Consultation display

Stakeholder event on ‘The teaching of Welsh history, culture and heritage in schools’

Purpose of the consultation

The Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee held a stakeholder event to discuss ‘the teaching of Welsh history, culture and heritage in schools’ at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.

Background

The Committee ran a public poll during summer 2018, inviting members of the public to select from a list of potential inquiry topics. Nearly 2,500 people participated in the poll, with 44% voting for ‘Teaching of Welsh history, culture and heritage in schools’.

Many of the proponents of the Committee undertaking this inquiry argued that the history of Wales is not taught from a Welsh perspective and there is not enough of it in the curriculum .

However, there was an alternative view that there is already considerable coverage of it within the current GCSE and AS/A level specifications and opportunities to study it at previous stages of schooling. For instance, the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Education, Kirsty Williams AM, has said ‘in the new A-level, AS-level and the new history GCSE [there] is a much greater emphasis on the need to teach children aspects of Welsh history’.

Purpose of the session

The Committee held a one-day stakeholder event to gather views.

Discussion points

The Committee focused on the following discussion points:

-     To what extent the current curriculum and GCSE and A/AS level History specifications,  adequately ensure that a sufficient amount of history taught in schools is Welsh history and/or from a Welsh perspective.

 

-     Whether the new Curriculum for Wales, under development following the Donaldson Review, will enhance or constrain opportunities for Welsh history to be taught and/or from a Welsh perspective.

 

-     How to strike the right balance between flexibility and discretion for education professionals to deliver a local curriculum suitable to their particular schools and ensuring consistency and sufficient coverage of Welsh history and the Welsh perspective in what is taught.

 

-     The extent to which the wider Welsh public are aware of, and have opportunities to learn about, the history, culture and heritage of their nation.

Contact details

Should you wish to speak to someone regarding this consultation, please use the below contact details:

Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee
Welsh Parliament
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff
CF99 1SN

Email: Contact@senedd.wales
Telephone: 0300 200 6565