Kirsty Williams: It is difficult to find silver linings at this most challenging of times, but there are indeed things that we need to learn. For some children who find the school environment challenging, additional new approaches to delivering education are being developed at this time and could be used to assist those individuals. I spoke to one young man in a school in north Wales who had been receiving...
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: David, I would absolutely want to offer my congratulations and my sincere thanks to Headlands, who are exemplary in how they have responded so proactively and with great skill and innovation to supporting 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...
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: There are two issues. There is the issue of the live streaming of lessons, which increasingly we see being utilised across Wales, recognising that that itself poses different challenges for individual learners and families, and that's why we do have to have discretion for headteachers who know their communities and their cohorts, their schoolchildren and parents the best to be able to create...
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: Thank you, Jack. It is correct to say that, as to ultimately whose responsibility the roll-out of broadband is. Indeed, Welsh Government has committed significant amounts of its own resource to try and address the shortfall that we find in our nation. But nonetheless, as you said, that is no comfort to those parents or students who are struggling at this time. As I said, we have asked for an...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Llyr. I have to say, I do not know whether additional guidance is what we need. Often we hear from practitioners that Welsh Government is producing far too much guidance and it becomes a burden in itself in trying to keep up with it all. We published our distance learning plans in July. They have been kept updated. There is further guidance, as I said that, will be published today...
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: Thank you, Suzy. I can report substantial progress on the utilisation of the £29 million, which has indeed 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...
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: I have every sympathy for those students who are abiding by Welsh Government rules and are not travelling to universities at this time to occupy accommodation that they have paid for or are due to pay for as a result of ongoing restrictions. Last year, all of our universities looked to provide rebates or refunds and we welcome that and I welcome the actions by a number of Welsh institutions...
Kirsty Williams: Well, you're absolutely right: the ability for those individuals to progress is really important, and that's why we prioritised those learners last year. Because of the ongoing disruption, learners who find themselves in this year's cohort, again, will have to have additional support. So, we prioritised those students last year, and we're keen to continue to have conversations to prioritise...
Kirsty Williams: Presiding Officer, firstly, can I welcome Bethan Sayed back to the Chamber, although it's a virtual one, and put on the record my congratulations to her and her husband on the birth of her son?
Kirsty Williams: Bethan, you're right: vocational qualifications are particularly challenging. The landscape for those qualifications is much more complicated than for general qualifications, not least because many of them are not regulated by our own qualifications body. The Member will be aware that, as we emerged out of lockdown last year, the learners of whom she speaks were prioritised by their local...
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, Russell, and can I put on record my thanks to Powys County Council, who have used some of their own capital budget to add to the resources made available by the Welsh Government in an attempt to roll out additional devices for all those studying in Powys sixth forms during this term? And Powys are due their fair share of the additional 36,000 devices that we're currently waiting on...
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...
