Adnodd Strategy 2025-28
Our strategy
Introduction
It’s our privilege to introduce Adnodd’s first Strategy. Here, we set out our long-term ambition for creating, developing and sharing bilingual educational resources that support and inspire the teaching and learning of the Curriculum for Wales.
While developing this Strategy, we spoke and listened to practitioners, learners, stakeholders and partners, and we’re very grateful for their feedback and advice. We know that this is just the beginning of the journey, and we will continue to listen to make sure we meet the needs of the sector.
Through our research and discussions, we have identified the main challenges in the current provision which our Strategy seeks to address. The Curriculum for Wales requires each school to design and implement its own curriculum and assessment arrangements. This has led to uncertainty around the definition and purpose of educational resources, while workload pressures leave practitioners with little time to find and adapt suitable materials.
There are concerns about the availability of appropriate resources to support the Curriculum for Wales, and there are noticeable gaps and omissions. Evidence has shown that there is an urgent need to address the lack of resources in the Welsh language, particularly those that support learners with additional learning needs (ALN).
Our focus areas of literacy, equity and anti-racism, and well-being will be the lens through which we will respond creatively and cohesively to the needs of the Curriculum for Wales. The resources we commission to support areas of learning and cross-curricular skills, including numeracy and digital competence, will all have a positive impact on one or more of these focus areas.
A lack of consistency in evaluating and reviewing what is already available means that there is little evidence of what works, and rising costs highlight the need to make better use of existing resources. We will make positive changes by embedding evaluation within all future commissions. We will also make sure that the current provision is aligned with the Curriculum for Wales and that the resources we share and promote are regularly reviewed and tested.
Our focus on user experience will make it easier and more intuitive to create, find and adapt resources. Working closely with the Welsh Government, we will improve the national collection of resources on Hwb, making it more user-friendly when creating, accessing and sharing resources. Together, we will build towards a coherent and balanced collection of accessible and relevant resources that spark the imagination.
By being responsive, collaborative, inclusive and creative, we will address some of the challenges facing the education sector. This Strategy will guide us on our journey over the next three years to support and inspire learning, and to realise the far-reaching aspirations of the Curriculum for Wales.
Owain Gethin Davies (Chair) and Emyr George (Chief Executive)
Join us on our journey to support the teaching of the Curriculum for Wales and inspire a lifelong love of learning.
Vision and mission
Our Vision
Our vision is that all learners and practitioners, whatever their backgrounds, have the right to high quality educational resources that will spark their imagination, support their well-being, and encourage a lifelong love of learning.
Our Mission
We lead and coordinate the provision of adaptable and user-friendly resources in both Welsh and English that will inspire the teaching and learning of the Curriculum for Wales. This will support all children and young people to become healthy, engaged, enterprising and ethical citizens, ready to play a full part in life, work and their communities.
Our values
Responsive
We actively learn and reflect on what the sector is telling us, and we will guide our work according to their needs. We involve learners and practitioners in our decisions so that their experience is central to the resources we commission.
Collaborative
We foster a sense of community and solidarity within our organisation and with those with whom we work. We build enduring and cohesive partnerships through exploration and collaboration.
Inclusive
Respecting and caring for each other, and everyone around us, is central to everything we do. We prioritise addressing inequalities and removing barriers to learning, so that every learner, regardless of background, has the right to a positive and safe educational experience.
Creative
We celebrate innovation, welcome new ideas, and encourage different approaches to how things are done. We embrace technology and we experiment with new forms of resources, while continuously learning from our experience. We develop and share resources that are vibrant and fun, and that inspire learning.
What we do
Explore
We explore future trends and embed long-term thinking through research and engagement. This helps us map current resources, identify gaps, understand the challenges, and discover new delivery methods. We involve others in our insights and consider the evolving needs and requirements of the sector. We remain flexible, open to change, and focused on user experience.
Shape and Coordinate
We shape and coordinate the provision of resources to support the Curriculum for Wales. We engage partners to create a shared vision for the development of resources, fostering collaboration and promoting good practice. This creates a more sustainable system of providing and maintaining educational resources.
Commission
Through competitive rounds, we commission high-quality adaptable and accessible resources that address evidenced needs and gaps in provision, and that support the Curriculum for Wales. These resources will enrich cross-curricular learning, align with policy guidance, and enhance professional learning.
Evaluation and Review
We review our processes, the resources we commission and how they are used. We use evaluation and evidence to demonstrate how our work supports the needs of learners and practitioners. Through continuous improvement, we ensure that the provision of resources is relevant and accessible.
