7 Areas of Foundation Phase

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The Welsh Government has published the Curriculum for Wales: Foundation Phase Framework, this week. This document replaces the Framework for Children’s Learning for 3 to 7-year-olds in Wales.

Childcare professionals practising in Wales will need to replace any existing copies of the framework they are using.  The majority of information detailed below, relating to the changes, is for information only, you do not have to make changes to your service, or have an in depth awareness of this, unless your setting is funded for Foundation Phase by the Local Education Authority/Regional Consortium.

To give some background, and to enable childcare practitioners in Wales to understand the changes that have been made here is some additional information:

Areas of Learning

There are 7 areas of learning in the Foundation Phase in Wales; 

  • Personal and Social Development, Well-being and Cultural Diversity
  • Language, Literacy and Communication Skills
  • Mathematical Development
  • Welsh Language Development
  • Knowledge and Understanding of the World
  • Physical Development
  • Creative Development.

Outcomes

Outcome statements are used within the Framework to set out the expected standards of children’s performance within each area of learning by settings/schools that are funded for Foundation Phase.

Literacy and Numeracy Framework

This framework is designed to help teachers embed literacy and numeracy into all subjects for learners aged 5 to 14 and teachers/setting leaders are also using this framework for 3-5-year-old to support opportunities for all learners to develop and refine the skills laid out in the framework.  

Changes to the Foundation Phase Framework

  1. The Areas of Learning and outcome statements for Language, Literacy and Communication Skills and Mathematical Development have been revised, from their 2008 versions, to incorporate the National Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF).   The revised outcome statements will be used for teachers for the end of Foundation Phase assessments at the end of Year 2.
  2. Three additional outcome statements have been added for Personal and Social Development, Well-being and Cultural Diversity, and Physical Development.
  3. For the Personal and Social Development, Well-being and Cultural Diversity, and Physical Development areas of learning there are three additional outcome statements
  • Foundation Phase Outcome Bronze
  • Foundation Phase Outcome Silver
  • Foundation Phase Outcome Gold

These have been developed to provide outcomes that can be documented for children who are working below outcome 1, for example children with additional needs.  These can also be used to support the development of skills for younger children.

The revised outcome statements become a legal requirement on 1 September 2017 and Welsh Government have published an implementation schedule within the framework for this.

The revised framework is available here;

If you are looking to increase your knowledge of the Foundation Phase PACEY Cymru run webinars on many Foundation Phase related topics – see the full list here.

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