Suzy Davies: ...hopefully we will see an end to that. This is something of an experiment here, Minister. I’ve written my notes in English, and I’m translating them as I speak. I would like to start with the education workforce. This is important because we have seen a decline in the number of people teaching through the medium of Welsh recently. I note the sabbatical programme, and I appreciate, of...
Suzy Davies: ...trade. Can you tell me, then, whether the consultation in particular and the commission’s future work will be taking into account the place of deft communication skills in non-statutory education? Thank you.
Suzy Davies: ...’s businesses can play in promoting the Welsh language and, indeed, driving the call for skills, actually, and we often speak positively in this Chamber of collaboration between businesses and schools and colleges, both in influencing and, indeed, facilitating the way that the curriculum is delivered in an engaging way. Do you get any sense that, lately, businesses are perhaps keener to...
Suzy Davies: ...uptake, I wonder if you would either write to me, if you can’t—. Oh, if you would write to me, actually, because I suspect you might not be able to update me today, firstly on how many schools and colleges in Wales have installed defibrillators since February, and how many more schools and colleges are now providing this kind of training to learners, and how frequently any given cohort...
Suzy Davies: ...’t read them yet—we want to know what you expect as the end result of that investment, at least in some sort of sense. Just a couple of specifics so that I leave questions for others: the new school curriculum. Now, obviously, we’re going to need an immense amount of resource for the new school curriculum. Is there any intention either to bring resources from your budget into the...
Suzy Davies: ...are talking about a period of 30 years, which is two generations in terms of house building. I don’t think it’s fair now to pin the blame on the Conservative Government of a time when I was in school, and I’m now old enough to have a Saga holiday. The cost of these new developments in places where, perhaps, they’re not best situated also has an element of outstripping the...
Suzy Davies: Thank you. I call on the Chair of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, Lynne Neagle.
Suzy Davies: ...focus on the city deal in my region, it is not to my constituents’ advantage if their rural neighbours to the north conclude that they can’t live on scenery and head south in droves to jobs, schools, and houses that the city deal will prompt but which aren’t there yet. So, I pay tribute to Russell George, who began exploring what a rural deal might look like in Wales back in the last...
Suzy Davies: ...and for households, the simplest one-click parental control. I think you can have some control over access to content in your home, but outside the home we seem to be relying very, very heavily on educating children and young people, and indeed adults, on how to recognise danger, to avoid it and how to report it. I’ve been in a class, a junior-age class, in Dyffryn Cellwen, in my region,...
Suzy Davies: ...for the statement, Cabinet Secretary. I’m pleased that something very similar to the Welsh Conservatives’ policy has found its way into your own policy. Could I ask you whether you agree that education leaders have a crucial role in improving the place of the Welsh language in the culture of our schools and colleges? I’m not talking here about the curriculum, but the culture. And how...
Suzy Davies: Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the teaching of modern foreign languages in schools in Wales?
Suzy Davies: ...has very, very little effect on council decision making. Now, as Assembly Members, of course, we are aware the obligations that this place actually places on local authorities. Planning, school places, recycling—even the Welsh language—are some of the issues that result in local authority proposals that can be unpopular. Many councils, of course, are wise enough to follow Welsh...
Suzy Davies: ...UK-wide approach or framework: for example, agricultural and marine and environment policies, and possibly—possibly—regional development policy to a degree as well. The head of Birmingham Law School told the committee that the process ‘does provide an opportunity to think about things in a different way’, And, as NFU Cymru said this week: ‘While Brexit presents significant...
Suzy Davies: ...the needs of Wales are specific. The reality of that, though, is that these needs now are specific, and not in a good way, as a result of 18 years of poor Government here: NHS waiting lists, education and skills and standards—despite the lovely new schools—GVA, child poverty, bad investment decisions along with small business deaths, poor social mobility, and indifference to rural...
Suzy Davies: ..., of course, the detail of all schemes is what’s important now, not the existence of a statutory framework, and I do hope that the review will be valuable. We’re not talking here about Welsh in education strategic plans in isolation, of course, We are talking about Welsh in education plans. Will the review consider the growth of the Welsh language used occasionally as the first part of...
Suzy Davies: ...of the national curriculum, and that kind of made sense to me, but I’m wondering whether you can explain whether there’s any possibility that this endowment will be accessible to anyone beyond school age. Is this strictly for supporting school-age music services or are adults going to be able to—when you’re putting your remit letter to the arts council, will you be saying this...
Suzy Davies: Good. [Laughter.] Minister, your point about removing barriers between school and college actually is very well made, and I would agree with you on that. You have been saying, actually, pretty much until the end there, all the right things, but we do need to see them happen now. Really, I’m just begging you: stop moaning and plan. Plan to spend that £400 million. Parity of esteem is not...
Suzy Davies: ...sum of the parts—let’s add those up to be even greater. Let’s make sure that parity of esteem does mean that we end up with a whole that’s better than the sum of our parts. Actually, our education system has kind of reflected that in recent years; at least in the pre-16 sector. I thought Jeremy Miles’s contribution on the Netherlands was very illustrative of this: post 16, we are...
Suzy Davies: ...to my attention when I first became an Assembly Member. A six-year campaign began with a statement of opinion in 2011, seeking support for the mandatory teaching of emergency life-saving skills in school and then a short debate in which the present education Secretary, as well as Plaid and Labour Members, spoke in its favour. Support came from every party in the fourth Assembly, and it...
Suzy Davies: ...forward look plan there, but, according to officials, Swansea council’s admittedly rather controversial local development plan is likely to be delayed now, and part of the twenty-first century schools programme aims to address the issue of capacity, of course, in schools that are both overcrowded and those that have surplus places. If the local development plan is delayed, what impact do...
