Laura Anne Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. I will speak to all the amendments in this group. As I stated at Stage 2, I believe in a more rounded tertiary education system, including traineeship programmes, employability programmes and apprenticeships, and I therefore continue to be concerned about the place of these programmes within the Bill. Their full inclusion is absolutely essential to improving a sustainable and...
Laura Anne Jones: ...present regarding any actions from the Welsh Government. Amendments 87 to 89 and 96 are probing amendments designed to encourage clarification on the designation of any other providers of tertiary education and consultation with appropriate bodies. On amendment 105 and its conditionals, I'm resubmitting the amendment to change the powers under section 138 to the affirmative procedure. My...
Laura Anne Jones: ...start by thanking Sioned Williams for tabling this debate. I would like to move amendments 81, 82, 83 and 84. The purpose of these amendments is to reflect the content of clause 1 of the UK Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, covering the governing bodies of higher education providers in Wales. This would mean that governing bodies must take steps to secure the freedom of speech...
Laura Anne Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. I wish to speak to my amendments 79 and 80. The purpose of these amendments is to strengthen the duty on the commission to promote Welsh-medium tertiary education to reflect the ambitions of 'Cymraeg 2050'. On amendment 79, I have chosen to resubmit this amendment as I still believe it is vital to reflect the commission's important role in reaching the 1 million Welsh...
Laura Anne Jones: ...Bill could be a huge opportunity to break down those barriers. The Minister is aware that the committee expressed its concerns about the commission in relation to the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, and I do note his response, which mentioned that detailed arrangements for implementing post-16 ALN reforms are currently being finalised. I would therefore...
Laura Anne Jones: Diolch, Llywydd, for this opportunity to contribute to the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill. I will speak to my amendments 119 to 160. This group of amendments serves to ensure proper communication between the Welsh Ministers and the commission surrounding the terms of remit. With such a substantial budget to be at the disposal of the commission, it is only right that annual...
Laura Anne Jones: ...in the statement and the new action plan was the emphasis on eradicating online bullying and racism, which only keeps growing, as we all know. This obviously affects our young people in and out of school, particularly those with mobile phones. I was just wondering how you envisage looking to try to eradicate—working with the UK Government—racism and bullying online, and when we will...
Laura Anne Jones: ...said, mental health is something that affects us all in one way or another, most recently, as has been said already, with our youngest in society with the struggles and pressures that they faced in education and growing up during the pandemic. Sadly, despite Welsh Labour continually claiming that the mental health and well-being of our children and young people is a priority, as James...
Laura Anne Jones: Minister, once again, there is a distinct lack of leadership from you being shown on such an important issue in education for our children and learners in Wales. You are failing to clarify your position on something that you've known about for a long time. This review could have been done a long time ago. People need time to prepare, our colleges need time to prepare these and know the...
Laura Anne Jones: Minister, that's not good enough. We need a world-class, high-quality vocational qualification, fit for the next generations, but our educators need time to prepare it and ensure that our students and our learners aren't being failed by the lack of preparation upon introduction. It is quite clear that your own pride and ideological view will mean that we don't follow England with the...
Laura Anne Jones: ...such a short period of time to go, there has been no clear policy direction from this Welsh Government and, sadly, the response from Qualifications Wales was merely, 'Don't panic.' Minister, our educators need to know the plan and would greatly appreciate it if you could enlighten us today as to what that plan is.
Laura Anne Jones: ...Gwent. But it really has taken individuals on a crusade until now across our councils in Wales to save these musical opportunities for our children, which is clearly wrong. It is clear that music education in Wales needs rejuvenation, and this National Music Service has the potential to be the catalyst for that, accessibility, of course, being a key factor in order to ensure success—to...
Laura Anne Jones: ...you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you very much for your statement, Minister. We welcome, of course, what you've outlined and what is being done so far on what is a very worrying rise in school attendance at the moment in Wales. Of course, it all comes down to, in my opinion, behaviour, choice and lack of support, and of course the mental health impact of, particularly, COVID. As...
Laura Anne Jones: ...the pandemic, were exacerbated by the pandemic, and those are not quite as forgivable. Before I go into the report, I just want to put on record again that the Welsh Conservatives commend all school leaders and staff, who have worked incredibly hard and tirelessly during a very difficult period—in most cases, who went above and beyond. Moving to the report, the children of Wales have...
Laura Anne Jones: ...sat on and hidden away for so long. We were told during the announcement of the review that the 'Leadership Review will inform future developments and provide clarity on the support we have for school leaders across the system, and the support they will need to enable them to realise the new curriculum.' We were also told that it would be released late last year, right here in your...
Laura Anne Jones: Thank you, Minister. As you know, Minister, the Welsh Government announced an independent review of educational leadership last year. The leadership review was completed last autumn, only it hasn't been published. Minister, simply: when will you be releasing this report and why have you been sitting on it for so long?
Laura Anne Jones: Diolch, Presiding Officer. Minister, I could ask you a myriad of things today, on free school meals, the Queen's jubilee book, exams, as my colleague just outlined, or anything, but I have some really pressing matters I wish you to address. It has come to light during our peer-on-peer sexual harassment review that we're holding currently in the Children, Young People, and Education Committee...
Laura Anne Jones: ...say, and hope to see it translate into making a difference. However, what I am concerned about is the timing and content of some of what you've said. I'll start with how you've outlined community schools, our twenty-first century schools. I mean, that's been in progress since 2014—nearly a decade now—and it's only now that we're talking about ensuring that they're truly community...
Laura Anne Jones: ...that I'm grateful to Plaid for bringing forward this debate today. The cost-of-living crisis is something that we're all majorly concerned about, and it'll no doubt have an impact on learners and schools in the coming months. On top of the 22 years of failure from the Welsh Government to bring children out of poverty, with 200,000 children still being in poverty in Wales, it is important...
Laura Anne Jones: ...incorporate veterans in everything that they do now going forward. It is not just for veterans that we see much-needed support now being given, but thanks to SSCE, Supporting Service Children in Education in Wales, who work hard to co-ordinate research and compile evidence on the experiences of service children in education to ensure their needs are well understood, we see this service...
