Michelle Brown: ...could be possible for someone to enter into the profession aged 23 and be a teacher for 40 years with very little additional training along the way. As our knowledge of best practice improves and education changes alongside a changing society, it is inconceivable that a three or four-year course prior to becoming a teacher will be enough to sustain a lifelong career that serves the teacher...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. Parents, particularly of preschool children, are understandably going to be concerned about what the content of the SRE curriculum is going to be. There are going to be parents who, for religious reasons and various other reasons, may find the content of the curriculum unpalatable. So, I suppose my final question has two parts to it really. How...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. In the same report, it says that, even before school, children receive messages about gender, sexuality and relationships from a wide variety of sources, for example advertising, books, social media, television and family members, et cetera. I'd say that a majority of these are either under the control of parents or can be under the control of...
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer, and good afternoon, Cabinet Secretary. The report into the future of the sex and relationships education curriculum in Wales says that, at the moment, the success of SRE too often rests on the interests and enthusiasm of individual teachers or school leaders with SRE/personal and social education responsibilities. In this area, knowledge itself isn't an...
Michelle Brown: ...these efforts, but girls need to have the confidence in maths before they can excel at subjects such as physics, and it's essential that we get the basics right. The more girls who leave primary school and enter secondary school confident in their ability to do maths, and the more who are encouraged to think about studying for STEM subjects and to go on to study STEM subjects, the more...
Michelle Brown: ...in. I have no problem with that. What I want to ask, though, is: in light of the likely rising population in Wales, what plans have you put in place to ensure that there are sufficient places in schools to properly educate additional children?
Michelle Brown: ...mention, would be to reduce class sizes. This is something that I feel quite strongly about. That would be to the benefit of both teachers and pupils and go a long way to delivering the world-class education that I know our teachers are capable of providing if they're allowed to. Do you agree with me? And, if so, what measures have you implemented to reduce class sizes?
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer. In April last year, a survey conducted by the Education Workforce Council at your behest found that 90 per cent of teachers said they were unable to manage their workload. One of the teaching unions said that the survey showed that many in the teaching profession are at breaking point. At the time, you said that, as a priority, you were determined to tackle the...
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: ...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: ...in the past, have you actually considered making additional teaching hours available to looked-after children? It's a sector that the charity Children in Wales says are still having poorer educational outcomes than their non-care counterparts. If you have considered it, have you committed to ring-fencing funding for schools, or indeed other establishments, to offer looked-after children...
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can the Cabinet Secretary tell me the details of any additional educational provision that is made for the looked-after children in Wales, please?
Michelle Brown: ...the failures in care at Betsi Cadwaladr in north Wales, so how are you going to ensure that the commission is properly accountable? There's been engagement with stakeholders, and I note a range of educational establishments, organisations and learners took part in the consultation exercise, including the stakeholder events. Widening access for under-represented groups and the lack of...
Michelle Brown: ...is tiny, given the number of homeless and rough sleepers in Wales. Looked-after children are already disadvantaged by the circumstances that took them into care in the first place. Their education will have suffered alongside. It's vital that these children are helped to find a better future, and providing additional educational support is very, very important. The money promised and...
Michelle Brown: ..., have they not achieved it? Perhaps they should farm out more of their policy making, because it is clear they can't do it themselves. They've outsourced children's equality; they outsource their education policy, as we heard from Kirsty Williams recently, saying she would adopt a third party's recommendations on learners being entered into GCSE exams early; and the Government has even...
Michelle Brown: ...and carefully gather and examine the evidence, perhaps via the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, which could come back to this place to present objective findings and an educated and evidence-based recommendation as to whether we should presume in favour or against approvals for fracking. It may well be that we will find that we should presume against approval, and I...
Michelle Brown: .... I see three concrete announcements in the statement, the first being the Welsh-medium incentive, which I think is a great idea. It’s only right and proper that Welsh Government should encourage education through the medium of Welsh, and we’re well-acquainted in this Chamber with the shortage of those teachers. Obviously, I fully support your objective on this, as I do your measure to...
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: Cabinet Secretary, Philip Hammond recently said that he was considering slashing tuition fees at higher education institutions in England to the tune of £5,000 a year. So, we’ve got the situation where the tuition fees may be going down in England and you’ve introduced new student loans in Wales. So, basically, Welsh students are going to be looking at England if they actually do this...
Michelle Brown: ...teachers, pupils and parents concerns me. Have you consulted teachers about this potential challenge and how it will be addressed? What support, help and advice are you going to offer teachers and school leaders to ease the transition? No matter how good the new curriculum may be, the standard of teaching is key. That’s something you’ve already mentioned today: the standard of...