Priorities for delivery
We are making a long-term commitment to supporting the teaching and learning of the Curriculum for Wales. Our work will influence and shape how educational resources are developed and used in the future.
We will deliver the objectives outlined in the three-year remit letter and annual funding agreements issued to us by the Welsh Government:
- Ensure that relevant, timely resources and supporting materials are available in both Welsh and English, at the same time, to support the Curriculum for Wales.
- Provide a quality assurance framework for the commissioning, development and production of resources, ensuring that resources developed are in line with the ethos and core principles of the Curriculum for Wales and are fit for purpose.
- Advance the effective promotion, awareness and use of resources.
During 2025-26, the Welsh Government has identified literacy; numeracy; religion, values and ethics; and health and well-being as its priorities for Adnodd. It has also asked us to deliver specific resources to support Welsh history and the new GCSEs, and to respond to the evidenced need to develop Welsh language resources to support learners with additional learning needs.
We will deliver these priorities through the following objectives:
1. Develop a more accessible platform for sharing resources
How we will deliver: We will work with the Welsh Government to deliver an improved national collection of bilingual resources through Hwb, which meet the diverse needs and experiences of practitioners and learners.
We will gain insight on user experience through research and engagement, so we can make it easier and more intuitive to search for and adapt resources. We will promote and raise awareness of resources available and how they can be used to support the Curriculum for Wales.
2. Ensure that resources are high-quality, relevant and aligned to the Curriculum for Wales
How we will deliver: We will work with stakeholders to develop a quality assurance framework with ambitious criteria to ensure that resources are fit for purpose and support practitioners in delivering the Curriculum for Wales. Through open call-out, we will build a network of associates with diverse backgrounds, experiences and expertise to inform our peer-led approach.
3. Identify gaps in provision and create opportunities to respond creatively to evidenced needs
How we will deliver: We will use evidence and research to understand the priorities. We will launch annual funding rounds to address resource gaps, including Welsh language resources for learners with additional learning needs. We will test new funding models to encourage a creative and collaborative approach to developing resources.
4. Build on stakeholder engagement and strengthen strategic partnerships
How we will deliver: We will put mechanisms in place that will allow practitioners and learners to have a strong voice in what we do. We will work towards creating formal partnerships with key organisations, including the Welsh Government’s new professional learning body, to ensure alignment of priorities and support for schools.
5. Develop Adnodd as a sustainable and effective organisation for delivery
How we will deliver: We will build robust internal systems to ensure we can efficiently deliver and evidence our impact. These include procurement, governance, audit, communications, monitoring and evaluation. We will embed equality, diversity and inclusion through our people and processes, and our approach to delivery will be aligned with the Well-being of Future Generations Act’s goals and ways of working.
Our focus areas
To make sure we have the most impact from our work, we have identified key focus areas that will underpin everything we do.
These focus areas will allow us to respond cohesively to the many needs of the Curriculum for Wales. This means that every resource we commission will positively impact one or more of these focus areas.
Through these focus areas we will make connections between different sectors. Utilising examples and good practice from elsewhere, we will make the best use of current provision and amplify the potential of new and existing resources.
These focus areas represent themes of national importance, which urgently need attention due to resource gaps, inequalities, and broader societal issues affecting schools and learners. These are the challenges facing current and future generations. By acting now, we can equip learners and practitioners with the skills and confidence to prevent further problems arising.
Literacy
Literacy enables teaching and learning across the whole curriculum, and helps learners develop other important skills, including numeracy and digital competence. Strong literacy skills support our well-being and help us communicate, connect and thrive in school, in work and in the community.
From practitioners, we hear increasing concerns about the falling literacy skills of a generation of children and young people, citing the effects of the pandemic, changes in the use of technology, and poverty as the main drivers of low levels of literacy.
We will look for opportunities to develop a range of resources to support literacy at all levels and we will be open to innovation and new ideas. We will seize every opportunity to ensure that resources support all learners to develop their literacy skills.
Through our work we will promote the importance of good literacy to children and young people in a way that is empathetic, inclusive and inspirational.
Equity and Anti-racism
We strive towards a fairer Wales and our work makes a positive contribution towards the national well-being goals.
Promoting equity and anti-racism is fundamental to everything we do. The resources we commission are aimed at addressing inequalities and removing barriers, so that all learners can have a fair and positive educational experience. We will start to redress the imbalance between the availability of English and Welsh medium resources, including for learners with additional learning needs.
