitor, assess and report on individual learner performance
Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) – Hwb
Criw Cymraeg at Blaendulais Primary School
The simple objective of the Language Charter is to provide a clear framework, which can be used to promote and increase the use of Welsh by children in a whole school context. In a nutshell, the Charter’s main aim is to promote a strong Welsh ethos in our school and to provide a range of enriching activities that propel the children to enjoy learning Welsh.
The Language Charter exhorts participation from every member of the school community and members of the school workforce and council, the pupils and their parents, school governors and the wider community are all encouraged to take full ownership of it. The Criw Cymraeg (Welsh Crew) are instrumental in leading and driving the Language Charter forward at Blaendulais Primary School
As Criw Cymraeg, we have given ourselves the following job description…
- Promote a Welsh ethos in school by encouraging learners to speak Welsh;
- Deliver the Cwestiwn Cymraeg in assembly;
- Implement Cymraeg Campus and gather evidence to achieve our school targets;
- Teach Welsh games on the yard.
