Kirsty Williams: Learners can currently study politics through personal and social education and the Welsh baccalaureate. We are developing new resources, to help our young people develop as ethical, informed citizens who understand their rights and exercise their democratic responsibilities, and ensuring politically neutral materials and teacher support is available for schools.
Kirsty Williams: I thank Lynne Neagle for her comments, and I'm delighted to hear that there were practitioners yesterday talking in such warm terms about the health and well-being AoLE. You and I were both in the ministerial task and finish group yesterday, and we heard from the primary school headteacher representative about the opportunity that the new curriculum gives them, and she was very excited about...
Kirsty Williams: Can I thank Darren Millar for the points that he made? I absolutely accept the point about the rights of parents to educate their children, and nothing that we are proposing here takes away from that. I'm sure all of us would agree that the vast majority of parents are in a position to do that successfully, but not all of our children are so lucky, Darren; not all of our children are so lucky...
Kirsty Williams: Can I thank Jenny Rathbone for her support with regard to these two very important parts of the curriculum? I would point all Members to page 38 of the document, where we explain in some detail that: 'Children begin to learn about relationships long before they start school. As soon as they enter the social world they will be encountering and interacting with complex and often contradictory...
Kirsty Williams: Siân Gwenllian is right to say that I'm going to mention the additional INSET day; if she had seen some of the responses to the consultation on that INSET day, she will have seen that, in some sectors, that is not a popular thing to have done. But it is a necessary thing to increase, once again, the time available to schools. We've been very clear in the document that we've published today...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much to Siân for her contribution. Firstly, we talked about the space and the time to prepare. Those are important considerations. That's why I took a decision to, first of all, delay the introduction of the curriculum to give us more time, and I took the decision to alter the way in which the curriculum would be implemented by having a phased roll-out approach in the...
Kirsty Williams: Can I begin by thanking Suzy Davies for the points she raised and the question she asked? She firstly talked about implementation. And as I said in my statement, we will publish an implementation plan later on this term. I want practitioners and interested parties to be able to spend the next couple of weeks reading what is a quite extensive document, and beginning their thought process...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Today, I am publishing the refined curriculum for Wales guidance. This sets out: guidelines for every school to develop their curriculum; expectations around assessment arrangements to support learner progression; and the proposed legislative requirements to secure a consistency of approach for learners across the country. Improving education is our...
Kirsty Williams: As I said, I'm not responsible for apprenticeships, but I am responsible for our FE provision, and I do want to be able to work with our colleges to make sure that that and agricultural qualifications are as good and as relevant as they need to be for the sector going forward. Sorry, I know I'm trying the patience of the Deputy Presiding Officer, but I want to turn to the amendment of Plaid,...
Kirsty Williams: Well, my colleague, the Minister for the economy, will have to clarify that, because actually apprenticeships fall under his department, not within the education department. But I will ensure that that information is made available to you. The motion does discuss—[Interruption.] The motion does discuss degree apprenticeships, which, again, are already a feature in the draft budget. Both...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. It's been interesting, and sometimes illuminating, to hear the contributions this afternoon, but I think we can all agree that developing the skills of the workforce is essential if Wales is to thrive and prosper post Brexit. This Government is committed to supporting FE, HE and apprenticeships to ensure our people have the necessary skills to...
Kirsty Williams: Formally move.
Kirsty Williams: Indeed they can. And, again, there is nothing in the proposals for our new curriculum that would prevent that from happening. We will be working with practitioners to commission new resources that do refer to key events and topics in the histories of Wales and the world. And it is my expectation that these will provide a very real foundation as we move forward in the next two and a half...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, for the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Government to the committee's report on the teaching of Welsh history, heritage and culture. As has already been noted during the debate, we have accepted all of the recommendations in full or in principle bar one. I can confirm that Estyn will undertake a review of the teaching of Welsh history,...
Kirsty Williams: Well, I hope the Member will be pleased when we publish the final version of the curriculum guidance at the end of this month that we have listened very carefully to the feedback from the initial period with regard to the Siarter. External evaluation is ongoing and, due to the changes to the timetable of the evaluation, the project will now not be completed until the end of February. As a...
Kirsty Williams: Diolch yn fawr, Llyr. Siarter Iaith is the responsibility of the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language. I can, however, tell you that the Siarter Iaith framework was part of the consultation on the new curriculum for Wales. The responses will be considered alongside the independent evaluation of the programme, which is currently ongoing.
Kirsty Williams: I'm sorry—
Kirsty Williams: Sorry—my earpiece. My Welsh isn't that good. [Laughter.] Blwyddyn 2 standard.
Kirsty Williams: Okay. I can say that the decisions made by regional school improvement services, local education authorities and councils will form a part of Luke's investigation and report. One of the issues that was front and centre of the committee's report was not just the total sum of funding but actually the way in which that money allocated reaches the front line and gets into an individual school's...
Kirsty Williams: The leading education economist Luke Sibieta is taking forward an analysis of how total spending and spending on different categories varies across schools in specific circumstances in Wales. The terms of reference for this work have been published, and it is intended that this work will be completed before the summer recess.
