When was the last time a curriculum document made you lean in with excitement? If you're like most educators, the answer is probably "never."
When was the last time a curriculum document made you lean in with excitement? If you’re like most educators, the answer is probably “never.” Traditional curriculum documents tend to be dense, technical, and—let’s be honest—uninviting. They speak to administrators and systems rather than to the students and families who need to understand and engage with learning.
Wales is changing that narrative.
The story of curriculum storyboarding begins in an unexpected place: the Walt Disney Studios of the 1930s. Animator Webb Smith developed storyboards as a way to pre-visualize films, ensuring narrative flow and audience connection. Disney’s studio policy was clear—audiences wouldn’t watch a film unless its story gave them a reason to care about the characters.
But here’s where educators have a crucial advantage over filmmakers: Disney could only envision a general audience and design broadly, whereas teachers can consider specific students in a specific school setting. The storyboard can be designed in response to the needs of the learners in your care—and can also generate possibilities.
Wales isn’t just tinkering with its curriculum—it’s undertaking a once-in-a-generation transformation. The Curriculum for Wales framework represents a fundamental reimagining of what curriculum means.
Everything in the Curriculum for Wales flows from four purposes. The national framework aims to develop young people who are:
But here’s what makes this revolutionary:
Wales has moved away from a prescriptive national curriculum. Instead, schools and practitioners have agency within the national framework to design curricula that are:
This sounds inspiring. It also sounds daunting. How do you build a “nation of curriculum designers” without leaving educators overwhelmed?
Wales has made storyboarding a central component of its national support programme for curriculum design by providing:
— A Purpose-Driven Template that helps educators focus on streamlining the design process while keeping the purpose of learning front and center. The template helps schools ask and answer the fundamental question: Why does this learning matter to our learners?
— Professional Development – Over 350 schools have already participated in the programme, with plans to extend it throughout the 2025-2026 academic year. Schools receive fully funded support, with 10 virtual professional learning sessions on curriculum design facilitated by the Welsh Government, providing time for input, practical delivery, and reflection. Each school gets two places (one senior leader and one practitioner), ensuring storyboarding becomes embedded at both leadership and classroom levels.
— Partnership with Eduplanet21 – A critical component of Wales’ implementation strategy is its partnership with Eduplanet21, a Curriculum Management and Professional Learning platform that delivers the bilingual, asynchronous professional learning that underpins the programme. Eduplanet21 helps schools and practitioners align their curriculum to the Curriculum for Wales framework, providing structured guidance while maintaining school agency. This technology-enabled approach allows Wales to maintain quality and consistency in professional learning while reaching schools across diverse geographic and linguistic contexts—a crucial consideration in a nation committed to bilingual education
As education systems worldwide grapple with questions of student engagement, purpose-driven learning, and curriculum clarity, Wales is demonstrating that there might be a better way to communicate what and why we teach. The storyboard serves as a visual, narrative thread that connects these steps and makes them accessible to all stakeholders. This isn’t a few innovative teachers experimenting with a new tool—it’s a systemic, national strategy backed by government funding, professional development, and carefully designed resources.
In Part 2 of this series, we’ll examine actual curriculum storyboards from a Year 5 classroom to see exactly how this approach works in practice—moving from theory to tangible examples that bring the concept to life.
In Part 3, we’ll explore why storyboarding aligns so powerfully with the principles of modern curriculum design and what lessons other education systems can learn from Wales’ approach.
This is Part 1 of a 3-part series on Wales’ use of curriculum storyboarding. For more information about Wales’ curriculum storyboarding resources, visit the Hwb Tools and Templates page.