Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for those questions. He's right to point out that the census results were disappointing, but he also will remember that there is a range of data in this area that shows a slightly more complex picture than, perhaps, that one source of data, very important though it is. So, the task for us is to look at the data in its entirety, but there are more children in Welsh-medium...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you for those questions. Just in terms of the investment in the Welsh-medium sector, the Member will have heard what I said to James Evans. But one point to add to that, following on from what she said, is that one of the challenges or weaknesses that we have in the WESPs is that the emphasis is on numbers, which of course is at the heart of the success in terms of what we want to see...
Jeremy Miles: I thank Jenny Rathbone for those questions. I did highlight South Point Primary School because it's the first net-zero school in Wales, in the constituency of my Government colleague, Jane Hutt. I think it's probably fair to say—and I hope that they wouldn't mind me putting it in this way—it must be amongst the most visited schools, to look at what they've done there, and I thank them for...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for that question. We need to provide Welsh-medium schools as well as English-medium schools. There is demand in both areas. And the challenge for us and our aspiration as a Government is to ensure that one doesn't happen at the expense of the other. And that's the point I was making earlier, in linking investments in the broader infrastructure with appropriate and swift...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for those questions—really important questions. I think it's too soon to know if the new mechanism will demonstrate that there are challenges. I think, in principle, it ought to be much more nimble and ought to be actually less onerous, both for authorities and for the Government, which obviously then offers opportunities to deal with things in a slightly more flexible...
Jeremy Miles: I can't make any comments in terms of specific decisions with regard to the case that the Member spoke about. I know that she campaigned, and Plaid Cymru local election candidates campaigned on the basis that the school shouldn't go ahead. Now, Plaid is in co-control of the council, and that was not the decision that the council made, and I understand that. In terms of the case in the High...
Jeremy Miles: I'll be meeting with teacher and head unions tomorrow, along with local authorities, who are the employers, to discuss the outcome of ballots and discuss next steps. I am committed to working with partners to secure a resolution to the dispute, and this tripartite meeting will help explore ways of addressing teachers' concerns.
Jeremy Miles: Well, these are serious matters that deserve better than political knock-about in this Chamber. His mischaracterisation of the education system in Wales is consistent with that of his colleagues on those benches. Unlike the Conservative Government in Westminster, we are not responding to strikes by bringing forward draconian laws that undermine people's fundamental rights. In Wales, we...
Jeremy Miles: Well, I think that everyone agrees that our children should be at school receiving their education, but nobody takes these decisions to strike lightly. We have four unions, and two have had votes in favour of industrial action, but whatever the thresholds the unions have, we respect and we hear the messages that we are hearing from teachers in those ballots. I'm not going to discuss in the...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Curriculum for Wales offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to radically reform what and how we teach, in order to support the educational progress of our learners, their well-being, and their life chances as well. But, to make this a reality, this reform can’t happen in isolation. Each and every part of our reform programme must be aligned so that we can...
Jeremy Miles: It's absolutely clear to me, Dirprwy Lywydd, that using a wide range of information is crucial to supporting evaluation and improvement. Isolated pieces of data, or out of context, should not be used to judge performance or compare schools. I welcome Estyn’s response to my written statement last week, confirming that they too will not be looking to use isolated pieces of information to...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for those questions. I'll try and answer as many of them as I can. I think the key point is that there is a distinction to be drawn between data for accountability on the one hand and data for assessment and self-improvement on the other. It's really important that we ensure that those two things are kept separate, because they serve very, very different purposes. The...
Jeremy Miles: Very important questions. The sampling question is an important one. The sampling is only one part of the process. So, the national monitoring plan is one part of the new ecosystem, just to give some comfort to the Member. At present, in terms of planning that, what we don't foresee is that that will give the kind of specificity on a school level in terms of the interventions that the Member...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for that question. On the second point, I'm very clear that we need to move to a more standardised way of doing that, and that's absolutely one of the priorities that I'll want to see taken forward in our response to both the social finance report and the Arad Research work as well. I think that's a really important part of that. In relation to the national monitoring...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I've already said that the census headline figures were disappointing and not what we'd hoped to see. Having said that, it's important to acknowledge that there's more to the story than just the headlines, and there is more to language policy than just the census. First of all, let's remind ourselves of the results. On census day, 21 March 2021, around 538,000 usual...
Jeremy Miles: It's quite natural, of course, for people to ask what these latest results mean for our work. First, I want to assure you of our complete commitment to 1 million Welsh speakers and to doubling the number of us who use Welsh every day. And it's important also to acknowledge that Cymraeg 2050 had only been in place for less than four years at the time the 2021 census was held. It's also...
Jeremy Miles: I thank Samuel Kurtz for those many questions. I'll do my best to deal with most of them, if I may. I'm not going to reiterate what I said about the importance of looking at the data in its context and looking at the other sources of data as well in terms of analysing where the numbers of speakers are at present. Myself, I'm not looking at this as a setback. We have a choice: either to look...
Jeremy Miles: Some fair questions there. The thing to confirm, though, is that we haven't changed our viewpoint on the census—that is what shows us the figures within the strategy. We've said that at the outset, and that hasn't changed, but you can't just look at this through one eye. You have two sources of data that are telling you very different things—and, by the way, it's not the Welsh Government...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for that. That’s very important; it does throw some light on the discussion I just had with Heledd Fychan. We need to look at and understand what these figures tell us. I do agree that, if you ask the question, ‘Can you speak Welsh?’ on the one hand, and then the other question is, ‘How much Welsh can you speak?’, you’re likely to get different results. There...
Jeremy Miles: Menter Iaith Castell-nedd Port Talbot is one of those initiatives that has been allocated funding as part of the statement that I made today in terms of looking at the current pressures as a result of additional costs, so there will be additional funding presented to that initiative. I was there some weeks ago for a very entertaining evening with Cleif Harpwood, who launched his book. It was...
