Suzy Davies: Thank you very much for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. I wonder if you could help me out, please, when I'm asking some questions about education and the relationship between the education main expenditure group and some of the other department expenditure lines? Obviously, it's very pleasing to see the £60 million extra for education. It still falls a little short of the £100 million...
Suzy Davies: Some families freely choose home schooling while others feel they have no alternative because the alternatives to school education for a troubled child are limited. While the number of the latter has dropped, the number of the former has increased from over 1,000 five years ago to over 1,500 last year. What does that say about the confidence in our school education system that they choose to...
Suzy Davies: But, of course, not all councils have that money, to that amount, held centrally. I'm very pleased for Plasmarl school, actually, and I'm going to come on to the indicator based assessments here in a minute. Because the point that did impress me in your earlier comments was about prevention. And, of course, schools are not just about academic education; they're community builders. To me,...
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...
Suzy Davies: Deputy Minister, Hwb has been a fundamental part of home schooling over the past three months, but I still receive correspondence from non-Welsh-speaking parents who don't feel that they have been in a position to assist their children who attend Welsh-medium schools. So, would it be possible for you to speak to the education Minister as to how copies of papurau bro can be uploaded, perhaps,...
Suzy Davies: .... I move the amendment too. Now, the reasons why—well, why don’t we start with local authorities? They should have grasped their obligation to promote the Welsh language by now. The Welsh in education statutory plans have failed. It’s a waste of money asking councils to do investigative work or promoting work if they’re not going to act upon the results. Worse than that, it just...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much, Lynne. It was just a point of clarification, as much as anything, about the review. Our recommendation was about school funding—the sufficiency of school funding—not education in the round. And bearing in mind this split between local government and the education pot centrally, I think that's an important distinction that needs to be just placed on the record.
Suzy Davies: Thank you for that answer. Almost three years ago, the then education Minister wrote to me confirming that local authorities can, and I quote, provide these places—education for three-year-olds—in a nursery school, a nursery class within a primary school, or non-maintained setting, such as a playgroup or a private day nursery. Now, three years on, Swansea council is still only funding...
Suzy Davies: ...or Gorseinon in my region due to pressures at Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Pontybrenin. Young children are being transported from the Cwmbwrla and Gendros areas of Swansea to access primary Welsh-medium education in other parts of the city because the council has earmarked the perfect site for a school for housing, and there are problems with continued overflow with some of the primary...
Suzy Davies: ...I also echo the sentiments expressed in the first Plaid amendment? Any improvement is to be welcomed for its effect on the individual young people who benefit from it, as well as the staff at the schools. I just wanted to start briefly with the reduction in the number of settings offering education for three and four-year-olds. I’ve always been disappointed that some councils in Wales...
Suzy Davies: ...be that that question has arisen because so much emphasis has been on social care workers within care homes. I've got a question about those who administer personal and intimate care to children in school settings. I think we can agree that the communication of prioritising these individuals wasn't fantastic—you admitted as much last week, Minister. But the education Minister further...
Suzy Davies: As we're embarking on the scrutiny of the curriculum Bill, I think it would be helpful if we could have some clarity on protecting the existence of Welsh-medium schools. I know the education Minister, in recent exchanges about the requirement to opt out of English, has said that this is not about the medium of teaching, it's about subjects, but I think that prompts the question then about how...
Suzy Davies: Trefnydd—two statements that I'm looking for, please. The first is an urgent written joint statement from the Minister for Education and the Minister for local government about the real confusion being experienced by families about the school or hub settings that councils are providing during the period of school closures. The three local authorities in South Wales West are doing things...
Suzy Davies: ...materialised this year or how these targets were reached. Perhaps I can ask you if you're going to be dropping these targets. I imagine it's around now that you'd be sending a remit letter to the Education Workforce Council, so perhaps you can respond to that question when I ask you this next one. Because the Education Workforce Council also states that, and I'm quoting: 'If you are...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Llywydd. I have never been to any schools that merged, like Caroline Jones, but I have been to some that have burnt down, and that's definitely a way of getting a new school—not that I recommend it, of course. Can I thank the IAR group for tabling the debate today? As you'll see from our own amendment, there's quite a bit of the motion that we agree with, and really, it's only...
Suzy Davies: ...just begin by acknowledging that Estyn does say that they're happy that there's been progress in the primary sector. But I think it would be a betrayal of those young people if they then move on to schools in which the majority of pupils—and I mean the majority—across the age and ability range continue to fail to develop from skills and knowledge well enough, or make enough progress,...
Suzy Davies: ...pleased to hear that it is in the budget somewhere and that the use it's being put to is the use for which it was intended. Although local authorities, as we know, are largely responsible for school funding, schools are undoubtedly affected by decisions you make on the education budget. Over the course of this Assembly, you're making available £36 million to reduce infant class sizes,...
Suzy Davies: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'm sure you're expecting me to return to the Western Mail report today, Minister, which I do. Darren Millar mentioned that school leaders are feeling exhausted and under threat and particularly 'unable to cope with impossible demands set from on high by a range of bureaucratic people'. After citing funding, which you probably would expect, and retention and...
Suzy Davies: I think I must begin by asking why this is the third time we're debating Plaid's position on free school meals in as many months. This motion replicates an amendment to the budget debate on 9 February, just two weeks ago. Back in December, we agreed that if you had no recourse to public funds then you shouldn't also have to worry about relying on someone's discretion in order for your child...
Suzy Davies: Yes, Minister, I was listening to your response to Jayne Bryant there and that observation that schools and colleges aren't vectors for the spread of COVID. Yet we've seen considerable numbers being sent home from some schools—200 in one case, and over 400 in another. You say you're monitoring what's happening at the moment, but have you learnt anything yet about why further education...
