Sioned Williams: ...to the lives of the people of Wales, in terms of tackling child poverty particularly. Since being elected, I and others in Plaid Cymru have questioned the First Minister on expanding free school meals many times in this place. And anti-poverty groups, such as the Bevan Foundation, have been campaigning hard for this. The co-operation agreement notes that this is a further step towards our...
Mark Reckless: But do our schools teach pupils very well to pass exams—or at least sufficiently—on the current results? One change we are having, which I should welcome, which the education Secretary put out this morning, is we are seeing a 2.75 per cent increase in teachers' pay and 5 per cent for the newly qualified, and, I think, £12.8 million in the current year to support that. However, would the...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you for that answer, Minister. I've had correspondence with the headteacher and chairman of governors from Evenlode Primary School in Penarth who have highlighted the real difficult and challenging financial environment they and many other schools face across Wales. Hopefully, there will be consequentials flowing from the announcements made in Westminster, and some of those...
Vikki Howells: ...the Cynon valley has benefited significantly from Welsh Government funding over the past five years. Perhaps the most significant area of capital expenditure has been the continued investment in educational buildings within the area. The Cynon valley has seen more investment from the Welsh Government's twenty-first century schools funding than any other constituency in Wales, to the tune...
Carwyn Jones: Well, yes, of course. We must ensure that there are more places available in nursery schools, but we must also ensure that children at nursery schools then remain in the Welsh stream as they enter primary and secondary schools in order to ensure that they don’t lose the language skills that they’ve acquired as they go through the school, by changing the language medium of their education.
Kirsty Williams: Food and Fun seeks to enrich the school holiday experience of children in schools reporting high rates of free school meal eligibility. 2017 saw 39 schools provide approximately 1,500 children with two free meals a day over 12 days. They benefited from food education, physical activity and other sessions.
Kirsty Williams: Our rural education plan sets out our approach to rural schools, pulling together actions from our national mission. This includes our small and rural schools grant, which is benefiting over 400 schools, and our e-sgol pilot project, which is being rolled out to other local authorities and schools across Wales.
Jeremy Miles: School funding in Wales is provided through the revenue support grant. It is for local authorities to determine allocation. Further targeted funding is provided through additional Welsh Government grants. The majority of education funding is available to all schools, including rural schools. The small and rural schools grant of £2.5 million is available this financial year.
Kirsty Williams: Well, Mark, quite rightly, as you said, local authorities have a statutory responsibility for the preparation of an accessibility strategy for their entire educational estate, and schools themselves have a similar statutory responsibility. These strategies and plans must be prepared, implemented, reviewed and renewed every three years, and it's very—I'm appalled by the situation that you've...
Vikki Howells: Diolch, Trefnydd. Child poverty is an issue of great concern to me, and today I sponsored an event held by the National Education Union and the Child Poverty Action Group, who've been working together to highlight the impact of poverty on education. The Welsh Government's roll-out of free school meals to all primary pupils is welcomed by families across the Cynon valley and across Wales, as...
Siân Gwenllian: ...of Government, I want to take this opportunity to once again emphasise the need to move towards budgets that are preventative, and budgets that provide long-term solutions. Investing in the education of our children and young people is a central part of the preventative agenda, and it's clear that we need to prioritise investment in our schools, and to employ more staff to support our...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Suzy. First of all, can I say schools and local authorities as well as colleges and universities have worked really, really hard during July and the autumn term to make their environments as COVID-safe as possible, and I commend them for that? The new variant of the virus does pose new challenges, although the relative risk to schools is not increased, but, of course, anywhere...
Kirsty Williams: I couldn't agree with you more, David; I'm sure all of us with an interest in these issues will have been impressed by the strength of the call from members of our Youth Parliament for reform of the education system, and the need to balance their education system, yes, with subject knowledge and qualifications, but also with those essential skills that they feel they need to be the successful...
Rebecca Evans: ...make sure that the Minister has heard your request for that statement and particularly with your concern about the impact that it might have on young people and children in their ability to stay in school. So, making sure that we take that joined-up approach across Government and so, also liaising with my colleague with responsibility for education to ensure that young people and children...
Kirsty Williams: To enable schools to be fully embedded in the DCF, regional consortia are undertaking detailed work to configure digital professional learning to the new professional standards, national professional learning models and the leadership academy's endorsement requirements to develop a national digital professional learning framework for all schools. This new framework will support teachers and...
Leanne Wood: Can we have a statement on the number of pupils who are without either a device or internet access in order to do their home schooling? Does the Government have an idea of the number of children without the means to participate in online school lessons? Because if the Government is serious about eliminating the link between school attainment and poverty, then this issue should be a top...
Kirsty Williams: ...are assessed in 2021. Qualifications Wales will also be providing further advice about how assessment should be completed in 2021, given the continuing disruption of COVID-19 to those exam classes' education. I will look at both pieces of advice and then will make a decision immediately after the half-term break. I think it's important that that decision is taken whilst children are in...
Laura Anne Jones: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and, thank you, for your statement, Minister. Here we are again talking about another seismic change in education, which will have huge ramifications for years to come, if change is deemed to be necessary. There should be very positive changes if all this does go ahead. The current form of the school day has been around for decades, as you say, Minister,...
Laura Anne Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. May I start by welcoming you again to your role, Minister, as I am now formally the shadow education Minister, and it's now official? May I say that I'm very much looking forward to working with you, opposite you, on this hugely important brief, particularly at a time when we're coming out of a pandemic, and we edge closer and closer to the biggest change in education...
Paul Davies: Trefnydd, can I echo Laura Anne Jones's request, and ask the Minister for Education to now make a statement regarding the reopening of schools across Wales? I appreciate that a phased return for children has now begun, but I'm also receiving representations from parents in my constituency who are frustrated that some of their children are unable to return to school, and are understandably...
