Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much for the invitation. Unfortunately, I won't be able to join you tomorrow—diary commitments unwilling on this occasion. But I have been fortunate enough to visit schools where the use of life-saving technology, such as defibrillators and emergency first aid skills, has been demonstrated. You will be familiar with Ysgol Penmaes in Brecon, which is a special school in the...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Mick. I don't believe we can achieve the four purposes of the new national curriculum without addressing the issues that you raise. I can tell you that the humanities group has received input from a range of experts and stakeholders, including input about public legal education, in the support of its work. The group has developed a draft 'what matters' statement that...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Dai. I'm sure that you are already aware that one of the six areas of learning and experience in our new curriculum will be health and well-being. That will have equal status alongside the five other areas of learning and experience. Presiding Officer, only yesterday we debated at length my decision to include statutory relationship and sexuality education in the new curriculum....
Kirsty Williams: Diolch yn fawr, Dai. A new transformational curriculum is central to our national mission. The network of the pioneer schools is continuing to work with national and international experts to design and develop the new curriculum and assessment arrangements. We are on track to delivering the draft curriculum for feedback from schools in April 2019.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Nick. You raise a very important point. We are investing significant amounts of public money in the creation of these new facilities, and they can't just be facilities that are used during the school day, during the school term—we need to make sure that those facilities are available for the community at large. Only this morning, I had the pleasure and privilege of opening the...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much for that question. There are two things that we're doing. We have made available at the end of the last financial year £14 million to schools across Wales to help cover some small-scale maintenance costs. That's money that became available that we were able to get out to schools as quickly as we could. What's also important to note is that, as local authorities put their...
Kirsty Williams: Well, clearly, we always want to give local authorities as much notice as is possible for moneys that are available. Sometimes, with the best will in the world, additional resources may become available and in the desire—as I said I wanted to do earlier—to get as much money as possible to the front line, sometimes, we do need a quick decision and a quick submission of bids to allow money...
Kirsty Williams: The Member will be aware that we have quite stringent regulations around the healthy nature of foods that should be supplied to children in school. We all know the detriment a diet that's high in sugar has for all of us, and I'm sure we would all wish that, if children are partaking in a free breakfast in school, it is of a high nutritional standard and is not one that adds empty calories to...
Kirsty Williams: Diolch yn fawr, Llyr. The capital available for schools next year will be £133 million and match funded by our partners. The twenty-first century schools programme operates a series of investment waves over financial years, with the first wave providing £1.4 billion and the second wave of the twenty-first century schools programme starting in 2019 providing a further £2.3 billion.
Kirsty Williams: Well, Dawn, Wales was the first home nation to introduce free breakfasts in primary schools in 2004 and under the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013, local authorities have a duty to ensure the provision of primary school free breakfast continues. I would be the first person to admit that I was highly sceptical of the introduction of free school breakfasts, but actually...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Dawn. School breakfast clubs are an integral part of the Welsh Government’s wider work to improve food and nutrition in school. They are intended to help improve the health and concentration of children in the school day by providing children with a healthy start to that day.
Kirsty Williams: Presiding Officer, perhaps I should declare an interest as the parent of three children who attend a bilingual school in Powys and have received their education through the medium of Welsh in the primary sector and are now doing their best to receive as much Welsh-medium secondary education as they can—in some cases it's proving challenging. So, I can attest on a personal basis the benefits...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Russell. I am aware that the governing body of Ysgol Bro Hyddgen has recently decided to combine the Welsh and English-medium streams at their reception class, beginning in September 2018. As I understand it, this decision was due to the small number of pupils enrolled in the English-medium stream. Powys County Council as well as the school are providing advice and support to...
Kirsty Williams: I can assure the Member that I have numerous conversations with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance over my priorities for investment in Welsh education. With regard to special educational needs, I welcome the support of the UKIP Member for our policy of transformation in this area of schools. If we are to raise standards and close the attainment gap, we cannot do that without supporting all of...
Kirsty Williams: The Welsh Government, regional consortia and local authorities are collectively supporting schools in Montgomeryshire and, indeed, throughout the whole of Wales, to improve educational standards, in line with the priorities as set out in 'Our national mission'.
Kirsty Williams: We understand that officials in the Department for Education are currently reviewing the operation of the apprenticeship levy and—[Interruption.]
Kirsty Williams: As I was trying to say, Presiding Officer, we are in dialogue with the Department for Education at Westminster regarding the operation of the apprenticeship levy. We have an urgent need to minimise the levy's impact on the apprenticeship programme in Wales. I understand why it is so frustrating that schools find themselves in this position, and that's why we need this programme to be reformed.
Kirsty Williams: The Member is right; the apprenticeship levy is not something that we have control over at the Welsh Government. We have raised, as a Government, our concerns with Westminster on how the apprenticeship levy is working. Officials meet regularly to raise concerns with the Department for Education on issues linked to apprenticeships, and we understand that officials in the Department for...
Kirsty Williams: I would refer you to the answer I gave to Llyr Huws Gruffydd. We have in-depth conversations with individual local authorities, with the WLGA and with the regional consortia. If we are unclear that the funding is being allocated in a way that is satisfactory to us, then officials work with that organisation to provide clarity and we act accordingly.
Kirsty Williams: Well, Llyr, you're right; there are a number of ways in which individual schools are funded. I continue to believe that local authorities are best placed to be able to identify need in their own local area and respond accordingly. I was very grateful to receive assurances from Debbie Wilcox, leader of the Welsh Local Government Association, that local authorities would continue to prioritise...
