Kirsty Williams: Wales’s progressive legislation on homelessness prioritises households with children and requires all local authorities to find them a home. Homelessness constitutes a significant adverse childhood experience. The establishment of the ACE support hub will help ensure that schools are equipped to provide the most appropriate support to these very vulnerable learners.
Kirsty Williams: As I said, Darren, the establishment of the ACE hub is to help support schools to support children who are suffering from ACEs, and homelessness is a significant ACE. I’ll tell you what, Darren, maybe we could have a deal. I’ll, perhaps, consider issuing statutory guidance when your Government in Westminster stops taking such a draconian view of housing policy towards 16 and 17-year-olds,...
Kirsty Williams: The Member makes a very worthwhile point, and we need to consider, always, how we can break down barriers that affect people’s ability to learn. We have, as a Government, developed our youth homelessness pathway, which was launched by the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children late last year, which sets out a comprehensive approach for helping young people to avoid homelessness, and...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Joyce. Reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and enabling teachers to spend more time supporting pupils’ learning is a priority for me and the Government. We are continuing to work closely with the profession to build capacity and reduce workload, through reducing bureaucracy, improved policy delivery and better and smarter ways of working.
Kirsty Williams: Joyce, you’re absolutely right. It should not be the job of headteachers to be spending their time trying to source paper or toilet rolls, managing cleaning contracts, or trying to deal with issues around the building or the IT. We need those professional people to focus on teaching and learning, developing the curriculum, and supporting their staff to deliver outstanding experiences and...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Paul. It is really important that there’s a shared understanding around the expectations between school leaders and their staff. Sometimes, those expectations are driven by external accountability measures, so the school leaders are putting work onto staff because they think that’s what is expected from them, either by their regional consortium, by the local education authority...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, acting Presiding Officer. The independent regulator, Qualifications Wales, yesterday presented us with clear recommendations on the issue of early entry for GCSEs. They engaged widely with teaching professionals in the course of their work and have come to firm conclusions. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their report and considerations. I would also...
Kirsty Williams: Acting Presiding Officer, could I thank Paul Davies, who is double-jobbing once again as the Conservative education spokesperson? He really should be asking for a slice of the wages of his counterpart. But I genuinely thank him for his thoughtful analysis of the report that is before us. The Member’s first question was: why have we decided to act now? Well, Paul, I can’t account for the...
Kirsty Williams: Can I thank Llyr Gruffydd for his statement and questions? It was, ‘We agree that you’re doing this, but—’, I suspect, trying to hedge his bets maybe with regard—. I’m not in a position to hedge my bets. I have to make a decision, and I have made that decision in the best interests, I believe, of the examination system as a whole, so that we can have public confidence and employer...
Kirsty Williams: I’m always very nervous when Vikki gets up to ask questions having been a recent practitioner, but Vikki will know that one of the unintended consequences of early entry can be—and it’s alluded to in the report—a narrowing of the curriculum, so that all the lessons become about is getting that child through an exam. Now, don’t get me wrong, exams are crucially important, but...
Kirsty Williams: Can I just very briefly say, acting Presiding Officer, that I enjoy a very challenging but productive relationship with the trade unions and that is how it should be? They have things they say to me that I agree with and I have things that I say to them that they disagree with, but we will move the education system forward in partnership. The Member says that we have no vision for education....
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Jeremy. It is clear to me from my time in office that accountability measures and how we judge individual schools is key then to the behaviours that we see exhibited within those schools, which is only to be expected and only reasonable. But the current accountability measures only get us so far, and I think it is acknowledged, across the sector, now is the time to look again at...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Llywydd. A key objective of our recently published education action plan is the development of a high-quality education profession. It is impossible to overstate the importance of our teachers’ role in helping to succeed in our national mission to raise standards, reduce the attainment gap and deliver an education system that is a source of national pride and confidence. Today, I...
Kirsty Williams: Quite simply, an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers. Our ambitious reforms need well-supported, high-quality, aspirational teachers. We must therefore attract and support the best graduates with the highest level of qualifications to teach. I am concerned that significant recruitment issues across the border can give a skewed view of what is actually happening here in...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you to Darren Millar for what I think was a broad welcome of the statement today and a long list of questions, which I will try and get through as quickly as I possibly can. I don’t believe that we have a crisis. Ninety per cent of primary school places are met to target. But you’re right, with secondary we do have particular challenges, and then we have particular challenges within...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Llyr, for that set of questions. With regard to entry into initial teacher training, and whether I’m intending to remove the requirement of a B grade at English and maths, I have no intention to do that at this point. You will be aware that the literacy and numeracy framework runs throughout our entire curriculum for the length of children’s school career, and...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Hefin. As I said, we’re currently scoping the feasibility of a national matching system to coincide with the devolution of terms and conditions. What’s really important is that we’re doing this in discussion with the unions themselves, so they are an integral part of this process going forward. We have a social partnership model here in Welsh Government, where we work in that...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you for that set of questions. It is important that we prioritise those who will go on to be our teachers in our bilingual and Welsh-medium schools. That’s why Welsh is a priority subject for incentives, attracting the highest level of incentives to go on to a PGCE. We’re also announcing today, as you have referenced, a new scheme, which will be a payment on the successful...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Developing a high-quality teaching profession and creating inspirational leaders to help raise standards are among the aims of our new national education plan. One important element of our reforms to support this is the work that we have undertaken with our higher education partners and schools to plan for the transformation of initial teacher education. As I...
Kirsty Williams: I formally move the motion on the order paper.
