Tom Giffard: Diolch, Cadeirydd. Each year, every first Thursday of November is the International Day Against Violence and Bullying at School, including cyber bullying. Around 20 per cent of students report being bullied, but only half have reported incidents to an adult. Formal education can and should play a key role in providing children and young people with the knowledge and skills to identify online...
Kirsty Williams: ...to be in a position to make progress on that when in Government. As I said in answer to the first question from Janet Finch-Saunders, we are currently out to consultation on the reform of the school organisation code to strengthen that code and, indeed, to create for the first time ever in Wales a definition of what a rural school actually is. The first question any local authority should...
Vaughan Gething: I think it's a fair question. What I've done is I've asked our technical advisory group to look again at the current evidence, not just on the new variant, but the evidence of COVID and education, and my understanding has been that teachers are not high-risk professionals. Other education staff are not high-risk professions, and that's good news. And it's credit to those teachers, and other...
Kirsty Williams: I would refer you to the answer that I just gave Darren Millar. I have made it absolutely clear that my intention is to revise the current school organisation code to create a list of named rural schools and to establish a presumption against closure of those schools. Importantly, as well, with regard to rural education, we cannot just rest on our laurels by keeping institutions open....
Lynne Neagle: Thank you, Minister. Because of Tory austerity, Torfaen council yesterday were forced to put up council tax by 5.9 per cent in order to protect vital public services, especially schools and social care. I'm very proud to represent a Labour council that is fighting so hard to protect local services, and although I welcome the additional funding the Welsh Government announced for local...
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...
Rebecca Evans: Can I encourage you to write to the education Minister with your concerns? Of course, it will be for the local authority to determine where it places its schools and where it invests in its schools within the local authority area, but I'm sure that you've shared your concerns with the local authority in terms of any impact it might have on access to Welsh-medium education, and I would...
Kirsty Williams: Let’s be clear: Estyn take very seriously and consider in their reports of schools issues around attendance. We know that high levels of and regular attendance are the best things a parent can do to enhance and help their children’s education progress. As to reasons why children maybe move school, I do not believe that that is a strategic issue that we need Estyn to be looking at. If...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you for that, Suzy. As you have quite rightly identified, we are continuing to see a considerable period of disruption, because of the pandemic, on our education. We are working with schools to minimise that disruption as much as we can. I'm delighted that Pembrokeshire schools that were closed at the beginning of this week are now in a position to reopen. I met yesterday with the chief...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: May I just say that I’m pleased that you welcome that we have listened to Professor Sioned Davies? I’m also very aware that we need to improve the way in which we teach second language in our schools, and, for that reason, we convened a symposium last year where we brought together people who truly understood and had studied the best way of learning Welsh as a second language globally,...
Caroline Jones: ...forward a proposal for legislation and to offer my support to her proposals. In Wales, thousands of young people under the age of 16 are caring for relatives with little or no support from their school or from health authorities. Bethan’s legislation recognises the impact that caring responsibilities can have on a young carer’s education and I wholeheartedly support her efforts to...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you very much for that answer. As part of your financial inclusion strategy, credit unions are required to provide outreach services and education, such as school savers clubs. But when I introduced the Financial Education and Inclusion (Wales) Bill, one of the key things we identified after consultation was the availability of these services throughout Wales. There would be some...
Mohammad Asghar: 'We were once the nation that championed education—we were pioneers of state schools, high standards and achievement and had one of the first universities that was open to all. Now we underperform at every level.' These are not my words, Deputy Presiding Officer; these are the words of the Cabinet Secretary for Education in her leadership speech to the Welsh Liberal Democrat Party...
Jenny Rathbone: ...at new ways of dealing with the austerity budget that the UK Government hands down to us, but I want to just focus on the particular problems that Cardiff faces as a result of the way in which the education improvement grant has been absorbed into the overall rate support grant. Not only is our local authority having to cope with a reduction of 11 per cent in the education improvement...
Luke Fletcher: ...families struggling to put food on the table is a failure. It's a failure of Government and it's a failure of societal and economic systems. Many years ago, I was one of those kids. I was on free school meals for some time. My experiences have led me to the conclusion that free school meals ultimately should be universal. Aside from the clear effect that free school meals has on poverty...
Darren Millar: Can I call for two statements from the Cabinet Secretary for Education, please? It was reported widely in the media yesterday that, last year, teachers from 16 of the 22 local authorities had reported incidents of racism. I'm sure you would be very concerned about that, leader of the house. Also, there's been quite a spike, of course, in religious hate crime that has been recorded in Wales....
Kirsty Williams: ...for it, and I'm glad that we've been able to move such a long way. Julie, I absolutely agree with you. What is very clear in the expert group's report is that this area is best developed as a whole-school approach, and that means schools working with parents and the wider community about what is going on in their school. There may be parents who have genuine anxieties, there may be parents...
Lynne Neagle: Thank you, Minister. You'll be aware that the Children, Young People and Education Committee has raised serious concerns about the sufficiency of school funding in our recent report of our inquiry into school funding. I was delighted that the Welsh Government accepted every one of our recommendations. I also note the very significant amount of extra money that was invested in schools in the...
Mr Simon Thomas: Of course, it’s important to highlight that Welsh-medium education can also enrich the education and attainment of pupils and there is unmistakable proof of that. I turn to the other end of Montgomeryshire to ask a question of the Cabinet Secretary on the reorganisation of schools in Newtown. There’s almost £120 million allocated for that purpose and that’s been approved by Government,...
Laura Anne Jones: Minister, last week, the UK Government's autumn statement announced an increase in funding for education, which would equate to roughly £200 million extra for education in Wales if we were to do the same, with Welsh Government, of course, receiving an extra £1.2 billion in additional funding, overall, over the two years. Minister, it's now imperative, with all the extra pressures on our...
