Finnish Pedagogy vs Curriculum for Wales
Wales introduced its Curriculum for Wales in 2022 as a deliberate break from rigid subjects and levels, a reform that shares more with Finland's decades-old model than with the rest of the UK's national curriculum.
- Curriculum for Wales is built around four purposes: ambitious capable learners, enterprising creative contributors, ethical informed citizens, and healthy confident individuals.
- It replaces fixed levels with five Progression Steps, running from roughly age 3 to 16, with progress measured by stage rather than age.
- Finland has followed a comprehensive, untracked, largely exam-free model for primary years since reforms beginning in the 1970s.
- Both systems avoid high-stakes standardised testing in the primary years, though they organise learning around different structures.
Shared starting point, different structure
Wales' four purposes and Finland's own transversal competencies aim at similar outcomes: rounded learners who can think critically, work with others, and take on responsibility, rather than students defined mainly by subject test scores.
Where they differ is in how explicitly that is structured. Wales organises its curriculum into six broad Areas of Learning and Experience with defined Progression Steps at roughly ages 5, 8, 11, 14, and 16. Finland's national curriculum sets broad objectives by grade but leaves more of the day-to-day pedagogical method to individual schools and teachers, reflecting Finland's strong tradition of teacher autonomy.
Assessment in the primary years
Neither system relies on formal, high-stakes exams in the K-5 years. Wales assesses progress against the Progression Steps through ongoing teacher judgement rather than levelled tests, while Finland uses assessment without exams, built on continuous formative feedback.
The practical difference for a classroom teacher is largely one of documentation and reference points: Wales' Progression Steps give a shared national language for describing where a learner is, while Finnish teachers work from broader grade-level goals with more latitude to decide how progress is demonstrated.
- Wales: five national Progression Steps, defined by four cross-cutting purposes and six Areas of Learning and Experience.
- Finland: grade-level objectives, with more day-to-day pedagogical discretion left to individual schools and teachers.
- Both: no standardised, high-stakes exams during the primary years.
What each system can learn from the other
Wales' explicit four-purposes framework offers a clearer, more portable language for describing non-academic outcomes than Finland typically uses in public communication, even though Finland's own wellbeing-focused approach pursues similar goals in practice.
Conversely, Finland's decades of practical experience with teacher autonomy and phenomenon-based learning offer Wales a well-tested model for how a reduced-testing, competency-based curriculum can be implemented consistently at the classroom level, since Wales' reform is still relatively new by comparison.
Both reforms bet on the same idea: that a rounded, less-tested primary education produces stronger outcomes later. Wales built that bet into a new national framework in 2022; Finland has been testing it for half a century.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wales' Curriculum for Wales similar to Finland's national curriculum?
In spirit, yes: both move away from rigid subjects and heavy testing in the primary years. Structurally, Wales uses a more explicit national framework of four purposes and Progression Steps, while Finland gives schools more day-to-day pedagogical freedom.
Does Wales have exams in primary school?
No formal, high-stakes standardised exams during the primary Progression Steps; progress is assessed through ongoing teacher judgement, similar in spirit to Finland's exam-free approach.
How long has Wales used this curriculum compared with Finland?
Wales introduced its Curriculum for Wales from 2022, while Finland's comprehensive, less-tested model has developed gradually since reforms beginning in the 1970s.
Related reading
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