Kirsty Williams: Estyn is an independent body and the Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales is responsible for the inspection of quality and standards in education and training in Wales. An independent review of the implications of our education reform for the future role of Estyn is currently under way.
Kirsty Williams: I published ‘Public Good and a Prosperous Wales’ on 20 June. It set out our policy for all post-compulsory education and training in Wales. I was heartened by the broad support the White Paper received. I intend to publish a further, technical consultation in the new year.
Kirsty Williams: We recognise the value and importance of encouraging strong links between institutions and business. Our broad range of support for innovation and commercialisation in academia and industry helps the flow of knowledge from our universities to the commercial world, creating growth and highly skilled jobs.
Kirsty Williams: The Welsh Government is planning to invest more than £225 million over the next two years through the education improvement grant for schools to support our schools, regional consortia and local authorities to improve educational outcomes for learners in Wales. This represents a significant investment in school improvement in Wales.
Kirsty Williams: Education services have a legal responsibility to report any suspicions of abuse and neglect to social services. Our statutory guidance, Keeping learners safe, supports them in this work. It covers key areas of safeguarding and information on how children and young people should keep themselves safe, including online.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. This Government is committed to ensuring that every child and young person receives an education that inspires, motivates and equips them with the skills and knowledge necessary to fulfil their potential. In Wales, we have an education system that partners equity with excellence. Our system provides a range of choices to meet the different needs...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Darren. I guess a cautious welcome is the best I could have hoped for from Darren Millar, given previous statements that he's made on this subject. Can I say that it is my intention—indeed, it is a requirement placed upon me by Standing Orders—that there will be a full consultation on these issues, with Wales and anybody in Wales who has an interest in this regard?...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Llyr. Can I start with the issue of—? Apologies to Darren Millar. When considering the approach, I have indeed looked at the legal obligations that we as Welsh Government are under, and that includes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Improving outcomes for all learners, whether electively home educated or in mainstream education, I believe, contributes to...
Kirsty Williams: What's crucial is that we make the database as robust as it possibly can be, which is why we are closing the loophole, for instance, with regard to independent schools, so that we can populate the database with those children. That's why we'll be working across Government with colleagues in health to be able to check live birth registers alongside local education maintained schools' registers...
Kirsty Williams: Can I thank the Member for her questions? With regard to the independent sector, officials have been in touch with the Welsh Independent Schools Council to outline our intentions to legislate in this area, and they are very supportive of the approach that we are taking. They have no qualms at all and are happy to play their role in addressing these issues. I'm grateful to the Welsh...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Joyce. Making sure that all learners develop excellent language and communication skills is a key part of our national mission for education in Wales. Our national literacy and numeracy programme, and its key policies, including the national literacy and numeracy framework, are targeting literacy interventions, supporting us to achieve this aim.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Joyce. I'm glad that you like the Time to Talk campaign. I'm sure Members across the Chamber—well, hopefully, Members across the Chamber—will have seen the adverts on television and the materials that are available on social media. I think they're really engaging and fun, and they stress the importance to parents of the huge impact they can have by taking the time to talk to...
Kirsty Williams: First of all, can I thank you, David, for your service as a governor of this school? Like you, I am disappointed that Afasic Cymru trustees have decided to end their charitable status within Wales, although I understand they will continue to work at a UK level. I can give you an absolute assurance that I will be asking my officials to monitor very carefully the impact the closure of the...
Kirsty Williams: Llyr, I do recognise that these issues can be particularly acute in those communities and for families where there are high levels of social deprivation, which is why, as I said, we will be spending over £800,000 this year to develop our Time to Talk programme, so that we can work with families. Of course, the free childcare offer to working parents is just one of the schemes that the Welsh...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Mr Bennett. Violence and aggression in schools, against teachers or pupils, is completely unacceptable. In order to tackle such violence and aggression, in and outside the classroom, working with stakeholders, we must first understand why children are demonstrating these behaviours. Otherwise we are simply treating the symptoms and not the underlying causes of such behaviour.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you for that. I think it's, first of all, very important to recognise, as mentioned only recently in the latest chief inspector's report on the education system in Wales, that behaviour in schools is improving, and I would hate people to be listening to this question and thinking that we had a particularly acute problem. But clearly, as I said in my opening answer, any violence, whether...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Nick. I think school buildings can play a significant part in helping create that environment for our children, but we have to recognise that bullying can be a problem in all schools regardless of where they are and that can take many forms. We are updating our anti-bullying guidance 'Respecting Others', and the revised guidance will be published later this year. I have also...
Kirsty Williams: Darren, for pupils and teachers currently in the system, we have to deal with the reality of today, as do I. I have made it very clear in this Chamber, time and time again, that I want to see education raise standards for all of our children, including bridging the attainment gap between those pupils who are less well-off and ensuring that our education system is a source of national pride...
Kirsty Williams: Let me just be absolutely clear: the Member can simply not make the assumption that those children would have done better under the old GCSE examination system. I make no apologies, Darren—and I'm surprised that you don't agree—for wanting greater rigour in our exam system, and if maths exams are introducing greater rigour, then that is something that we should be proud of, rather than...
Kirsty Williams: It is absolutely incredible that the Member would suggest that anybody in this Chamber would oversee an examination system that would do our children down. Darren, you and I both have children in this system. Do you think for one minute that even as a mother, let alone the Cabinet Secretary for Education, I would stand here and let my child or anybody else's child undertake a qualification...
