Lessons under the new Curriculum for Wales are raising community awareness of bowel cancer.

A unique partnership between teachers at Pontypridd High School, Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board and Moondance Cancer Initiative is helping to raise awareness of bowel cancer.

The Moondance Schools Project^[1] came from a conversation between Huw Cripps, Headteacher at Pontypridd High School, and Professor Jared Torkington, Clinical Director at Moondance and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Cardiff & Vale University Health Board, who were neighbours when Moondance were selecting flagship projects for their Bowel Cancer Programme.

The partnership saw school children experience interactive teaching and practical sessions with patients and clinicians, including visiting the training and education centre at the University Hospital of Wales and watching live-streamed videos of bowel cancer surgery. The children also created a video about the importance of eligible people taking part in the national bowel cancer screening programme, which they premiered at an in-school event. A recent highlight has been a digital event where pupils were able to listen to education and health professionals and explore the career opportunities both sectors offer.

The impact on pupil engagement has been clear. Teacher and project Co-ordinator at Pontypridd High School, Marie Sidoli says “Pupils see the ‘why’ of learning when they work with real health statistics such as those for bowel cancer and they are highly engaged.”

Since the project launched awareness of bowel cancer amongst the school communities has risen, with a 45% increase in how many people could identify the symptoms of bowel cancer. The local area of Rhondda Cynon Taf where six schools delivered the programme in 2022 has also seen a 115% increase in requests for free NHS bowel screening test kits, available to people aged between 55 and 74.

Last September, the new Curriculum for Wales began to be taught in schools as part of the biggest reform to Welsh education in a generation. The authentic context of the Moondance project brings real-world learning into the classroom and contributes to the national aim to develop healthy, confident and informed citizens.

The project keeps Curriculum for Wales values at its heart, focusing learning within six key Areas of Learning and Experience. Lessons have involved Science and Technology, Health and Well-being, and Languages, Literacy and Communication to not only educate learners about cancer, treatment and the connection to healthy behaviours, but also influence long-term behaviour change within the younger generation.

Professor Jared Torkington said: “Bowel Cancer is the fourth most common in Wales and the second biggest cancer killer in Wales. Every year more than 2,200 people are diagnosed with the disease and sadly over 900 die but bowel cancer is treatable and curable if diagnosed early. This is why we had the idea, as part of our Bowel Cancer Programme at Moondance Cancer Initiative to develop an intergenerational education module, giving us an opportunity to educate young people about cancer and also encouraging them to take home the important messages about returning your screening kit when you receive it and the symptoms to watch out for.

“We were nervous about coming into schools and weren’t sure whether young people were ready for this conversation, but we found that they absolutely are. It’s relevant to them, their families and communities and that’s resulted in real engagement and action with other schools across Wales who are now doing the same.”

The initial partnership was formed in 2019 with Pontypridd High School. Between May and July 2019, the flagship school ran a pilot programme with a group of 30 year 8 pupils. The following year, it was delivered to the full year 7 cohort at the school. They adopted the principles of the new Curriculum for Wales when developing the educational resources, making them one of the first schools in Wales to take up the new framework. In 2021, the programme moved into its second phase, forming a network of six secondary schools across Rhondda Cynon Taf to deliver the learning programme to their year 7 pupils. For 2023 the aim has been to share the experiences with other schools and health board regions across Wales with the intention that this learning programme can be  adapted to other contexts.

The Curriculum for Wales is a framework ensuring consistency and core learning across Wales, but schools design their own curriculum informed by their learners, communities and local contexts – central to Moondance Schools Project. Huw Cripps, Headteacher at Pontypridd High School, said “Because of this collaboration, we knew we were using the right words in our learning programme. The teachers were 100% confident in what they were teaching; the terminology, the vocabulary was straight from the health board, there was a total confidence from the health board in how we went about this.”

Sara Moseley, Chief Executive of Moondance Cancer Initiative, said: “It has been fantastic to watch this work grow from one school to the 24 secondary schools across Wales who will be teaching the module this academic year. Our Bowel Cancer Programme allows us to test new ideas and approaches, the schools project is a great example of where we can influence long term behaviour change and reduce unnecessary deaths from this disease. We hope to see more schools choosing to deliver this brilliant module and in doing so equip young people with the knowledge to become healthy, confident and informed citizens.”

[1] The project has been funded by Moondance Cancer Initiative a not-for-profit company that was set up in 2019 to transform cancer outcomes in Wales.

A short film about the project is available here: https://youtu.be/P7NP-yIfUrI