Our work will support the Welsh Government’s goal of creating an anti-racist Wales by 2030. Education is key to this aim – helping young people understand, challenge and address racism, as well as learning from a variety of voices and perspectives. Wales is the first part of the UK to make it mandatory to teach Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic histories and experiences in the curriculum. Embedding diversity, inclusion and anti-racism in all areas of the Curriculum for Wales is essential to developing a sense of Cynefin for learners.
To do this, we will work closely with partners across the education sector and beyond to review and respond to emerging evidence around equity and anti-racism. A key part of our approach is making sure that both educational resources and professional learning go hand in hand. This will equip practitioners with the confidence, skills and tools to ensure that equity and anti-racism are integral to all learning environments and experiences.
Well-being
Well-being and good mental health are the foundation of our education. They help create a safe, positive environment where every child and young person has the opportunity to flourish.
The Curriculum for Wales requires schools to promote the knowledge and understanding of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). We will work collaboratively with partners to develop resources to support this.
The resources we commission will support practitioners to deliver a whole school approach to well-being. They will encourage learners to focus on their emotional and physical well-being, as well as helping them to understand their rights, develop empathy and build strong relationships.
The resources will enable learners to understand and critically engage with the social influences and attitudes that impact their well-being, helping them to develop their capacity to navigate life’s opportunities and challenges.
Our ways of working
Continuous learning through engagement, research, and play
From the classroom to the playground to the community, we will explore different ways of listening and learning.
By collaborating with a diversity of experts and partners, we will expand our knowledge and embed long-term thinking. We will involve practitioners and learners in the process of developing, reviewing and evaluating our work so that we can adapt, plan and provide resources that will best support the users’ needs.
Our interventions will be intentional and strategic, in order to ensure long-term preventions to persistent problems affecting children and young people.
These include:
People’s voices, views and experiences
Through adopting a people-first approach, we will collaborate and engage across the education sector and beyond to understand the perspectives, needs and experiences of the different people we work with.
Research and evaluation
We know the importance of making decisions that are based on evidence. We will embed evaluation across everything we do and will work with professional research companies to gather insight and data. We will be transparent and share our insight with others.
Striving for excellence and equity
Through our quality assurance framework, we will set clear expectations and strive for excellence in every resource we commission and share. Our emphasis will be on quality not quantity, commissioning more adaptable, usable, relevant and inclusive educational resources. We will be mindful that often there will not be a need to commission new resources, and that it would be more cost effective to widen the access to excellent resources that already exist.
These include:
Equity and bilingualism
One of the core aspirations of the Curriculum for Wales is that Cymraeg belongs to us all, and that every learner will have equal access to the language and the opportunity to reach their potential. As we look ahead to the Welsh Language and Education Act, we will consider the use of the CEFR (Common European Framework Reference for Languages) as a vehicle for planning a range of resources based on a structured, national language continuum.
Inclusivity and technology
Through our focus on inclusivity, we will invest in resources that will inspire and engage everyone. We will explore and harness the potential of AI and emerging technology in a way that will provide equity of experience and best support those who are under-served in the sector.
Innovation through collaboration
Our aim is to support a more sustainable approach to resource development. This means that we won’t just be commissioning new products ourselves. We will also proactively help to build capacity and effective networks for creating and sharing resources to ensure that there is a coherent and balanced portfolio of educational resources in Wales.
We will actively test out new ideas and ways of working and involve others in our findings. We will support and encourage innovation and risk-taking, and we will embrace learning through making mistakes.
These include:
Investing in the unknown
We recognise that sometimes we don’t have all the answers and that there are many things that we don’t yet know. We believe that great things can come from exploration and open-mindedness. We will create the conditions for the unexpected to flourish, and for new and imaginative forms of resources to be developed. In doing so, we will embrace collaborating with new partners and suppliers.
Supporting the creative and technological sectors in Wales
As a strategic enabler, we will bring practitioners, learners, companies, grassroots organisations and communities together to think of new ideas and create innovative ways of making and sharing resources. We will shine a light on our home-grown talents so that their power and energy are beamed into the classroom. We will also look beyond Wales for examples of good practice.
Our thanks
The staff and Board members of Adnodd would like to thank our supporters, suppliers, partners and critical friends for your help in shaping this Strategy:
- Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle
- Welsh Government officials
- DARPL (Diversity and Anti-Racist Professional Learning)
- Future Generations Commissioner
- Welsh Language Commissioner
- Estyn
- Miller Research
- Blue Stag
- Professor Charlotte Williams
- Casia Wiliam
- Rhys Iorwerth
- Lleucu Gwenllian
And to all the practitioners in Wales for teaching and supporting our future generations.
And to you, the children and young people of Wales, for your curiosity, your imagination and your love of learning. You are an inspiration to us all.
