Huw Irranca-Davies: ...language in Wales that is part of our day-to-day life—in our work, at play and all around us. Proof of success in this area will be helping more and more pupils in Wales to access Welsh-medium education as a natural and easy choice. In Ogmore, which has two local councils, this will mean greater and greater cross-border co-operation on school travel, working together on the location of...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...suggest that the armed forces community in Wales numbers anything between 250,000 and 350,000 people, and a proportion of these will of course be family members and dependent children. Now, some schools in Wales are doing great work in this area, along with the work of the Supporting Service Children in Education Cymru project, Welsh Government, the Welsh Local Government Association, and...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...this is to do with cross-Government working. So, could I have that commitment on record from the Minister that he will continue to work with other Government Ministers, including the Minister for Education, to ensure that active travel to and from schools becomes a key part of the Public Health Wales administered healthy schools programme? This will not eat into schools' time, into any...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I welcome today’s statement, but may I ask the Cabinet Secretary to explain how today’s announcement will assist Welsh-medium education in particular? I am pleased to have two excellent Welsh-medium schools in my constituency. Ysgol Llangynwyd serves the west, and Llanhari serves the east, but both will find difficulty in finding sufficient numbers of chemistry, maths, and physics...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch, Lywydd. Today, particularly, I want to pay tribute to the efforts of the teachers and the governors, and the young people in my local school, some of whom achieved record GCSE results earlier this year. And I say that because PISA is important, but to pretend that it is the only indicator of success is wholly wrong. Now, I commend the Cabinet Secretary on her frank recognition of the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...the most recent data, where I think they suggest that they've had a significant decline in it, but I think we do need to take an interest within that. Julie's point in terms of segregation in school sports: this is very interesting and I'm happy to write and to confirm what the guidance is on this. I've actually had it within my own—. Very good local schools there, I've had it brought to...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I will in a moment. Siân, you also raised the issue of the school uniforms grant. Well, the Cabinet Secretary for Education has already made clear her intention to introduce an improved scheme from September 2018—a scheme that will be more flexible, more relevant for the needs of disadvantaged learners. My officials have already been involved in discussions regarding the development of...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I thank David for raising this because I think the success of the school is integrally linked to the involvement of parents. Would she acknowledge, however, that there are some schools with more significant challenges in that engagement with parents and of parents with their children as well generally? Perhaps she could comment on what measures she can take within the Welsh Government to...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Could we have a statement on the support for primary school children with additional learning needs in Welsh-medium education? Now, obviously, this Welsh Government has prioritised the growth of Welsh-medium education as part of its ambitious targets for 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050. But, one of the challenges of growing Welsh-medium education in areas that start from a low base is that...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Indeed, and I extend my congratulations to all those in the schools who work with children, with significant advantages, because of the disadvantage that they might face, but also the teaching staff and support staff who work with them to produce those excellent results. And there’s no doubt that the pupil development grant is an invaluable resource to financially assist schools in...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...culture change is a consequence of the move away from blanket entries into vocational science qualifications at 16. Entry practices have stabilised this year, it's proved a positive response from schools to the revised early-entry policy announced in 2018. It means that fewer of our learners are being made to sit exams before they're ready, and it means less stress. And if I turn briefly...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister, I hope that you enjoyed the visit to Llanhari school today and I very much hope that you enjoyed the singing as much as the children and the teachers enjoyed your dancing in the playground. [Laughter.] Indeed, during today's visit, you met two young teachers who were starting their careers in the field of education. So, what message do you have...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...it's interesting that the report actually flags that if we were to genuinely, meaningfully, deliver active travel, not simply active travel infrastructure but the cultural change that would enable schools to make it absolutely normal to walk and to cycle to school, the impact would be substantial, but it would be particularly proportionately impactful on young girls, because the benefits...
Huw Irranca-Davies: My thanks go to Sam for bringing forward this legislative proposal. It gives a really much-needed airing here in the Senedd to the benefits of outdoor education and activity. It's very timely on the back of the new curriculum, which has been shaped by the heightened realisation of the wide benefits of learning in the outdoors. Indeed, the Welsh Government curriculum guidance states that...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Can I very much welcome the review on post-16 education transport, but also the engagement that I know that is going on at the moment between the Minister and the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport on active travel, on some imaginative thinking on that joint working? But could I ask, beyond those short journeys to school, for which we need to encourage more children to actually get on...
Huw Irranca-Davies: The Minister will know from his visits around Wales that some pupils don't engage with the traditional curriculum and with traditional education. But providing opportunities such as construction skills is a way in to a productive future career, and sometimes quite a lucrative career as well, with skills such as carpentry and bricklaying and plumbing and so on. So, will he join me in welcoming...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ..., all of the people who've actually made huge efforts over the last year to continue teaching in some form or another, and to provide that welfare support and pastoral support as well through our education system. But I know that I'm having teachers in my own area saying to me now that whilst they are concerned about the welfare, not simply welfare in terms of the pandemic and teaching...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I say this as a proud comprehensive schoolboy: we can never be complacent about striving for ever-higher outcomes from our school and our college education, and we do need to see continued and accelerated improvement on the trajectory we're now seeing. But as we approach the season of cheer and good will, I will not be talking down the achievements of our students and our teachers and our...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...good lives for them, for their families, for their loved ones doesn’t begin and end at home; it travels internationally. I popped into a lunchtime event today with a group of children from Hafod school in, I think, Mike Hedges’s constituency, and they were fundraising for educational opportunities for youngsters in parts of Africa, with an organisation helping, and they’d raised, I...
Huw Irranca-Davies: ...managed to adapt very rapidly to moving services and provision online so that we can do the sort of engagement we've seen, and not least amongst this, I have to say, is the welcome approach of the education outreach section, separate from our committees and everything else, who've done so much to keep an involvement with our schools and potential young electorate as well, as we lowered the...
