Kirsty Williams: Can I thank the Member for the questions? Sometimes, in debates about the future of education policy, there is an artificial and a false choice, I think, made between having a curriculum that focuses on skills and having a curriculum that focuses on knowledge. Now, despite the fact that we can all Google when the battle of Hastings was or what happened on a certain date, that does not replace...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Dai. The experience that you've just described in the school of which you are a chairman is the experience I have in my own family. My children are bilingual children. I took the time to ask my 14-year-old last night whether she had any regrets, because, for a parent to make that choice, it's sometimes not an easy choice. It has not been without its pitfalls when I have sat...
Kirsty Williams: Can I thank Dawn Bowden for that question? When designing the curriculum and the individual content of AoLEs in schools, schools will be placed on a duty to be able to judge that content against whether that achieves those purposes. So, the fact that that purpose is there at the very centre of our curriculum—and the expectations of what kind of people we expect to leave our compulsory...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Rhianon, for that. Clearly, the middle tier, which includes our local education authorities, Estyn and the regional school improvement services, will have a critical role to play in ensuring that the curriculum is adopted and delivered to a very high standard. What I would like to do is to reassure schools that we will be using this period of time between the publication of the...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Lynne, for your continuing work on this important subject. Working on a regional basis can help ensure resources and expertise are targeted effectively to support learners with additional learning needs. I have asked my officials to engage with SenCom to understand the potential impact on learners of Newport’s proposed withdrawal from that service.
Kirsty Williams: Lynne, it is absolutely critical that those families who are in receipt of this service are engaged with properly and that the individual interests of individual learners is never forgotten. And I would agree with you absolutely that any consultation with families needs to be meaningful, and that cannot be meaningful if parents are unable to engage in that. As I have said, in my original...
Kirsty Williams: Well, I can assure the Member that I wrote to Councillor Debbie Wilcox, the leader of Newport City Council, back in November, seeking reassurances. A response was received from the said council in December, and the council stated that they were confident that they will leave a significant and well-funded service that should be more than able to maintain the current levels of delivery to the...
Kirsty Williams: The concern that I have is that SenCom services, which, as everybody has recognised, is a service that delivers on a regional basis to a very specific group of children and young people with very specific additional learning needs, actually has been, I would argue, an example of very good practice—of local authorities pooling their resources, working together, to ensure a strong,...
Kirsty Williams: Well, firstly, I'm sure that the Member has inadvertently suggested that prioritising the needs of younger learners in further education over those of others is not something that he supports. I'm sure the Member would want us to continue to ensure that learners of post-compulsory age—17 onwards—continue to enjoy provision. But he makes a valuable point—that we need to ensure that...
Kirsty Williams: Well, Oscar, I would argue that the results speak for themselves. We have seen an increase of 35 per cent this year in the registrations for part-time degree courses with the Open University alone here in Wales. The Welsh Government engaged last year with a highly successful public information and advertising regime. In terms of reach and outputs, it's actually the most successful Welsh...
Kirsty Williams: First of all, can I take this opportunity, Presiding Officer, to let people know that Wales's universities and FE colleges are open to business? We greatly appreciate the contributions that are made by European members of faculty and European and indeed non-European foreign students who come to study here in Wales. I hope many more of them will continue to do so. But the Member does really...
Kirsty Williams: There was never any change in policy. I said that in questions last week. It was reiterated by the Welsh language Minister the following day, and I am very pleased that we have issued a detailed clarification in which I have made clear that immersion will continue in different schools and different settings. So, if I can, Presiding Officer, for the record here this afternoon: our proposals...
Kirsty Williams: Let me be absolutely clear again: it is absolutely my expectation and my intention that all children should learn their own local history, the history of their nation, and the place of their nation in world history and the contribution of our country to world history and world events. The concept behind the curriculum, especially in the humanities, is a focus on the local at the very youngest...
Kirsty Williams: The Member is absolutely right; the individual AOLE progression steps and 'what matters' statements will be published in Easter. We are doing that in a format that will allow practitioners and, indeed, any interested parties to feed back. I would accept that there is a balance to be struck between becoming so prescriptive in that guidance that we actually might as well stay where we are,...
Kirsty Williams: First, the Member is wrong to say that I'm denying parents the right to withdraw. If the Member has read the White Paper, she will be aware that there are specific questions in the White Paper about how we tackle the issue of the right to withdraw from such lessons. But I can give the Member absolute reassurance that in ensuring that our children learn about relationships and sexuality, they...
Kirsty Williams: Obviously, female genital mutilation is a form of abuse, pure and simple, and it is illegal in our nation. As I said, the Member will have to wait for the individual AOLEs to be published, but we are not going to be in a position where we are listing long, long lists of individual specific subjects. But schools, crucially, have a role to play in supporting, protecting and preventing female...
Kirsty Williams: It will not be tolerated, and education has an important part to play in that, but so do many other agencies. The Member raises the issue of FGM in baby girls. Clearly, that is an issue for midwives and the national health service to address. But let me be absolutely clear again: across the Government, across all departments, we recognise FGM as a terrible form of abuse and we will work...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Hefin. In answering both question 3 and 5, I can assure you that the views of children and young people are essential to our curriculum reform process. We've already engaged with them on key developments such as e-portfolios, online assessments and the relationship and sexuality education programme that we will put on the face of the Bill. Pioneer schools have engaged with learners...
Kirsty Williams: Absolutely. I would absolutely agree with the Member that this is a process that will need to continue. The strategic stakeholder group representing children and young people has been set up specifically to take account of the views of children and young people in the reform journey, and that includes additional learning needs children, young carers, elective home education—so there are...
Kirsty Williams: As I said, what was disappointing about that is that not only had the opportunity not been taken by ADEW to contribute their concerns during formal stakeholder meetings, but I meet regularly with the leadership of the WLGA and, indeed, ADEW, and none of those concerns had been expressed to me. I'm aware that those concerns have not been expressed to the previous Cabinet Secretary for local...
