Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Llywydd. I move the motion. I wish to start by thanking the Chairs and members of the Children, Young People, and Education Committee, the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee and the Finance Committee, as well as other Members who have contributed to the scrutiny of the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill. I'm also grateful to all stakeholders who contributed...
Jeremy Miles: Amendments include changes to the Education Act 1997 to ensure provision of careers education and information for all children of compulsory school age across schools and settings, including pupil referral units and further education institutions. Careers and work-related experience is a cross-cutting theme running through the Curriculum for Wales framework. These amendments secure this...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Llywydd. I move the motion. The Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021, passed by the Senedd in March of last year, provides for the establishment of a new legislative framework to support arrangements under the Curriculum for Wales. The regulations before you today seek to make minor technical amendments to a range of primary legislation, which are required as a result of the...
Jeremy Miles: Yes, I agree very much with Buffy Williams's point about the role, the essential role, that teaching assistants play in our schools today and, certainly, will play in fulfilling the potential of the new curriculum, as well the range of other reforms, by the way, in relation to our additional learning needs reforms and a range of others as well. I think I mentioned in the statement that I gave...
Jeremy Miles: I thank you for that and I think that's very much at the heart of the reforms. And Estyn will play a really important role, from an accountability inspection perspective, in evaluating the school's own capacity for self-improvement, if you like, in the way it designs the curriculum, and I think that's a supportive part of the landscape. I just want to go back, in response to what Jenny...
Jeremy Miles: Well, I'm always very diffident when I approach questions of teaching and learning with someone who is a teaching professional, so I'll just give that caveat, if I may, and an element of deference, I suppose, about what I'm about to say. But I think that point about the individual learner's journey is fundamental, and, in some ways, is perhaps the most radical part of the whole suite of...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you to Heledd Fychan for those questions and the way that she has welcomed those reforms. I appreciate that. Just on her concluding point, qualifications are still going to be important and a core part of the system, to ensure that learners leave school with the very best possible grades and qualifications for them, but that's not the only measurement. There will be wider measurements...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for a wide-ranging set of questions. I hope that she will forgive me if I limit my responses to those that are relevant to the statement. But I think that the question from the Member very neatly exemplified the confusion at the heart of the system that this set of changes is intended to eliminate. At various points in her questions, she spoke about performance, she spoke...
Jeremy Miles: National categorisation was suspended in 2020, and the guidance confirmed that it will be replaced by a robust self-evaluation process where good practice is shared and failure is urgently addressed. The OECD have identified a prominent role for self-evaluation as a feature of high-performing school systems. They have previously described how replacing national categorisation with a robust...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Firstly, I want to take this opportunity to express my continued thanks to the profession for their ongoing commitment to curriculum reform and prioritising the well-being of their learners, despite the many challenges that they faced over the last few years. Wales is on an ambitious path to education reform, to raise standards and aspirations for all, so everyone...
Jeremy Miles: In November 2021, Administrative Data Research Wales published its examination of the association of school absence and exclusion with recorded neurodevelopmental and mental conditions in a large cohort of children and young people in Wales. It found that school absenteeism and exclusion rates were higher after the age of 11 in all children, but disproportionately more so in those with a...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, acting Llywydd. May I thank Jenny Rathbone for putting forward this short debate? Every child and young person has the right to receive an education that inspires them and prepares them to fulfil their potential in a safe and supportive environment. I want to be clear that the decision to exclude a learner should only be taken when everything else has failed, that is, that the...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you to Heledd Fychan for asking that question. We saw during the pandemic an increase of almost 4,500 young people, representing more than 20 per cent of new registrations, on the Volunteering Wales platform, which is very encouraging, I think. Volunteering is an important way of demonstrating the values of citizenship, and it's an important part of the community democratic process,...
Jeremy Miles: Education-based volunteering is a critical component in helping create a volunteering society engendering volunteering habits in young people. We continue to support third sector infrastructure organisations and national grant schemes in order to improve access to volunteering opportunities for young people.
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for his point. It's a really important question. He might have seen some of the remarks I made last week in particular about access to all kinds of education for young people from perhaps some of our most disadvantaged backgrounds. For the first time this year, and in each subsequent year, we will be able to provide—obviously, subject to the consent of the...
Jeremy Miles: The 2022-23 settlement sees the highest level of investment in further education in recent history. We recognise that more learners are choosing to stay in post-16 education. Through the budget, we will ensure that learners in post-16 education are offered the best possible support, in particular following the impact of the pandemic.
Jeremy Miles: I've obviously met with the exam board and with Qualifications Wales, as I do regularly, and have discussed this summer's exam season as part of our discussions generally. Learners this year have faced a particular set of challenges, being the first cohort perhaps not to have sat any external exams, but facing them for the first time this year. Clearly, as I was saying in the earlier answer,...
Jeremy Miles: In addition to the announced adaptations to exam content and grade boundaries, a £24 million support package was put in place, including the Lefel Nesa/Power Up campaign. This investment has provided learners with information, exam resources, hints and tips to help them prepare for the 2022 exam season.
Jeremy Miles: A range of vocational education opportunities are available at all levels to suit our learners in Pembrokeshire. Vocational qualifications play a vital role in delivering the skills and training that our learners need to address the demands of our economy.
Jeremy Miles: Yes, I'd be very happy to join the Member in his congratulations to the college, and I'm looking forward to being with him tomorrow in Pembrokeshire College, where we'll have an opportunity to talk to many of the young learners there—and the advantages they're able to take of the range of opportunities that are available there as well. As he will know, in terms of our approach to...
