Curriculum for Porthcawl

Vision: Our vision statement for the ‘Curriculum for Porthcawl’ is: 

Intended Curriculum Outcomes: 

Ultimately, the intended outcome of the Curriculum for Porthcawl is to make its vision a reality. At Porthcawl Comprehensive school, our currency for learning will be articulated, measured and evaluated against a wide-ranging evidence base to establish how successfully our pupils: 

• Are happy and supported to develop self-worth and understand the worth of others as valued members of their community and wider society; 
• Foster the values, attributes and integral skills to thrive in the present and the future, as articulated through the ‘Porthcawl Purposes’ and the ‘Porthcawl Pupil’; 
• Learn the disciplinary knowledge and skills contained within the Curriculum for Porthcawl Overviews that each subject area has as their intended curriculum and criteria for success; 
• Develop the capacity to transfer learning sequentially within subject disciplines, across the curriculum and to wider contexts to accelerate progress and future learning; 
• Participate in purposeful and authentic experiences that enrich and enhance their learning experience; 
• Acquire and refine underpinning, cross-curricular literacy, numeracy and digital competency skills; 
• Develop their understanding of relationships and sexuality education, human rights education, diversity, careers and work-related experiences; 
• Consider and understand the local, national and international contexts that their learning takes place within; and 
• Make progression along a 3-19 continuum of learning in line with the expectations contained within the Principles of Progression. 

The Porthcawl Purposes: 

As our vision statement and intended curriculum outcomes communicate, the Four Purposes of Learning are at the centre of the Curriculum for Porthcawl. In order to provide an authentic, contextualised and bespoke approach to the development of the purposes at Porthcawl Comprehensive School, a synthesis of stakeholder input into the development of the ‘Porthcawl Purposes’ was created and is displayed below: 

The ‘Porthcawl Pupil’ 

Yet, as a school, we realise that ensuring pupils are equipped to thrive in the present and future requires a layered, multi-faceted approach. Consequently, through further collaboration with stakeholders at all levels and in-depth reflection upon the integral skills that our pupils need, Porthcawl Comprehensive School has developed the ‘Porthcawl Pupil’. The Porthcawl Pupil delves deeper into the wider skills, values and characteristics that are being developed at Porthcawl Comprehensive School to will enable our pupils to lead successful lives: 

Curriculum Design: 

As a school of great tradition, all at Porthcawl Comprehensive School wanted to ensure that the implementation of the Curriculum for Porthcawl was born from the values, principles and legacy of success that the school has achieved. Consequently, the Curriculum for Porthcawl is taught within subject disciplines. Each subject area has identified key, subject-specific concepts that are the fundamental golden threads that run through each discipline’s curriculum. Pupils, subsequently, develop their conceptual understanding and knowledge of those concepts as they progress through the Curriculum for Porthcawl. These concepts and the knowledge and skills contained within them have been sequenced, spaced and spiralled across subject curriculums to enable learning to link and incrementally build upon what has been taught previously. In doing so, the Curriculum for Porthcawl is the progress model (which is explained below). This approach is enhanced further through appropriate and purposeful opportunities to develop cross-curricular literacy, numeracy and digital competency skills and cross-cutting themes that are mapped and quality-assured against relevant mandatory expectations and by coordinators, respectively. 

In order to enable pupils to be able to transfer the knowledge and skills that they develop within one subject area to another, the Curriculum for Porthcawl establishes: 

• Inter-AoLE Knowledge, Skills and What Matters Links; 
• Cross-Curricular Knowledge, Skills and What Matters Links; 
• A joined-up, cohesive approach to appropriate and purposeful embedding of Cross-Curricular Skills teaching and acquisition;  
• A joined-up, cohesive approach to appropriate and purposeful embedding of Cross-Cutting Themes teaching and acquisition; and 
• A joined-up, cohesive approach to the development of the Porthcawl Purposes and Porthcawl Pupil. 

