 Mae'n fwyaf am fych i'w ddweud o'r dweud, a'i ddweud o'r ddweud, a'u sefydlu'n iawn, mae'n ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud. Mae'n ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud, a'u ddweud o'r ddweud. Mae'n rydyn ni'n meddwl ar hynny'n meddwl, i gychwyn, i'n meddwl, i gyd-fynodol, I'm glad of this opportunity to share my impressions of where things are, and that's from a viewpoint of someone who has worked in school and who has led a school for a long time, so I'm bringing the theory and the experience of the university and schools together. As Arwyn said, at the moment I'm the Dean of Education at the University of Wales and we have just created the Institute of Education there and the intention is to be a vital part of the developments in the education system here in Wales. Also at the moment I'm part of the IAG as the acronym states, the independent group which is overseeing the curriculum developments, so my comments come from the experience of leading the Institute of Education at the university and being a part of the developments happening from the government and part of that oversight work which is going on nationally at the moment. Arwyn was talking about the acronyms about the AOLEs and I was talking about the IAGs. It did strike me that the acronym for the OOLEs comes to MDF and I don't think that's the strength of what we are developing. Hopefully what we're developing in Wales will be something which will last and will be more similar to Oak than MDF. But I don't have a sermon for you today at all. I'm just going to share experience and share comments. I have sat in the audience as you're doing this morning several times in the past over the years and people have come in and say I have the answer. I have the experience or I have a package to sell but the message I have as the last speaker said is that you have the answers or we have the answers and those are the comments and experiences and the conversations I have had nationally so it's important that we leave here today really realising that that is the important message. These developments aren't something which are done by someone else but they are something which will be done by ourselves as a profession and as a nation. So what about a successful future? It is an exciting opportunity and as I said I have the experience recently of visiting other countries internationally and they are full of praise of what's happening and they are seeing this reform as something which is very exciting and they as countries would very much like to follow our example and of course the OECD have confirmed and have praised the work the government is doing in aligning the entire system. Arwyn mentioned this morning how this is happening here in North Wales and that is evident in the national mission document which has just been published by the education minister. The message is clear in the mission that we all have a role to play and the first opportunity to be honest in all the years I have been leading school over 20 years and I've been in the profession. This is the first time that we as a profession can take ownership of the developments. I started teaching in 1978 when the national curriculum was introduced and I raised in the time where everything was given to us and there was a specific framework to follow. There is now an opportunity and it's an exciting opportunity to take ownership of the changes to create something we are a vital part of and this is the first time for years that this has happened and how many times I've done this and maybe you have done this how many times have we said oh shame it's a shame that face hasn't been given into the profession it's a shame that we aren't trusted to lead things well this is happening now and this is an exciting opportunity for us to respond to that faith which is given to us as a profession but it is a challenge yes but it's also an opportunity and we now have an opportunity to reimagine schools. We've heard this morning about learning organisations and there's an opportunity to develop the professionalism of teachers. This means a change and we have to be open to new ideas. The curriculum and I will talk a bit about the nature of the curriculum it's the social practice we also have to develop a critical workforce teachers as critical interpreters of policy and not to accept everything without question individuals within the classroom who can decide over themselves what works in that context and not just accept what comes off the shelf from in a package from a specific company or a specific guru but they can decide for themselves what works for them and the pupils in front of them and a willingness to take the lead an active profession. I talked about curriculum it's very and often in our time in the art school that we studies and discussed what a curriculum is very often we talked about timetable or option columns or choices and options but there's an opportunity for us now to be as part of this process to consider a curriculum something wider it's not a product but it's a process it's an opportunity for us to discuss what the ideas are what's the purposes what are the principles and what are the values we have within that curriculum and what information do young people need what are the appropriate methods what are the strong methods methods not method not just one but methods and also to get to grips with the barriers what are the barriers which stop us from changing our schools how do we go about to change the culture and the structure we need to in order to respond to the challenge of the national mission what roles and systems do we require to do that and what are the resources we need there's an opportunity now for all of us and for you as heads to get to grips with this and to discuss exactly what a curriculum is not a timetable but it's content yes content is important but it's also provision it's also assessment involving sensible and wise assessment but it also involves education but so it's important that we now take this opportunity and you will have an opportunity today to discuss this further and to someone as I've said who has been in this area for so long it's been clear that it there's not one answer there are several answers for several schools this collective professionalism is promoted I've seen this clearly on the iag level where there is a specific attempt to try and ensure that the systems that the structure around schools enables and supports these changes perhaps that's not really clear every time for someone who is in the middle of things on them soggy Thursday afternoon in schools but there is a specific attempt for example the OECG have recognised eston have stated now clearly that they will recognise innovation so that's clear the government are in the middle of the process now of revisiting the measures of liability in order to ensure we have the values of a successful future and we this will reflect what we believe the foundation of education should be and this is more than ensuring that a specific group of year 11 pupils really reach their sea level so there are national efforts going on to facilitate these developments and to enable these developments and there's a quote of course that it turned to often by Socrates stating the secret of change is not to concentrate your efforts on battling the old but to build the future and perhaps we have to do that we have to grasp these opportunities to do something which is different and this is important for me as Arwyn said in school we would take any opportunity within reason to trial and to pioneer and it's important that we don't feel that there's that we feel that there's more than sitting on the backseat we don't want to wait for someone else to do the work but we want to be part of that process and as Steve said at the outset there are specific requests from the government for all of us to be involved in these developments to be involved in the work which is going on with the curriculum pioneers you will be hearing about today the professional standards as well this is another development which is part of this infrastructure which enables things to work the new professional standards requiring a professional which reflects and which is active we're not going to get a curriculum which is something which we pick up off the shelf and final complete package ready to go remember developing the curriculum is a process and not a product and I know there are pressures on schools there are pressures