Michelle Brown: ...goes to line the pockets of agencies, and that all parties should work together to develop a system that provides better value for money, better rewards for supply teachers, and above all, better education provision for our children, when will the Cabinet Secretary invite me and the education spokesmen of the other parties to work together with her on plans to deal with this problem?
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Does the Cabinet Secretary agree with me that if schools in Wales had more teachers on their full-time staff, they would not have to spend so much money on hiring supply staff?
Michelle Brown: ...decision makers have the resources to involve learners and their parents effectively? I welcome the provision in the Bill to favour placing children with additional learning needs in mainstream schools where possible. Making it more difficult for mainstream schools to refuse a child with additional learning needs is a good step. However, it should be kept in mind that if a mainstream...
Michelle Brown: This will allow all schools, both selective and non-selective, to craft an education fit for their students, encouraging each and every child to excel in their abilities. A one-size-fits-all approach clearly is not the answer. We ask our children to have vision and aspire. I now encourage the Cabinet Secretary to do exactly that. Don’t underestimate future generations; have a system that...
Michelle Brown: We exist in a time where there is competition for places in higher education, in the workplace and generally in all elements of life. So, why not teach our children to be the best they can possibly be? These results also demonstrate that this Government must prioritise core subjects in the classroom. It should reflect on the other areas in the curriculum where time can be better spent on...
Michelle Brown: ...think about it and consider the future for children in Wales, but while it does this, it should open its mind to new ideas and a fresh approach. The Labour Party opposite are so stuck in their educational dogma of the 1970s that they cannot see how destructive their policies are to the children of this nation, and that they are devoid of new ideas. The Government must divert from its...
Michelle Brown: ...against women should not be underestimated. Men can play a crucial role in ending gender-based violence. It is essential that young boys have positive role models in their families, on tv, in schools and elsewhere—men who will teach them that no real man hits or abuses a woman. If boys do not have those role models in their families, the state must provide them. Male teachers and other...
Michelle Brown: Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary. And my last question is: can you make a statement about school transport arrangements in Wales, with particular regard to the closure of John Summers High School in Deeside?
Michelle Brown: Okay, thank you. This year, the Children, Young People and Education Committee held a follow-up inquiry into adoption services in Wales. Whilst progress has been made in setting up a national adoption service in Wales, evidence from the casework has indicated that access to post-adoption support and life-story work remains inconsistent across Wales. Can the Cabinet Secretary make a statement...
Michelle Brown: ...response will be that of the children of Wales themselves and their feedback. I just wanted to point out one element of the report that is close to my heart, which is page 37 and the piece on school closure consultation. Pupils, via their school council, wrote to the commissioner complaining about their dissatisfaction with the consultation process run by the local authority in relation...
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. School closures, and even the threat of school closures, cause divisions within and between rural communities, especially when there is competition between pupils for school places. When the school is closed, there is a loss of a social and cultural resource and physical meeting place for members of the committee. The local school acts as an...
Michelle Brown: How does the Welsh Government ensure that home-schooled children will receive a good standard of education?
Michelle Brown: ...of us commute daily into England to earn pay that we subsequently spend in Wales. However, we need quality employment in north Wales. The reality for many people is that they will obtain a great education, but then are lost to England because that’s where the work is. Links with England, and more importantly the rest of the globe via our access to international sea lanes, gives us the...
Michelle Brown: I note that the Cabinet Secretary has invited the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to assess whether Welsh Government educational reforms are on track. I think this is a good idea, but isn’t this an admission that, after 17 years, the Welsh Government is out of its depth concerning education policy?
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your answer, Cabinet Secretary. Schools in the private and independent sectors achieve better results than those in the state sectors. Are you trying to learn from best practice in the private and independent sectors?
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer. What provision is the Cabinet Secretary putting into place to ensure that young people in Wales can focus on technical and vocational education without being diverted by subjects in which they may have no interest?
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer. The ministerial determination to close John Summers High School in 2017 was announced by Kirsty Williams in August 2016. It is a matter of record that John Summers High School has served more Traveller children than any other school within Flintshire and possibly across Wales. Can the Minister give assurances that the education needs of the Traveller community...
Michelle Brown: ...prejudice, with ignorance at one end and hate crime at the other. Bigots and thugs sit on the left and right of politics. It was prejudice that said voting ‘leave’ was about ignorance, lack of education and fear, when it was really about people understanding that the EU wasn’t working for them. We in north-east Wales have seen how the local Labour Party conducts itself and controls...
Michelle Brown: ...the Liberal Democrats are in favour of referenda when it suits their political purposes, namely on further devolution and voting reform. So, let me use this opportunity to ask the Liberal Democrat education Secretary in a Labour Government to give local people an opportunity to start new grammar schools, where there is sufficient local demand demonstrated through the means of a local...
Michelle Brown: No. Oxbridge intake from state schools has decreased since grammar schools were largely abolished and studies have shown social mobility has decreased. [Interruption.] Listen again: social mobility has decreased since the abolition of grammar schools. If you don’t care about working-class kids, carry on with your policy. To those who say grammar schools are for the elite, we say, ‘Yes,...
