Leanne Wood: ...that your Government can do something about. The Welsh Government could have an anti-poverty strategy—that would be a good start—a strategy that includes raising the threshold for free school meals to that of Northern Ireland, for example. Hunger, which is linked to poor attainment in school and is a consequence of poverty—I don't see much action from the Government on the question...
Leanne Wood: ...Wales do not own a private car, and that will, no doubt, correlate with low income or deprivation. A car-dependent transport system is cutting many of Wales's poorest people from employment, from education, from community and social activities. So, investing in an integrated transport system that is affordable and accessible would mitigate transport poverty, as well as increase local...
Leanne Wood: ...to child and adolescent mental health services. After waiting, it was clear that she did not need a CAMHS intervention, but there was little else available. So, she has now stopped going to school, she rarely leaves her home, and her mother doesn't know where to turn. Where is the equality for this young woman? A second example is Bridgend's decision to reorganise school transport, which...
Leanne Wood: ...like attending funerals. Third solution: we must stop the poor decision making we're seeing by various public services. We've seen cuts proposed, even if some have been reversed, to eligibility for school uniform grants, free school meals, bus services that serve poorer communities, cuts to subsidies for the sports clubs that service deprived areas—the list goes on and can be extensive....
Leanne Wood: You are aware of my concerns about your over-reliance on supply teaching firms. These firms usually charge schools exorbitant rates for providing teacher cover and only pass a small proportion of that on to the teacher commissioned. Now, I know we've discussed this before, but the question also needs considering from the point of view of providing teacher continuity for pupils. Of course,...
Leanne Wood: ..., before joining Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhondda, where she has been teaching for the last three decades. During that time, she climbed the ranks and became headteacher at a very difficult time for the school, and her influence as head has transformed the school. She's not just a great champion for excellence in teaching, but she's also a great champion for the Welsh language. We are lucky to...
Leanne Wood: I'd like to start my contribution to this debate with a big 'diolch', 'thank you', to Greta Thunberg, the school strikers and Extinction Rebellion, but also to all of the other environmental campaigners and activists who've been raising this alarm for years, if not decades. You are succeeding, the conversation is changing—with some exceptions, of course. The Extinction Rebellion protests...
Leanne Wood: ...Rhondda, it seems that their job is as much about clever accounting as it is about providing direction, leadership and drive to staff. In the local authority that covers the Rhondda, some secondary schools are more than £0.5 million in the red. There's pressure to balance the books, but services have already been cut to the bone, so the only way now to make those further cuts is to make...
Leanne Wood: 6. What is the Minister doing to ensure that schools are adequately financed? OAQ53785
Leanne Wood: ...to the Rhondda campus at Coleg y Cymoedd. I was informed by senior management at the college, and ColegauCymru, about the serious financial constraints, not just on colleges, but also on students. Education maintenance allowance payments, which could mean up to £30 a week for some students, have not increased with the cost of living since 2004. Adjusted for inflation, payments should now...
Leanne Wood: ...courting couple', 'Rhondda gossips' are such examples. It's said that he only seriously took up painting in 1987, following his retirement as a teacher. He'd been head of art at Ferndale Grammar School, where he'd passed on his love and passion for art to the hundreds of pupils that passed through the school during his tenure. The outpouring of warm tributes to him from former pupils...
Leanne Wood: How is the Welsh Government maximising front-line resources for education?
Leanne Wood: Just over a fortnight ago, I was invited to speak at the Cardiff Extinction Rebellion event outside Cardiff library. They, as well as the school strikers, are campaigning for the declaration of a climate emergency, among other things, to ensure that all current and future policies are consistent with averting climate change and ecological collapse. I support the campaign aims—climate change...
Leanne Wood: In the words of the Association of School and College Leaders, there is a 'severe funding crisis' in schools, which is having a 'detrimental effect...on...young people.' Those are direct quotes from them. This comes at the same time as a report by the children's commissioner, Sally Holland, last week, who said 'Financial demands are flying at families from all sorts of angles and it's the...
Leanne Wood: 4. How is the Welsh Government ensuring that parents are able to afford costs associated with their children's education? OAQ53552
Leanne Wood: How is the Welsh Government ensuring that schools have adequate funding?
Leanne Wood: What is the Welsh Government doing to ensure schools in the Rhondda have enough funding to provide pupils with a good education?
Leanne Wood: ...first is a properly planned housing estate with a mixture of social housing and private sector housing. It's accompanied by significant investment in transport, green spaces, and supported by a new school and a doctor's surgery. The second proposal is for an estate built by one of the large developers, with a small quota reserved for 'affordable housing' and a joke section 106; there are...
Leanne Wood: ...that the 10-year strategy for our veterans, unveiled last year, will deliver for people like the man from the Rhondda who contacted me? I want the Government to reconsider the threshold for free school meals. This is something that I've called for before and I will keep calling for it until we have parity with the north of Ireland, which has a threshold twice that of Wales's £7,000. Many...
Leanne Wood: I recently received a letter from headteachers in the Rhondda outlining the impact of this year's budget cuts on schools. Now, I've heard Ministers deny that schools are facing cuts. Well, they are facing cuts, and the situation is justifiably described as a crisis that is already having a detrimental effect on pupils. The letter lays out that schools have no choice in some cases other than...