on the requirements for you as schools but I think it's important that we also are able to step back and to look at these these developments which at the end of the day will create citizens in Wales which are ready for next century and this has also already been recognised internationally as an exciting and pioneering development and there is great praise for this work so once again I would encourage you to take this opportunity to be part of this process and these new developments it's an opportunity to create a huge change it's an opportunity to celebrate and to free the education which happens in the classroom it's a special opportunity I believe and it would be a shame if we would say oh we're too busy doing other things there is a specific effort to take away from that but it is a brilliant opportunity my viewpoint so the clear message I have is that you are the driving force and I would encourage you to go and to work on this and Arwyn's mentioned at the outset and there's been great praise today about the work you and the north as part of where are doing bringing systems together in order to facilitate this work and to push it forward and there are references here on the slide to the things I think are which are important beginning with people this professional capital this is the wealth this is the power this is what's going to change things and you and your colleagues at schools you are going to make sense in these developments as Hugh mentioned the need to develop a culture of a school to be learning organisations and there's an opportunity for you now to go and do this if you haven't done it already to go forward and ensure this the infrastructure is there those barriers are now being overcome so they now allow the developments and this pioneering work and they are trying to enable rather than to prevent also in looking at the international picture and especially this was seen in canadaen Ontario they have pillars for education policy and one of the main pillars was the public's confidence and this is an important message that we together convey a positive message constantly about what's happening and that we praise the work which is going on in our classrooms much too often and I have done it myself in the past we tend to turn to the negative but this has been a key part of those systems which have succeeded in other countries such as Ontario as I mentioned this confidence and this positive message and positive narrative of what we are trying to achieve yes there are challenges yes there are problems but in every change there is also a bit of a messy and unsure period but what we are trying to do is special and it's a special opportunity for us to do this as a country as the mission has stated in the recent document well I've talked about you what are we doing what's our contribution at the university as I mentioned we've established the athrofa and we have a professional partnership with several schools and we work hard to bring the theory and the practice together this is the truth of the other systems which succeeded succeed if there shouldn't be a split between theory and the practice information is equally important as I said I'm on the IAG and we also change how new teachers are developed and trained and this is a special opportunity for us to change the curriculum so that the new teachers within the system are modelling what we expect for Donaldson and they model the profession so I at the moment with my colleagues I've tried to ensure this perhaps the most exciting thing happening at the moment is the camai project perhaps some of you have heard about this but we have a relationship formal relationship with the university and the University of Glasgow and there are colleagues in Glasgow working with us on behalf of the government to develop a framework for the curriculum the scaffold if you like for the AOEs for the curriculum and this work is vital I would admit that the problem in the past is that the content and assessment of the curriculum has been completely separate and assessment has been seen as something which feeds into something else rather than the learning which happens in the classroom while this project intentionally will try and change that pattern and you will see that in the timetable you have there on the top line on the timetable it talks about this process a report has already been created which has been a review and an interpretation of other international policies and research and best practice there will be a review of how this will be used for a successful future in the curriculum in Wales but we've also tried to improve our understanding of the current ideas about progression within AOEs and to concentrate on what's important when you are teaching those areas it hasn't been an easy process it's been a process of changing minds and reconsidering how we ensure and measure continuity within the curriculum during the next spring term members of the CAMEI group members from the university and from schools will be in every workshop and will be working to develop an initial continuity developments which will be involved with these ideas then over the summer they will be continuing with this work improving the issues and to ensuring the continuation framework but they will also be working with the professional development pioneers to ensure that that training is available for teachers in how to involve with these be part of the new assessment methods and that further work will be happening during the summer then in the autumn hopefully they will be looking at how this is working so the intention and the excitement is to develop a progression framework within the curriculum which is something which will promote the learning and recently the ideas were presented in Prague in a European conference and several countries want to come and see this work so there you have an example straight away of how other countries want to see how the theory how the practitioners come together and how this feeds into the curriculum just a few messages to close then it's Michael and we have seen this in growing through this CAMEI process that the developments in this new curriculum ask for the change of practice and mindset and this is difficult these developments won't be consistent any change isn't consistent but there will be periods of lack of expectation there will be periods of uncertainty as well and it would be easy to move and ask and expect a quick answer uniformity makes things easier but we don't want that everyone doesn't have to think in the same way we want to present and create creativity and this will take time but in working with the ideas and discussing the ideas we will create something which is very rich as regards to a curriculum but as I said it's a process and it's a process which will take time and there will be uncertainty but I am very confident that the product at the end of the day will be worth all of the effort the second message are we going to do that on our own in the past when people came up and taught from universities and gave presentations and they would say I have the answer well that's not true it's been proved in every system we all have the answer and in working together we will succeed and the power of that ability coming together as Arun mentioned which is already happening in the north wales that's worth keeping hold of and it's worth celebrating Arun also mentioned that my subject was history I'd just like to quote a book Welsh education in sunlight and shadow G peri williams and in reading it this is the quote the forward of that book when the period of reconstruction begins we shall once again have a golden opportunity to evolve a better broader more human system of education to realise the dreams of our great pioneers we must not throw away this opportunity that's the message for you today if I was sitting where you are today leading a school I would respond I would go to work I would be involved because I have had enough over the years of people telling me to the the finite detail what I should be doing in the classroom and not give me and the teachers in the school an opportunity to create something and to take ownership of that work so that's the message for you and one interesting message this book was written in 1916 in the middle of the first world war nothing much changes in history but hopefully we won't make the same mistakes in 1916 which was to throw this opportunity away thank you very much for listening and good luck thank you