Jeremy Miles: It's quite natural, of course, for people to ask what these latest results mean for our work. First, I want to assure you of our complete commitment to 1 million Welsh speakers and to doubling the number of us who use Welsh every day. And it's important also to acknowledge that Cymraeg 2050 had only been in place for less than four years at the time the 2021 census was held. It's also...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I've already said that the census headline figures were disappointing and not what we'd hoped to see. Having said that, it's important to acknowledge that there's more to the story than just the headlines, and there is more to language policy than just the census. First of all, let's remind ourselves of the results. On census day, 21 March 2021, around 538,000 usual...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for that question. On the second point, I'm very clear that we need to move to a more standardised way of doing that, and that's absolutely one of the priorities that I'll want to see taken forward in our response to both the social finance report and the Arad Research work as well. I think that's a really important part of that. In relation to the national monitoring...
Jeremy Miles: Very important questions. The sampling question is an important one. The sampling is only one part of the process. So, the national monitoring plan is one part of the new ecosystem, just to give some comfort to the Member. At present, in terms of planning that, what we don't foresee is that that will give the kind of specificity on a school level in terms of the interventions that the Member...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for those questions. I'll try and answer as many of them as I can. I think the key point is that there is a distinction to be drawn between data for accountability on the one hand and data for assessment and self-improvement on the other. It's really important that we ensure that those two things are kept separate, because they serve very, very different purposes. The...
Jeremy Miles: It's absolutely clear to me, Dirprwy Lywydd, that using a wide range of information is crucial to supporting evaluation and improvement. Isolated pieces of data, or out of context, should not be used to judge performance or compare schools. I welcome Estyn’s response to my written statement last week, confirming that they too will not be looking to use isolated pieces of information to...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Curriculum for Wales offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to radically reform what and how we teach, in order to support the educational progress of our learners, their well-being, and their life chances as well. But, to make this a reality, this reform can’t happen in isolation. Each and every part of our reform programme must be aligned so that we can...
Jeremy Miles: Well, I think that everyone agrees that our children should be at school receiving their education, but nobody takes these decisions to strike lightly. We have four unions, and two have had votes in favour of industrial action, but whatever the thresholds the unions have, we respect and we hear the messages that we are hearing from teachers in those ballots. I'm not going to discuss in the...
Jeremy Miles: Well, these are serious matters that deserve better than political knock-about in this Chamber. His mischaracterisation of the education system in Wales is consistent with that of his colleagues on those benches. Unlike the Conservative Government in Westminster, we are not responding to strikes by bringing forward draconian laws that undermine people's fundamental rights. In Wales, we...
Jeremy Miles: I'll be meeting with teacher and head unions tomorrow, along with local authorities, who are the employers, to discuss the outcome of ballots and discuss next steps. I am committed to working with partners to secure a resolution to the dispute, and this tripartite meeting will help explore ways of addressing teachers' concerns.
Jeremy Miles: I can't make any comments in terms of specific decisions with regard to the case that the Member spoke about. I know that she campaigned, and Plaid Cymru local election candidates campaigned on the basis that the school shouldn't go ahead. Now, Plaid is in co-control of the council, and that was not the decision that the council made, and I understand that. In terms of the case in the High...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for those questions—really important questions. I think it's too soon to know if the new mechanism will demonstrate that there are challenges. I think, in principle, it ought to be much more nimble and ought to be actually less onerous, both for authorities and for the Government, which obviously then offers opportunities to deal with things in a slightly more flexible...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for that question. We need to provide Welsh-medium schools as well as English-medium schools. There is demand in both areas. And the challenge for us and our aspiration as a Government is to ensure that one doesn't happen at the expense of the other. And that's the point I was making earlier, in linking investments in the broader infrastructure with appropriate and swift...
Jeremy Miles: I thank Jenny Rathbone for those questions. I did highlight South Point Primary School because it's the first net-zero school in Wales, in the constituency of my Government colleague, Jane Hutt. I think it's probably fair to say—and I hope that they wouldn't mind me putting it in this way—it must be amongst the most visited schools, to look at what they've done there, and I thank them for...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you for those questions. Just in terms of the investment in the Welsh-medium sector, the Member will have heard what I said to James Evans. But one point to add to that, following on from what she said, is that one of the challenges or weaknesses that we have in the WESPs is that the emphasis is on numbers, which of course is at the heart of the success in terms of what we want to see...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for those questions. He's right to point out that the census results were disappointing, but he also will remember that there is a range of data in this area that shows a slightly more complex picture than, perhaps, that one source of data, very important though it is. So, the task for us is to look at the data in its entirety, but there are more children in Welsh-medium...
Jeremy Miles: Dirprwy Lywydd, the programme is truly cross-cutting and has provided a platform to embed the Welsh language as well as other policies, such as active travel, biodiversity, ICT, community and curriculum, delivering and maximising the value from investments across our education estate and, in doing so, has provided a sustainability model for others to follow. As one of the first nations to...
Jeremy Miles: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Last year saw the introduction of a new name for our flagship education infrastructure investment programme, namely the sustainable communities for learning programme. In doing so, we are making a clear statement about our commitments for the environment and future generations. To date, the programme has provided over £1.5 billion-worth of capital investment to...
Jeremy Miles: We encourage each local authority to do that, and we provide some funding support in order for that to happen as well. I agree with what the Member says—it's really important that we create the environment around a school that facilitates active travel as well as setting the regulatory expectation. Setting the framework is one thing, but finding ways in which to make a difference on the...
Jeremy Miles: That's a really important question, and thank you for it. I think the distance threshold, as the Member was referring to in his question, is important. It's a key issue, but that's one of a number of considerations in the area of home-to-school transport. That now accounts for a quarter of all local authority direct spending on education, and it's going up. So, it's a significant call on...
