Kirsty Williams: Time and time again, parents and teachers tell me that they are concerned about class sizes. We have listened to these concerns, looked at the international evidence, and are today announcing the details of a new £36 million fund to address infant class sizes. This investment, linked to our other reforms, will improve early years attainment, have a significant impact for poorer and...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Could I begin by assuring David Melding that I for one will never be bored and tired of you using the F-word—federalism—here in this Chamber, David? Can I also thank Plaid Cymru for tabling the motion this afternoon and for the very many valuable contributions of Members? The debate has given us the opportunity to discuss and recognise the vitally important...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you. I think it’s important to point out that Welsh Government is not averse to looking at using incentives to attract people to Wales. We talked earlier about teacher training incentives, and my Cabinet colleague recently announced a new programme that will ensure that student nurses have access to a nursing bursary, which is not available across the border in England, if they commit...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Adam. I published the Welsh Government’s response to all of the Diamond review recommendations on 22 November. I invited anyone with specific proposals on incentivisation to respond to the Government’s consultation. That consultation closes on 14 February. I will then need to consider the responses before I outline next steps.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Nick. I am glad that you have recognised the close working between the Welsh Government and Monmouthshire council. Funding of around £93.4 million has been committed for Monmouthshire, with the Welsh Government contributing £45.6 million towards the sums of the new buildings in your constituency, which is a significant amount of money. The state of a school building is one of the...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Nick. Band A of the twenty-first century schools and education programme will see an investment of more than £1.4 billion over the five years of the programme, which will come to an end in 2019. To date, funding has been approved for 127 of the 150 projects in the programme, and 102 of those are either under construction at present or have been completed.
Kirsty Williams: John, you will be aware—because we have discussed this previously—that our twenty-first century schools programme will only gain a sign-off by Welsh Ministers if there is a significant community element in all of those proposals that are brought forward. We know, from looking at the evaluation of the pupil deprivation grant, that with schools that use that grant effectively, much of that...
Kirsty Williams: Janet, you raise a very, very serious point. I want to ensure that I preside over an inclusive education system, and a system that meets the needs of all children regardless of where they live, regardless of the language of choice through which they study or, indeed, any additional learning needs or challenges they have in accessing their education. Estyn had some very serious things to say...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Janet. Engagement and well-being are important factors in supporting children to do well in school. Recognising this, the 2016-17 Estyn remit commissioned a review into the effectiveness of pupil participation and production of a guide to help schools involve pupils in meaningful debate. This report is now available on Estyn’s website.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you for that. As my colleague said earlier, we will be looking at the adequacy of the WESPS that have come forward. This Government has ambitious plans for expanding Welsh-medium education and ensuring the quality of that education is the best that it can be. It’s simply not just about being there, Dai; it’s about ensuring that it is good quality when it is there. We shouldn’t...
Kirsty Williams: Suzy, there are two important ways that I as Minister view the performance of each of our regional consortia. The first is Estyn’s independent inspections of the consortia. With regard to ERW, Estyn’s outcomes were that their support for school improvement was good, their leadership was good, their partnerships were good, and their resource management was good. However, improving quality...
Kirsty Williams: Well, Mike, it will be important to review the national model for regional working in light of any announcements that my Cabinet colleague, Mark Drakeford, will make with regard to local government reform. It will be important to look at the current status of the regional educational consortia and how best we can continue to deliver school improvement services, and whether there are actually...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Mike. ERW are making positive progress, as confirmed by their Estyn inspection. I’m confident that, while there’s room for improvement, they continue to play an important role in delivering improved outcomes for learners. We will continue to work closely with them to make best use of resources and to maximise their effort and their impact.
Kirsty Williams: As I said, we’re not waiting for the Wales Bill and the devolution of teachers’ pay and conditions to address this issue. A task and finish group was set up by the previous Minister and I am currently reflecting on the work of that group and will make a statement shortly on how we will take this agenda forward. But I am keen that teachers’ pay and conditions be devolved to this...
Kirsty Williams: My predecessor, Huw Lewis, actually set up a task and finish group to look at the issue of supply teaching. That group’s work has come to an end. The report has recently been sent to me. I am considering the content of that report and a way forward, and I am always very happy to meet with opposition spokespeople, or indeed people from the backbenches of other political parties, to talk...
Kirsty Williams: Obviously, substantive posts, with teachers that know their students and know their classrooms and schools well, is the preferable way of staffing our schools. However, what we also know is that in a self-improving school system, we want some of our teachers to move around institutions so that they can share their best practice. There will be times when it is perfectly legitimate to have a...
Kirsty Williams: Well, thank you, Darren. I hope to make an announcement on the review of graduate incentives shortly. What’s really important is to understand that, if the Welsh Government is going to put money into training these teachers, they don’t then teach somewhere else. We have to ensure we get good value for Welsh investments, and that those teachers then end up teaching Welsh children in Welsh...
Kirsty Williams: You are right: quality of teaching is key to tackling this agenda, and it will be the main focus of the work of the network of excellence. I am currently reviewing the graduate incentives that we have available to attract people into the teaching profession, as well as looking at whether we can refresh our graduate entry programme, so that people who perhaps have had a career in science, or...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Darren. You quite rightly say that neither you nor I believe that our performance in the PISA tests are good enough, and our performance in science has been particularly disappointing, especially our performance in science from our higher performing children, and our lack of representation on an OECD average level 6, level 5, and level 4. And you will be aware that, earlier this...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you for that question. No assessment has been carried out since I took over this job, although there has been an independent report and some research done on restructuring the school week—for instance, having a four-day school week, allowing for one day at the end of the week to be for teacher preparation and training purposes—but nothing has been done to look at the overall...
