Kirsty Williams: Well, I'm grateful to the Member for making the representations that he has done on behalf of that cluster of schools. We have acted on that feedback, not only from yourself, but from other schools, and we have, over the summer, made a number of refinements to the system that should address the concerns that were raised in your letter. By introducing assessments on a phased roll-out, we are...
Kirsty Williams: Firstly, the Member will be aware that the first part of our new curriculum is the roll-out of the digital competence framework and, therefore, there is an expectation on schools to address these skills with their entire pupil population. With regard to information technology facilities within schools and ensuring that there is equity of provision across the piece, you'll be aware that the...
Kirsty Williams: The Welsh Government's supporting service children in education Wales fund helps schools provide additional support to mitigate the challenges that children of armed forces communities can face because of their family's military lifestyle. I have made available £250,000 for applications this academic year.
Kirsty Williams: Presiding Officer, I am very alive to the issues faced by children of serving families, which is why we have made this fund available. That fund this year is supporting three projects in the county of Pembrokeshire, and I'm sure the Member would be glad of that. If he's not aware of the individual projects, I'm happy to write to him with details of the schools that are in receipt of that...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, acting Presiding Officer. I'd like to start by thanking Jayne for bringing forward this debate today and for describing the fantastic practice of her local schools. It always gives me a huge amount of pleasure to hear from Assembly Members of the fantastic work that our teachers and support staff are doing every day in communities the length and breadth of Wales. As has...
Kirsty Williams: But, actually, what does that mean in practice and what is a whole-school approach? Teachers tell us that they are concerned about their students' mental health. They feel that they're being asked to deal with mental health issues outside their competencies as teachers, and they often feel unsupported by specialist services. There is a clear need for teachers to have help and support in...
Kirsty Williams: My priorities are clear: raising standards for all, reducing the attainment gap and delivering an education system that is a source of national pride and public confidence. Our 2019-20 budget continues to be committed to the success and well-being of every learner, regardless of background or personal circumstance.
Kirsty Williams: I visited Sony UK, Pencoed with the former First Minister in 2016. Since then significant progress has been made to put provisions in place to improve learners’ coding skills, including the implementation of our 'Cracking the Code' plan.
Kirsty Williams: Powys County Council education services have recently been inspected. I have noted the outcome of the inspection. An action plan has been developed to address the issues and a new leadership team has been put in place within the authority to drive improvements.
Kirsty Williams: Formally.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Back in August, I had the privilege of celebrating examination results with the learners at Coleg y Cymoedd on A-level day, and, as Nick Ramsay just said, with the pupils at King Henry VIII Comprehensive School in Abergavenny on GCSE day—a day when that school was celebrating its best ever set of GCSE results. And I'm sure that all Members...
Kirsty Williams: Mark Reckless asked the question about whether we can attribute some of this success to the Seren network. Of course, this is the first year that the students will have been through the entirety of the Seren programme, and I think there is definitely something there that has driven those excellent results. Alongside those results we have seen a record number of offers from Cambridge...
Kirsty Williams: The Member may be aware that there is a significant demographic change, so actually there are simply fewer of those pupils of that age in the system. And we've just heard from Suzy Davies of the need to value and have parity of esteem between academic qualifications and vocational qualifications. It is about the right students doing the right qualifications, and if those A-level students are...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Alun. Today I launched the formal consultation on an updated draft of the school and community-based counselling operating toolkit. This is an integral part of our work to embed a whole-school approach to emotional well-being, led jointly by the Minister for health and myself.
Kirsty Williams: Well, thank you, Alun. I was very pleased to visit Tredegar comprehensive with you, although slightly disappointed not to see your photograph on the wall, amongst other notable ex-pupils of the school. [Laughter.] But I have to say the conversations that I had with the pupils at Tredegar are ones that I have with school pupils constantly. I've yet to go to a school council meeting where the...
Kirsty Williams: Well, Oscar, it's disappointing to hear those statistics because for the academic year 2017-18, over 11,000 young people benefited from the school counselling service. But we do know that, for some young people, there are barriers to accessing that service. That's why we are, as I said, putting new resources forward to local authorities to look at ways in which we can address more...
Kirsty Williams: Well, I think the first aspect to respond appropriately to the needs of those children is to ensure that their particular learning needs are identified early in their school career. And that's why this Government is spending resources on ensuring that more and more of our professionals are provided with training to spot signs of a range of different factors that could affect a child's...
Kirsty Williams: As at 31 March 2019, nine secondary schools in Pembrokeshire carried forward a total surplus of £455,000, and one secondary school carried forward a deficit of £120,000. Local authorities are responsible for schools funding and should closely monitor individual schools' budgets.
Kirsty Williams: Well, the Member is absolutely right to identify the way in which the vast majority of resources that fund our schools is a matter for local authorities. I recently met with the finance distribution sub-group to discuss these issues, as well as the directors of education and the education portfolios, across the 22 local authorities, about my desire to see as much money as possible getting to...
Kirsty Williams: The Member is absolutely right—what we're trying to develop in Welsh Government is a whole-system approach to well-being and mental health. In answer to the first questions, you've heard about work we are undertaking in schools. But, obviously, we need to continue that support as individuals make their journey through the education system. Despite constraints on the budget, I am pleased...
