Successful futures for all? Additional learning needs in Wales in the light of curriculum reform

Wales is undergoing a major programme of educational reform, including the development of a new curriculum and transformation of the system for supporting learners with additional learning needs (ALN). This article reports on a research project investigating how these two elements are being brought together, drawing on interviews with policy leads and school-based practitioners. Findings indicate that the new curriculum is perceived as broader, less driven by standards and more focused on the quality of teaching and more relevant to all learners. Tensions were apparent, however, in the core belief systems of interviewees. For those with a school-based and/or curriculum-based role, what is in the best interests of specific learners is a core belief that subsumes the idea of inclusivity and necessitates the continuation of arrangements for ALN in their current form. It is argued that clearer articulation of teachers as agents of change is required if educational transformation is to be achieved.