Siân Gwenllian: The reality is that Wales provides fewer cooked free school meals to its children at the moment than any other nation within the UK. In Scotland and England, every child of school age, in the first three years of their education, is in receipt of free school meals, whatever the family income. In Northern Ireland, the earnings threshold for those in receipt of universal credit is set far...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As a matter of principle, every child should receive free school meals. To get to that point, we need planning and to do so in a phased way. The first step is to start to include the 70,000 children living below the poverty line in Wales, and that is what our motion puts forward today. They are missing out at the moment, mainly because their parents are in...
Siân Gwenllian: ...a positive way: helping to eradicate the abuse of women and creating an equal society; helping to deal with prejudice against the LGBT community; and in terms of preventing mental health problems. Education is the key in creating the transformation that we need. But the Bill is deficient and flawed, because it isn't rational.
Siân Gwenllian: Including the two elements that we're discussing in order to ensure that they are taught consistently across our schools, because they can be complex and difficult issues to teach, and because we believe that learning about them could create a better society in Wales—. Now, you've included them for those reasons, but, again, it's exactly the same argument and exactly the same valid argument...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. In three weeks' time, the full Senedd will be discussing the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Bill. If passed the legislation will set the educational direction for our nation for many years to come. Learning about relationships and sexuality is included on the face of the Bill as a mandatory element to be included in the curriculum of all...
Siân Gwenllian: ..., we do believe that the Welsh Government must ensure that investment is made in preventative measures that consider the wider determinants of mental health, such as skills and employability, education, housing, access to green spaces and physical activity. Local authorities are also under increased pressures and there will be difficult decisions that will have to be made. It is concerning...
Siân Gwenllian: ...provide opportunities 12 months a year for people to learn, to perform, to promote and organise events. We must use music to attract young people to the Welsh language, particularly in the post-education age groups where there is a substantial fall in the number of Welsh speakers. And, as others have mentioned, we need action on recommendation 9, which calls for the establishment of a...
Siân Gwenllian: ...sufficient investment. Would you agree with me on that, that there wasn't sufficient investment for Cymraeg i Blant? I think the aim is to increase the number of children in receipt of Welsh-medium education—so the emphasis has shifted slightly—and also to support parents, carers, prospective parents, prospective carers and other members of the family to introduce the Welsh language at...
Siân Gwenllian: ...that they are exceptionally important. I'm very grateful to Louise Casella and her team for the thorough work that they undertook and for their stark conclusions. The Welsh Government and the education system as a whole need to pay close attention to this review. The report notes that a number of mistakes were made that could have been avoided, and that was by the WJEC and Qualifications...
Siân Gwenllian: I would like to wish Meilyr Rowlands well on his retirement and thank him for all his assistance over recent years. Meilyr has been a strong voice for community schools, and that vision has an important role as we reflect on what needs to change in coming years. From the inspections that Estyn managed to undertake—around 60 per cent of what was planned—we do see a picture that is similar...
Siân Gwenllian: We will need an ambitious plan for education if we're to support our children in this post-COVID period, particularly those children who have missed out most on their education—many of those from deprived backgrounds. I haven't seen such a plan as of yet, but certainly it won't be possible to pay for the huge amount of additional work required within the local government settlement in the...
Siân Gwenllian: 5. What resources have been allocated in the 2021-22 budget for education in the post-COVID period? OQ56104
Siân Gwenllian: ...that you have commissioned some new scientific work on the transmission of the new variant of the virus among children. Before receiving the result of that work, how can you be confident that the education Minister's plans to get everyone back to school by 18 January is wise and sustainable in terms of preventing the spread of this new variant? Aren't the signals currently suggesting that...
Siân Gwenllian: Plaid Cymru firmly believes in the principle of free school meals for all school pupils in Wales, and that would be our view in Government. It would be a policy that would use local produce, would support Welsh businesses and would safeguard the environment. It's a duty on any Government to ensure that not a single child goes to school with an empty stomach, and yet, there are 70,000 living...
Siân Gwenllian: ...economic regeneration plans. And, of course, all Welsh Government plans should support the target of a million Welsh speakers, but I'm not holding my breath, given that the role of the director of education—the head of the Welsh Government's education department—a role that will be central to driving the million Welsh speakers strategy, has been advertised without a requirement for any...
Siân Gwenllian: ...a consistent national curriculum across Wales. There is a general desire among young people to learn about the same things. We need details as to how the Government will ensure that individual school curricula will be appropriate, balanced, and will lead to consistency. We also need to be entirely clear that the new curriculum won't lead to widening disparity and disadvantage. I continue...
Siân Gwenllian: Plaid Cymru will vote in favour of these regulations. I believe that the decision to close secondary schools could have been taken earlier because of the details that had been outlined by the technical advisory cell on 3 December, but the Minister chose to wait until the chief medical officer virtually ordered that this needed to happen, and that has created problems. I believe that...
Siân Gwenllian: ...is a great need for that in Wales. We need to tackle the current democratic deficit, which emerges from historic weaknesses. The report draws attention to the important role that the media has in educating first-time voters of 16 and 17 years old as we approach the election. But there is also a democratic deficit across age ranges, and I'm grateful to Delyth Jewell for raising those...
Siân Gwenllian: ...you will not be challenging basis 2(g) of the decision. It will be a relief for pupils, parents and teachers in Rhondda Cynon Taf who have fought for the right to continue with the Welsh-medium education journey within a reasonable distance of their homes. I do very much hope that the council too will reconsider its position. This adjudication is a major step forward. I would like to hear...
Siân Gwenllian: ...how the assistance is targeted, how the needs are measured, what monitoring is taking place. Now, clearly, we need to ensure that the funding is used in a purposeful way to deal with the loss of education that is certain to be happening at the moment, and is going to continue for some months. So, I asked last time that this session was held about an update on that, and I haven't received...
