Jeremy Miles: As my friend and colleague the Minister for Climate Change set out in her oral statement on 6 July, she and I will bring forward a Welsh language communities housing plan for consultation in the autumn.
Jeremy Miles: I thank Mabon ap Gwynfor for that further question. I certainly accept that it is a crisis for the reasons that he says. The figures that he revealed are a cause of concern for many of us, I would say. The task for us as a Government working with the other parties is to ensure that we have answers that are effective and legal and which are quick, and we have a programme of work based on what...
Jeremy Miles: Well, I wouldn’t accept that this is happening in a way that’s reactionary. I think that there is an obvious problem here for communities where Welsh is the main language and I think that problem is obvious to many of us, and certainly we do need data and we do certainly need to look carefully at the definitions that we use in this area, and those are important so that we have the right...
Jeremy Miles: In 2021-22, schools in north Wales will have received a total allocation of over £12 million through the local authority education grant for additional learning needs, minority ethnic and Gypsy, Roma, Travellers, elective home education, well-being, recruit, recover and raise standards and non-maintained settings.
Jeremy Miles: I thank Sam Rowlands for that very important question. I certainly do acknowledge the important role that outdoor learning plays in providing our learners with a wide range of experiences, and that will become even more important in the context of the new curriculum that we are introducing. I'm also conscious that outdoor education providers—and a number of Members have written to me...
Jeremy Miles: I thank Jane Dodds for that very important question. As she said, my predecessor published the first ever rural education action plan in 2018, bringing together all the interventions and initiatives in relation to small and rural schools from across the 'Our national mission' strategy into one coherent action plan focused particularly on the circumstances that rural schools face. In relation...
Jeremy Miles: I thank Laura Anne Jones for that question. In terms of change, what we have done throughout, at every stage, is to make sure in our guidance to schools—as in our guidance to all other parts of Welsh life, if you like—that our guidance reflects our current and best understanding of the changing nature of the pandemic, and it has changed at different stages throughout. And in order to meet...
Jeremy Miles: So, the contact tracing over the summer will be, as my answer to her previous question I think tried at least to identify, led by the TTP system. We recognise the fact that there are limitations in a school setting, which heads always face, in terms of competing pressures. And that's exactly why, from September, I've given the guidance to heads to plan on the basis of no contact groups in...
Jeremy Miles: I'll direct Laura Anne Jones to the recent work by the Education Policy Institute, which compares the investment across the nations of the UK in the response to COVID specifically in order to support our schools and learners in the work that they are doing. And I think I'm right in saying that the most current analysis shows that the level of intervention in Wales is higher than any other...
Jeremy Miles: Well, in the context of the first question in terms of the target that Siân Gwenllian mentioned, I think the target you're referring to is year 2 children who are assessed through the medium of Welsh as a first language, and the target was 24 per cent. The actual attainment was 22.8 per cent, which is a little short of the target of 24 per cent. Although we haven't met that target by this...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for raising this important subject. I'm intending next term to publish a strategy on what we're doing to ensure that school life is more inclusive and representative—that is, that we look, for example, at recruitment, and what more we can do to ensure that the education workforce does reflect the social differences and so forth. We've also ensured that we—. We have...
Jeremy Miles: Could I just first pay tribute to the workforce that has been working on defining a system for this year that reflects the work that our learners have been investing in and doing over the last year, to ensure that they achieve qualifications that they can be confident in and that are consistent across the system? That has been very important work, and I want to pay tribute to them for doing...
Jeremy Miles: We are supporting all children and young people to take part in the Summer of Fun. All local authorities will provide a range of play, sporting and cultural activities to help rebuild their social and emotional skills in both Welsh and English.
Jeremy Miles: I absolutely welcome Jenny Rathbone's support for the school holiday enrichment programme. I think, across Wales, we have about 140 SHEP schemes running this summer, with places for approximately 8,000 to attend, which I think is testament to the fantastic work that they are doing. In relation to expectations in the way that Jenny Rathbone was asking, I think we want to see all schools...
Jeremy Miles: Well, I thank Joel James for that question. The Summer of Fun is only one of the interventions, of course, which is being made by the Welsh Government through the renew and reform plan to achieve that objective, and it sits alongside the additional funding that supports the significantly expanded school holiday enrichment programme that we've just been talking about. And that provides, as I...
Jeremy Miles: There are a range of measures in place to both support learning and minimise lost time. We have committed over £150 million in additional investments to support learners and practitioners. And I also wrote to schools last Friday outlining measures to seek to minimise the numbers of those pupils self-isolating.
Jeremy Miles: On that last point, in relation to INSET dates and so on, obviously, we expect schools to look carefully at when those are scheduled and to provide parents with as much notice as possible of that. On the Member's broader point in relation to the experience of the last year, clearly, schools have adapted at speed to be able to provide support to learners in a home setting, and to provide...
Jeremy Miles: Well, I think the Member's question is incredibly unfair in the way that he ends it. We've been facing the most extraordinary circumstances in our school system, as in all other parts of Wales and across the UK—indeed, internationally—and I actually want to pay tribute to the teaching and educational workforce for the work they have done to minimise that disruption, against very, very...
Jeremy Miles: That is entirely the principle that underpins the renew and reform plan that we announced a few weeks ago, and I completely echo what Delyth Jewell says. We do not want learners to feel that loss is how we define the last year. We want to recognise the challenges that learners have faced, but to work with them and support them in how they move forward. That is the principle that underpins how...
Jeremy Miles: A range of agricultural and environmental courses are available across a network of colleges in Wales. A collaborative, sector-wide approach is necessary to ensure provision across all land-based and related courses supports the changing demands and local economies, and that these embrace the diversification challenges of the sector.