All of the above will be vehicles to empower pupils to be able to transfer, fuse and build upon previous learning to accelerate progress when encountering opportunities for new learning. 

Porthcawl Pedagogical Principles: 

To support the delivery of the Curriculum for Porthcawl, the school has developed the Porthcawl Pedagogical Principles. The shared understanding and approach to the delivery of the Curriculum for Porthcawl is paramount to its success. The Porthcawl Pedagogical Principles are: 

Curriculum on a Page 

At Porthcawl Comprehensive School, our teachers have been working tirelessly to ensure that each subject’s Year 7 – Year 9 curriculum will provide each and every pupil to thrive. For leaders, teachers and pupils at the school to gain a clear and shared understanding of what will be studied across the three years, each subject has produced a ‘Curriculum on a Page’ resource. To gain a fuller understanding of what your child will study in each subject, please click the following links to be transported to the chosen subject’s Curriculum on a Page Resource:

Expressive Arts:

• Art
• Drama
• Music
• Textiles

Health and Well-being:

• Food Tech 
• PE 

Humanities:

• Geography
• History
• RVE 

Languages, Literacy and Communication:

• Cymraeg
• English

Mathematics and Numeracy:

• Maths

Science and Technology:

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Computer Science
• DT 
• Physics

Progress and Assessment in the Curriculum for Porthcawl: 

As stated above, to know if we have been successful, we will draw upon a wide-ranging evidence base to determine whether we have achieved our ‘Curriculum for Porthcawl Vision’ and our ‘Intended Curriculum Outcomes’. However, to understand progress in line with the principles of progression, when designing and developing the Curriculum for Porthcawl, all teachers have done so to enable the 5 Principles of Progression for all learners. These are explained in more detail here: curriculum-for-wales-progression-code.pdf (gov.wales) 

How Progress Is Measured: 

Teachers monitor pupil progress regularly through a variety of Assessment for Learning strategies which should be conducted on a regular basis through methods such as verbal feedback, peer and self-assessment. Assessment for learning is one of the main means by which a learner’s needs can be identified and their learning personalised. Assessment for Learning helps pupils to take control of their learning by identifying where they are in their learning and how to progress further. Alongside this, assessment of learning takes place to enable a more detailed assessment of work with specific feedback for improvement provided to students.  

How Pupil Progress is Captured: 

• At times, Porthcawl Comprehensive School believe that it is important to capture a measurable snapshot of pupil progress to inform pupils, parents/carers, teachers and leadership. Assessment and reporting draws upon holistic assessment of pupil progress through a variety of assessment techniques, as well as key assessments. Teachers then make a judgement of pupil progress against ‘Curriculum Overviews’ that have been designed and developed to highly effectively meet the bespoke needs of the pupils at Porthcawl Comprehensive School, whilst fulfilling and being influenced the respective mandatory and advisory expectations of Curriculum for Wales legislation. 
• The school utilises ‘The 4Es’ to capture pupil progress. ‘The 4Es’ (Emerging, Expected, Exceeding and Excelling) capture where pupils are progressing against the curriculum at that moment of time on their personal learning journey. Definitions of ‘The 4Es’ can be found below: 

Below a summary of our Termly Progress Reports for 2023-24

PCS – Termly Reporting

Porthcawl Comprehensive School and our Cluster Primary Schools have established deep-rooted, collaborative approaches to transition to support pupils to progress seamlessly between institutions. Extensive approaches to transition projects, visits, parental visits, cross-phase teaching, professional dialogue and information sharing are embedded between schools and have been further strengthened through collaborative work on Curriculum for Wales (Porthcawl) development. Work between institutions is a continuous process and has and will continue to focus on: 

• Establishing links between conceptual understanding, knowledge and skill development within subject disciplines and across the curriculum; 
• Developing and implementing a shared understanding of progression and the contextualisation of the principles of progression within the Porthcawl Cluster; and 
• Establishing a shared vision for excellent teaching and learning and utilising more consistent approaches to curriculum design and pedagogical approaches.