Kirsty Williams: John, you will be aware—because we have discussed this previously—that our twenty-first century schools programme will only gain a sign-off by Welsh Ministers if there is a significant community element in all of those proposals that are brought forward. We know, from looking at the evaluation of the pupil deprivation grant, that with schools that use that grant effectively, much of that...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Nick. Band A of the twenty-first century schools and education programme will see an investment of more than £1.4 billion over the five years of the programme, which will come to an end in 2019. To date, funding has been approved for 127 of the 150 projects in the programme, and 102 of those are either under construction at present or have been completed.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Nick. I am glad that you have recognised the close working between the Welsh Government and Monmouthshire council. Funding of around £93.4 million has been committed for Monmouthshire, with the Welsh Government contributing £45.6 million towards the sums of the new buildings in your constituency, which is a significant amount of money. The state of a school building is one of the...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Adam. I published the Welsh Government’s response to all of the Diamond review recommendations on 22 November. I invited anyone with specific proposals on incentivisation to respond to the Government’s consultation. That consultation closes on 14 February. I will then need to consider the responses before I outline next steps.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you. I think it’s important to point out that Welsh Government is not averse to looking at using incentives to attract people to Wales. We talked earlier about teacher training incentives, and my Cabinet colleague recently announced a new programme that will ensure that student nurses have access to a nursing bursary, which is not available across the border in England, if they commit...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Could I begin by assuring David Melding that I for one will never be bored and tired of you using the F-word—federalism—here in this Chamber, David? Can I also thank Plaid Cymru for tabling the motion this afternoon and for the very many valuable contributions of Members? The debate has given us the opportunity to discuss and recognise the vitally important...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Since becoming Cabinet Secretary, it has been a privilege to visit schools and meet teachers, pupils and parents right across the country. A particular highlight was the opening of the new school at Llandysul. Like colleagues across this Chamber, I’m always impressed by the dedication, the enthusiasm and the ambition expressed by the vast majority of the...
Kirsty Williams: Time and time again, parents and teachers tell me that they are concerned about class sizes. We have listened to these concerns, looked at the international evidence, and are today announcing the details of a new £36 million fund to address infant class sizes. This investment, linked to our other reforms, will improve early years attainment, have a significant impact for poorer and...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, and can I thank Darren for his questions this afternoon? If I can try to get through them all, he began by quoting the evidence of Professor David Reynolds, and I would note that Professor Reynolds made those comments without any detailed knowledge of the policy announcement. In fact, those of you who watched the ITV news last night would have seen Professor David...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much to Llyr. Llyr, all I can say is if you want to argue for larger classes alongside the Welsh Conservatives, that’s your prerogative; that’s not what this Government is about. You ask, ‘Why are you referring to an Estyn report in 2003?’ That’s the last time that Estyn did substantive work on this issue. But can I tell you, there have been a number of international...
Kirsty Williams: Could I thank Rhianon for her welcome of the initiative? I think if you look at the statistics about where we have particularly large class sizes in the infants sector in Wales, in constituencies such as yours, but also here in the capital, we have some of the highest proportion of young children being taught in classes over the size of 30. The international evidence, and one of the studies...
Kirsty Williams: I thank Michelle Brown for her questions and her recognition that this is a live issue for parents and for teachers, and I agree with her. Michelle asked about why this is only being used for infants. As I’ve explained, I would love to cut class sizes right the way across the education sector, but I have to do it in a way that is cognisant of the budgets that are available to me, cognisant...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you for that. I am always very conscious, Deputy Presiding Officer, when answering questions from either Rhianon or Vikki, that they have a professional expertise and experience in the classroom that I’ve never had and I’m always in danger of teaching grandmas to suck eggs, and I wouldn’t want to do that. But, like Vikki says, for many teachers this is an issue, because we know...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Lee, for that. I’m grateful to you, because the constructive challenge that has been referred to in a negative way by some people in this Chamber around the attitude of some people like yourself and Jenny Rathbone has made me go back and absolutely test the evidence about this. It has led to a refinement in the policy, because we want to make sure that we’re getting it right....
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Today I’m announcing the Welsh Government’s response to Professor Ellen Hazelkorn’s report ‘Towards 2030—A Framework for Building a World-class Post-Compulsory Education System for Wales’, which was published on 10 March 2016.
Kirsty Williams: I would like to express my appreciation for Professor Hazelkorn’s work, alongside the many stakeholders, in reviewing the current arrangements and drawing on her extensive international experience. Indeed, in her most recent co-authored book, ‘The Civic University’, she has argued that pursing a civic mission must be a way of both organising higher education and the value of...
Kirsty Williams: Can I thank Llyr for his questions and the shared understanding and agreement I think there is between us around the issues that we need to solve with regard to post-compulsory education. You’re absolutely right, the current system does lead to duplication and competition in a way that is often unhelpful. It does not provide, as Hazelkorn said herself in the report, good value for public...
Kirsty Williams: Once again, can I thank Paul Davies for stepping into the breach and for his questions this afternoon? If we start from the point of principle, I think that addresses many of the issues that you’ve raised. Establishing a single authority to oversee the whole of post-compulsory education and training, I believe, will improve strategic planning; it will help prevent duplication, which has...
Kirsty Williams: Huw, you raise a fundamentally important point that we can have the best structure and the best strategic planning of these opportunities, but unless we successfully engage with young people, potential students and learners of all kinds, and the people who influence their choices, then we won’t realise the full benefit of this. We’re all guilty of it. Our children, often, are the...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much to Michelle Brown for her questions. With regard to the recommendations, I have indicated that I’m accepting the recommendations. The consultation will take place in the spring. To give effect to this, I will need to bring forward legislation and that needs to find its way into the timetable of general legislation across the entire Government. But as I indicated earlier,...
