Mohammad Asghar: Thank you very much for that answer, First Minister. According to Estyn, only half of secondary schools in Wales are judged 'good' or 'excellent'. Pupils do not develop knowledge and skills well enough or make enough progress in around a half of Welsh secondary schools, and the majority of pupils in these schools do not achieve in line with their abilities by the time they reach the end of...
Kirsty Williams: Could I say I’m absolutely not complacent at all? Is the attainment gap closing fast enough? No, it’s not. I’m particularly concerned about the fact that our children on free school meals continue not to reach the same attainment levels as their richer counterparts. But I’m also equally concerned about how few children in some local authorities who are on school action plus reach the...
Sarah Murphy: Some people have questioned the role of encryption and whether this can offer the safety required to secure students' data collected in schools, by ensuring that hackers cannot reverse engineer a password or key. But we must take into consideration that a child's biometric data must be secure for their lifetime—so, six to eight decades—and it is impossible to say under our current system...
Hefin David: Further education should be included in the design and development of the curriculum. The Baker clause has recently come into effect in England, whereby schools are required to let FE providers advertise their services to pupils in years 8 to 13, making learners aware of the range of options available to them after they leave compulsory education. With the significant reforms under way to the...
Jeremy Miles: ...funding for them this year so that they can do more work with us in this area. But he's right to mention that one of the challenges in this area is also the workforce that can provide Welsh-medium education, and also the availability of qualifications in Welsh. We've been discussing those with Qualifications Wales as well. The new commission that will come in the wake of the legislation...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd, for accepting my request to ask a few questions. I have two questions on education—schools education first of all. Now, we talk about this target of 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050, and it's good to see that everyone is working together towards that target. Everyone welcomes the target. We should be able to reach it because the role of schools is so very...
Carwyn Jones: You know, to be lectured by somebody who stood for election on the basis of cutting education spending by 12 per cent—by 12 per cent—is unbelievable. To be lectured by somebody whose party is failing to build schools in England—failing to build schools in England—while we are building schools in Wales; to be lectured by somebody who wanted to bring back grammar schools—grammar...
Suzy Davies: Bearing in mind the huge changes that will be happening in schools, not least with the change in curriculum and the preparation for that, but also the long-standing and very acute complaints made by schools now about their direct funding, I have to say I was disappointed not to see that more explicitly in even the cross-cutting themes of Government, because, of course, if you get education...
Kirsty Williams: Presiding Officer, I had thought that I had been crystal clear in the debate last week about my views on grammar schools. There is no evidence at all that grammar schools serve their students any better than traditional comprehensive schools. We know that they are bad news for the poorest students and we also know that the OECD, even though it had many tough things to say about Welsh...
Rebecca Evans: It's nice of Nick Ramsay to join us because, of course, in answer to the first question this afternoon, I was able to talk to Lynne Neagle about our approach to education and the priority that we are putting on that. The education Minister is quite right that the gap is actually closing and I think that that is something to be welcomed. I was able to outline at the start that education...
Kirsty Williams: ..., the impact of furlough or job losses on the adults around them, the separation from their wider family and friendship circles, and the impact on their normal routine, just being able to attend school—it will have all been very, very daunting. However, if there is one positive that we can take from the last year, let it be the issue of well-being, in particular that of children and...
Dawn Bowden: Indeed, and I know that the Welsh Government has a long-standing commitment to school funding, in spite of the UK Government's continued austerity programme, and this year's local government settlement, as you've already outlined, has reflected this. However, we also know that local authorities have successfully argued for education funding not to be ring-fenced, and I appreciate that much...
Mark Drakeford: ...that Michael Gove made in Edinburgh during the Conservative leadership election, when he said that the way to cement the United Kingdom was for the UK Government to set up, in devolved areas, schools and hospitals for which they would have responsibility. It was, I thought, an idea designed to lead to the disintegration of the United Kingdom, and let us hope that when the Prime Minister...
Sioned Williams: Minister, I've been contacted by the father of an additional learning needs pupil who's suffered months of lost education and, of course, all-important development during the pandemic, and, unlike with his other children, there's been no opportunity to continue his son's very specialist education at home. The local authority hasn't offered any coaching or training for parents to do this...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you. I do understand that I have been asking questions of the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport on medical education to date, but it’s good to ask a question to you as the Cabinet Secretary for Education today. Now that the pre-budget agreement has secured development funding for undergraduate medical education in Bangor, will you, as the education Secretary, tell us...
Kirsty Williams: ...system, should be put onto the new programme. They should be put onto the new programme, and what we are looking to transition across are those children who already have a statutory statement of educational needs, focusing at first on those children who are at very important stages in their education, which is usually the move from primary school into secondary school or from secondary...
Mark Drakeford: Well, to begin with, may I agree with what the Member has said about the importance of preparing young people through our schools if we are to attain the ambitious target that we’ve set? That is why we are doing more in our schools at A-level, in order to get more students to study at A-level and to draw more young people into further and higher education who use the Welsh language...
Mandy Jones: Thank you for that answer. First Minister, a recent report by the Assembly's health committee heard evidence that physical education and physical activity are generally not receiving sufficient priority in schools. We've already heard in this Chamber that it appears that many schools are falling short of providing the legally required two hours per week. We know that physical education helps...
Kirsty Williams: Can I thank the Member for the recognition of the important role that small schools play in our education system? On coming into office, I made a pledge to reform the school organisation code to include a presumption against closure, and I am very pleased that we have been able to do that. The Member is right, we have a small and rural schools grant, which is there to support the education...
Kirsty Williams: ...units, as you quite rightly say, working alongside some of our most vulnerable learners. That is why we have asked local authorities at this time, where at all possible, to continue to provide PRU education, and I'm grateful for those staff that are doing that on a daily basis. Could I reinforce the clarification? All staff, whether they are in a special school, a mainstream school, or...
