Six Areas of Learning and Experience

The Curriculum for Wales organises learning into six broad Areas. Each has mandatory Statements of What Matters that schools must cover.

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Expressive Arts

Art, music, drama, dance, film and digital media. Developing creative skills, responding as artists and audiences, and creating original work.

Statements of What Matters

  • Exploring the expressive arts is essential to developing artistic skills and knowledge and enables learners to become curious and creative individuals.
  • Responding and reflecting, both as artist and audience, is a fundamental part of learning in the expressive arts.
  • Creating combines skills and knowledge, drawing on the senses, inspiration and imagination.
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Health and Well-being

Physical health, mental and emotional well-being, healthy relationships, decision-making and social influences.

Statements of What Matters

  • Developing physical health and well-being has lifelong benefits.
  • How we process and respond to our experiences affects our mental health and emotional well-being.
  • Our decision-making impacts on the quality of our lives and the lives of others.
  • How we engage with social influences shapes who we are and affects our health and well-being.
  • Healthy relationships are fundamental to our well-being.
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Humanities

History, geography, religion, values and ethics (RVE), business studies and social studies. Understanding the world past, present and future.

Statements of What Matters

  • Enquiry, exploration and investigation inspire curiosity about the world, its past, present and future.
  • Events and human experiences are complex, and are perceived, interpreted and represented in different ways.
  • Our natural world is diverse and dynamic, influenced by processes and human actions.
  • Human societies are complex and diverse, and shaped by human actions and beliefs.
  • Informed, self-aware citizens engage with the challenges and opportunities that face humanity, and are able to take considered and ethical action.
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Languages, Literacy and Communication

Welsh, English, international languages and literature. Building strong communication skills in multiple languages.

Statements of What Matters

  • Languages connect us.
  • Understanding languages is key to understanding the world around us.
  • Expressing ourselves through languages is key to communication.
  • Literature fires imagination and inspires creativity.
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Mathematics and Numeracy

Number, algebra, geometry, measures, statistics and financial literacy. Solving problems and thinking mathematically.

Statements of What Matters

  • The number system is used to represent and compare relationships between numbers and quantities.
  • Algebra uses symbolised systems to express the structure of mathematical relationships.
  • Geometry focuses on relationships involving shape, space and position, and measurement focuses on quantifying phenomena in the physical world.
  • Statistics represent data, probability models chance, and both support informed inferences and decisions.
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Science and Technology

Biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, design & technology and engineering. Understanding how the world works and designing solutions.

Statements of What Matters

  • Being curious and searching for answers is essential to understanding and predicting phenomena.
  • Design thinking and engineering offer technical and creative ways to meet society's needs and wants.
  • The world around us is full of living things which depend on each other for survival.
  • Matter and the way it behaves defines our universe and shapes our lives.
  • Forces and energy provide a foundation for understanding our universe.
  • Computation is the foundation for our digital world.