Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. I think every Member here is committed to seeing that children and young people in Wales receive an education that is inspiring, motivating and provides them with the skills they need to fulfil their potential, as you said in your statement. We have very different ideas about how that can be achieved, but I think everybody is approaching this...
Michelle Brown: ...me in applying pressure on the Government to improve the prospects of future generations of young people throughout Wales, regardless of their financial background. To those who believe grammar schools are a relic of some sepia-tinted bygone era, I would offer one word: PISA. This December, the latest PISA results will be published, and there are early signs in the corridors of this place...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. Schools will clearly benefit from the kind of advice and support you’re talking about, and I realise that improving schools is an ongoing process, which is why the lack of concrete support reflected in the guidance on the school classification system concerns me. However, there are young people who will have spent their education in either an...
Michelle Brown: ...I'm asking about this is that children who have been put in local authority care are already disadvantaged because of all those ACEs that you spoke about—that will have had an impact on their education. They're going into care, which has an impact on their education. What the state can do is give them additional schooling to actually give them a leg up—schooling that wouldn't actually...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. You’re quite right that class size is a relevant factor for the educational attainment of children, and the Cabinet Secretary is also correct when she admits that class size isn’t the only factor that needs dealing with. What I wonder is why this initiative only attempts to deal with the issue of class sizes to improve education for...
Michelle Brown: No. Oxbridge intake from state schools has decreased since grammar schools were largely abolished and studies have shown social mobility has decreased. [Interruption.] Listen again: social mobility has decreased since the abolition of grammar schools. If you don’t care about working-class kids, carry on with your policy. To those who say grammar schools are for the elite, we say, ‘Yes,...
Michelle Brown: ...or gender—something that has overwhelming support from the majority in today's society. But I'm sure that I'm not the only Member in the Chamber to have concerns over the overhaul of sex education in Wales. It is the role of the national curriculum in Wales to facilitate children's education by identifying pupils' abilities and encouraging them to be the best they can be, whether it's in...
Michelle Brown: ...research into the views of professionals on early and multiple entry for examinations. Can the Cabinet Secretary please explain why this is? The Labour Party, which has been in control of the Welsh education system for 20 years now in one way or another, is supposedly plugged into the unions, so why do you think it’s only now, thanks to Qualifications Wales, that the opinions of...
Michelle Brown: We exist in a time where there is competition for places in higher education, in the workplace and generally in all elements of life. So, why not teach our children to be the best they can possibly be? These results also demonstrate that this Government must prioritise core subjects in the classroom. It should reflect on the other areas in the curriculum where time can be better spent on...
Michelle Brown: ...to extend the eligibility criteria to two years—with a little bit of caution, because it may well take a lot longer than two years for a child to recover from the effects of being on free school meals or other disadvantage. So, can the Cabinet Secretary explain to us why this period isn't longer, and why she has chosen two years as opposed to three, four, five or whatever? Guaranteeing...
Michelle Brown: ...research evidence, using data and new technology, and leadership. They emphasise that unelected—and, I repeat, unelected—third sector charitable foundations such as the National Foundation for Educational Research, the Sutton Trust, the Education Endowment Foundation, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, play some role in gathering evidence to impact upon these updates. These topics,...
Michelle Brown: ...Officer, and thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. I welcome your commitment to the objective of ensuring that all pupils in Wales are digitally competent by the time they leave school. In modern workplaces, there are few jobs that don’t require at least some level of competence with digital technology, and few areas of life where it does not now not extend. I’m therefore...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that. As far as the red, amber, and green classifications are concerned, can the Cabinet Secretary tell us how many children live in catchment areas where both primary and secondary schools are deemed as either amber or red? I’m sure the Cabinet Secretary agrees with me that subjecting a child to a school that requires improvement is unacceptable and it would be a national...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. Last year, when you became Cabinet Secretary for Education, and again today, you quite rightly said that there should be a presumption against the closure of rural schools, and that pupils in rural schools deserve the same opportunities as children in other areas of Wales. What action, if any, would you take if you suspected that a local authority...
Michelle Brown: ...the Plaid amendment. Part-time study can be vital to those who cannot afford to give up work but need to study in order to improve the future for themselves and their family. A healthy part-time education sector can be a major attraction for businesses looking for a new home that want the option of being able to upskill their workforce. It gives increased options for those who want to...
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer. The ministerial determination to close John Summers High School in 2017 was announced by Kirsty Williams in August 2016. It is a matter of record that John Summers High School has served more Traveller children than any other school within Flintshire and possibly across Wales. Can the Minister give assurances that the education needs of the Traveller community...
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. I welcome the consultation on the reforms to post-compulsory education and training. I do have some questions. I appreciate that you may not have a firm answer right now to some of them and, if that’s the case, I’d like your assurance that the views of stakeholders will be sought on the points. I...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. You'll perhaps be aware that the BBC reported today that approximately £4 million is being taken out of school budgets to pay for local authorities' apprenticeship levies to the UK Government. They're also reporting that while some councils are paying this levy out of the overall budget, 13 of them are paying it out of the school budgets. Amongst...
Michelle Brown: Thanks for that answer, Minister. On the day GCSE results came out over the summer, school leaders said that they were extremely concerned at the fall in the percentage of 16-year-olds passing Welsh second language at A* to C, and their association called on the Welsh Government to work with them to find out what has caused the 10 per cent fall in grades. But it wasn't just Welsh they were...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. School closures, and even the threat of school closures, cause divisions within and between rural communities, especially when there is competition between pupils for school places. When the school is closed, there is a loss of a social and cultural resource and physical meeting place for members of the committee. The local school acts as an...
