Suzy Davies: ...this debate. And I think the first of those questions I'm going to steal from Helen Mary, which is 'how?' And, unfortunately, Alun Davies has nicked all my thunder here because I want to talk about school funding, because I want to know how you intend to see that any increase in the budget reaches schools in Wales, something which, actually, needs immediate attention this year and can't...
Suzy Davies: ...people of Wales to know about their Government's record. So, I hope, in the course of this debate, that this Assembly will reject groupthink Wales and acknowledge what one-party politics did to our education system since 2006—the date we began to participate in the PISA results. Because whatever changes there have been under this education Minister, from a different party, the buck stops...
Suzy Davies: As you say, the management plan includes a significant amount of replanting, and back in October, you sounded very positive about the idea of NRW and schools working together so that children could learn to plant trees as part of their wider education. As it happens, on that very day, Sophie Howe, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, met with NRW to discuss eco-literacy, and she...
Suzy Davies: ...an update about this work from the Trefnydd in June, unfortunately she wasn't able to help me, but, since then, from September this year, all new teachers will need qualifications approved by the Education Workforce Council. It's now been nine months since you said that this significant piece of work would be necessary. How have you and the education Minister worked together to ensure that...
Suzy Davies: 1. What discussions has the Counsel General had with the Minister for Education regarding the provision of education post-Brexit? OAQ54800
Suzy Davies: ...attainment? We spoke in this Chamber some weeks ago now about the drop in achievement at the moment across years 7 to 9. It was in the context, if you remember, of the removal of the requirement of school governors to set targets for the purpose of pupil improvement on school leaders in English or Welsh and maths and science. This year's year 7s will be the next cohort of PISA test...
Suzy Davies: ...numbers on the number of those training opportunities in situ that have been taken up by teachers from outside Wales. You mentioned this in response to my first question, actually, that you want schools to be employing the new teachers that will be coming through the system as a result of all of this. How will you be making sure that schools can afford to employ more of these teachers and...
Suzy Davies: ...materialised this year or how these targets were reached. Perhaps I can ask you if you're going to be dropping these targets. I imagine it's around now that you'd be sending a remit letter to the Education Workforce Council, so perhaps you can respond to that question when I ask you this next one. Because the Education Workforce Council also states that, and I'm quoting: 'If you are...
Suzy Davies: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Minister, according to the Education Workforce Council website, Welsh Government has introduced targets for the number of students who enter the new PGCE courses in Wales with the intention of qualifying to teach certain subjects. Some of those subjects are identified as priorities, and they include Welsh and modern foreign languages, and I'm looking forward to your...
Suzy Davies: Our green card policy, of course, would resolve the question of free bus transport for post-16 education, training or work. But, of course, I think the position of transport to faith and Welsh-medium schools does need resolving through primary legislation. My question, though, is about the voice of young people in a local authority's decision on whether a route to school is safe or not. And...
Suzy Davies: First Minister, to improve academic outcomes, of course, children and young people have to be somewhere that they can learn, and if they're being off-rolled to boost a school's apparent academic record, then they're not necessarily learning. I know that your Minister is completely against the practice of off-rolling, obviously, but what immediate action is the Government taking to both look...
Suzy Davies: ...the commissioner in terms of legislation on the new curriculum, implementing the continuum and creating fair examination systems. And the report refers to the commissioner’s work on Welsh-medium education. Now, I would have liked to have seen specific references to other teaching locations, not just Welsh medium, because Welsh language rights, as safeguarded by standards, are relevant to...
Suzy Davies: ...from care, and even something, as we heard from Jack Sergeant, as simple, but as personally devastating, as not being able to keep your pet with you. And so I turn to point 6 of our action plan, education. Welsh Government was wrong not to support Bethan Sayed's backbench Bill on financial inclusion. As I'm sure we'll hear more of in this debate, homelessness isn't always what we think it...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much, Lynne. It was just a point of clarification, as much as anything, about the review. Our recommendation was about school funding—the sufficiency of school funding—not education in the round. And bearing in mind this split between local government and the education pot centrally, I think that's an important distinction that needs to be just placed on the record.
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much. Of course, one of the things that we discovered in the course of our committee work is that while there is an education budget that is under the oversight of the education Minister, it's the local government end of things that has been causing the problem, and I suspect you may have something to say about that.
Suzy Davies: ...responded to the per-pupil funding gap that's been presented to them since I've been here and before. So, what I want to say is that, even if Welsh Government commits the entire £355 million to schools—not education, schools—then we hit, as the committee report says, the local government funding fog, and this is what I want to concentrate on now. Because, in some ways, I really wish...
Suzy Davies: Can I thank you, Lynne? I don't think Welsh Government should have been particularly surprised at the content of this report. Per-pupil funding for schools has been historically poor compared to the rest of the UK, and the chickens have finally come home to roost. Teachers, school leaders, unions like the NAHT and council leaders have been genuinely fearful about the vulnerability of schools...
Suzy Davies: ...with you. You, of course, have no control over this money once it hits the revenue support grant. I'm wondering what steps you will take against councils who don't actually pass this money on to schools, particularly as there's a risk that if they don't do so they will continue to lose teachers, let alone see schools affected by the wider points that, actually, Neil McEvoy was making.
Suzy Davies: ...least make some preliminary comments on that. The second—Mark Reckless raised this point earlier on—we've heard recently, this week, from the future generations commissioner with the report 'Education fit for the Future', and, of course, the First Minister mentioned the Youth Parliament report on life skills. Bearing in mind that we have a draft Bill fairly imminent now on the...
Suzy Davies: ...council have personal experience of being Welsh learners themselves? One of the three themes is to increase the number of Welsh speakers. Will that include learners already in the current education system or in the workplace? Only 12 Welsh teachers have qualified this year. There are almost as many Members of the partnership council as there are new Welsh teachers. Why isn’t your...
