Kirsty Williams: Welsh Government has awarded local authorities in South Wales Central over £7.5 million grant funding to recruit, recover and raise standards. This will help schools in the local authority area to provide additional support to those children who are most disadvantaged, most vulnerable, and those that should be sitting external qualifications.
Kirsty Williams: ...their learners and their families at this time. They, and others, are there and, I know, are very keen to be able to share their good practice, their knowledge and their skills, so that other schools can respond in similar ways. We're asking so much of our education system at the moment, and while we can share that good practice, it saves individual practitioners reinventing the wheel, and...
Kirsty Williams: Can I make it absolutely clear that whilst a risk assessment should be undertaken and support and training given to staff, there is nothing in Welsh Government guidance that prevents schools from delivering live lessons? Indeed, those live lessons are happening every day in Wales. They're happening securely and they're happening well, and more and more schools are embracing that element of...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Jenny. Throughout the pandemic, we have made available a wide range of resources on Hwb, and these continue to be developed to support schools. We continue to capture positive practice and approaches from schools, publishing them on our 'Sharing our experiences' pages, and we look to take every opportunity to support innovation.
Kirsty Williams: What I would say, Mark, is that the description of secondary learning that you've just described is not the fault of the schools, of the local education authority or even the Welsh Government. It's the fault of the fact that different schools have been hit to different levels by positive cases. There are some schools in Wales—indeed, not an insignificant number—that thankfully to date...
Kirsty Williams: ...is committed to assisting them with. My advice for families at this time is, if they are struggling with either a laptop or connectivity, in the first instance they should make that known to their school, as to whether there is kit sitting in a classroom that could be lent to them at this opportunity, or to speak to their local authority, who I'm sure would want to help. I think it is fair...
Kirsty Williams: ...have been kept updated. There is further guidance, as I said that, will be published today with a focus on our older learners. I think it's really important to recognise the huge strides the Welsh education system has taken at this time, and that's not just me saying that; Estyn, our school inspector, were involved in a number—. Well, actually, they visited all educational authorities...
Kirsty Williams: Diolch yn fawr, Llyr. Clear guidance has been issued to schools and local authorities on distance learning as well as pre-recorded and live streaming of lessons. A dedicated area on Hwb is available that contains all the relevant information. Guidance has also been produced by both Estyn and the consortia, with a range of support being made available to schools and to parents.
Kirsty Williams: ...led to recruitment, to the targets that we'd set ourselves. Additional resources that are not being spent on staff are being spent in a variety of ways, including indeed to support the regional school improvement services to provide ongoing professional learning, so that teachers can improve their skills and improve their level of confidence, as well as providing additional resources so...
Kirsty Williams: Suzy, I fully stand behind the work of the JCVI in how it has identified who is most at risk of serious harm or death as a result of contracting COVID-19. Members of staff, both in school and those who support education in other roles, will receive their vaccination in line with their relative risk of harm. Many of the teachers that I speak to speak of not only their worry about themselves...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Suzy. First of all, can I say schools and local authorities as well as colleges and universities have worked really, really hard during July and the autumn term to make their environments as COVID-safe as possible, and I commend them for that? The new variant of the virus does pose new challenges, although the relative risk to schools is not increased, but, of course, anywhere...
Kirsty Williams: ...looked to provide rebates or refunds and we welcome that and I welcome the actions by a number of Welsh institutions at this time to do the same. I am in close discussion with the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, universities and, only this afternoon, with the National Union of Students Cymru, to see what more Welsh Government can do to assist with regard to rent and, indeed,...
Kirsty Williams: ...hard to accommodate students in that regard. But with regard to a longer term plan, and as was referenced by the finance Minister earlier, whilst additional resources are being made available for education in the new financial year, the impact of COVID-19 on students' learning is going to be felt for many, many years. We've made good progress this year in recruiting additional staff, but...
Kirsty Williams: ...provision into the new academic year, and, again, financial resources were made available to assist colleagues in that regard. And we are keen to continue to have conversations with our further education principals as to what can be done to safeguard the progression of those students taking vocational qualifications and seeking professional accreditation.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Mick. As I said, we are able to support families with the provision of MiFi devices. We are working closely with colleagues in the Department for Education in England, who are working with communication companies to see what can be done around affordability and access to data. And can I make it clear that, whilst we want to minimise the number of children who are accessing their...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Lynne, and can I thank you for acknowledging the work of both officials in Welsh Government, officials in local government, and indeed schools themselves that were able to act so rapidly during the first lockdown? We are working very closely with local authorities to identify additional needs at this time. We are due to distribute a further 36,000 pieces of kit in the next few...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Alun. And indeed, our working group with local education authorities have highlighted issues around connectivity as being of concern to them. During the first lockdown, as I said, we did distribute in excess of 10,000 MiFi devices to those learners for whom connectivity was an issue. We continue to explore with local authorities what further devices are necessary in that regard, as...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Alun. At the outset of the pandemic, my officials commissioned local authorities to identify all digitally excluded learners, in conjunction with their schools. Since the pandemic, we've made available approximately 160,000 devices for schools, which they are able to give to, to lend to, their pupils, and some 10,848 MiFi connections.
Kirsty Williams: ...units, as you quite rightly say, working alongside some of our most vulnerable learners. That is why we have asked local authorities at this time, where at all possible, to continue to provide PRU education, and I'm grateful for those staff that are doing that on a daily basis. Could I reinforce the clarification? All staff, whether they are in a special school, a mainstream school, or...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Caroline. We have published extensive guidance to local education authorities and schools around distance learning at this time. All learners should be provided with the duration of learning time that they would have received should they have been in schools. Obviously, there are some exceptions to that implementation, especially for our youngest children. I'm sure Caroline would...
