Suzy Davies: Thank you for, Lynne, for chairing what I thought was one of the most enjoyable inquiries we've had with the Children, Young People and Education Committee—in the time I've been there, anyway—not least because it gave us the chance to collect evidence directly from young people with experience, past and present, of course the bac has been around for a while in different versions, and its...
Suzy Davies: ...You alluded to this—I wanted to ask you: do you think the time has come for the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008 to be replaced and for provision for free transport to the nearest Welsh-medium education to be included as a right, and that the issue of student transport is brought under the education portfolio, not the economy portfolio?
Suzy Davies: ...same Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd said that any further reduction in budget would mean being unable to get specialist teachers, especially through the medium of Welsh. Now we’re all aware of schools’ general concerns about cuts to core funding, but what is our response to this particular claim about Welsh medium and its implications for the 2050 strategy?
Suzy Davies: ...results are a well-recognised measure of Wales's performance on education—recognised across the world. Within Wales, we are still uncertain as to how illuminating the new framework for measuring school performance will be and how it will be read in the context of the international comparators. What research has the Government done on whether our PISA results impact on overseas investors'...
Suzy Davies: ..., yes, they are right in recognising that universities are independent and autonomous; that's why we can't support the more heavily interventionist approach in some of Plaid's motion. But higher education institutes are in receipt of public funds, and for those they absolutely should be accountable, and accountable not just for the spend, but how effective that spend is. We as Welsh...
Suzy Davies: ...council—have recently issued ideas that seem to contradict the policy priorities of this Government. In the case of Bridgend council, the effect of the LDP and the provision of Welsh-medium education seems to have resulted in what looks like a drop in the amount of offer that they would be able to give to families in Bridgend. And, of course, on the Neath Port Talbot situation, you've...
Suzy Davies: ...floor here in Tŷ Hywel, and of one, two, three, four, 10 people I spoke to who were younger than me, two of them didn't recall anything at all apart from learning about the Welsh not in primary school—a lot of them remembered that—some remembered being taught about the Rebecca Riots, some about Chartists—it depended where they were from in Wales—but, actually, the majority of them...
Suzy Davies: ...followed some of the Twitter coverage of what we've been doing today, that one commentator said, 'It's unbelievable that we're debating whether Welsh history—or how it—should be taught in our schools. Without self-awareness, we are stateless and rootless and ignorant of our own country, how it has been shaped, the significance and the contributions the people from Wales have made, and...
Suzy Davies: ...as well as tourism and where these possibilities can intersect with each other. In January, I asked you whether you thought there was an opportunity for Natural Resources Wales to work with schools so that children and young people could play a part in replanting trees in their local areas, and I think it cropped up in the context of the Afan Valley, actually, because not only does that...
Suzy Davies: ...we could do with some reassurance that this work on what's going to happen to qualifications post Brexit is continuing. Perhaps we could just have a written statement to that effect—not just on education, but the public sector generally. Thank you.
Suzy Davies: ...equal opportunities to contribute to and benefit from the Welsh economy, depending on particular personal characteristics or combinations of those, every bit as much as an accident of geography or education. Now, personally, I'd say these are elements of a wider anti-poverty strategy, but, if we're not going to be having one of those, perhaps you can tell us what you expect the economy...
Suzy Davies: ...is one of the main issues for them and the update we've had today will help us understand and perhaps ask them whether they've had the kind of support that you've just been talking about in the schools in which they teach, because I suppose one of the things that you'd be interested in finding out as well is whether the steps that have been taken to improve workload have made their way to...
Suzy Davies: Well, I think that our learners of Welsh are an under-utilised resource in Wales. And, as we know, not all adults living in Wales will have been through the Wales school system. For many of them, their first approach to perhaps learning some Welsh will be through the Learn Welsh website, and I was surprised to see that the disparity between the availability of taster sessions—specifically...
Suzy Davies: ..., and what you think Wales could do to improve the situation in a way that doesn't deter attendance at university or compromise their income? And I didn't get an answer to that question. Higher education, of course, is a very competitive field, and exam results matter when student offers from universities can be very demanding. The WJEC is by far the biggest exam board relevant to...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Llywydd. Good afternoon, Minister. I see that you're going to be meeting your Scottish and UK Government higher education ministerial colleagues shortly—you may have already done it, I don't know—to discuss Brexit and the findings of the Augar review. The issue, of course, of funding post-16 education is devolved, but the systems in all these nations support competition between...
Suzy Davies: ...to give regard to the principles of equality and, of course, bear in mind the 2050 target for 1 million Welsh speakers. So, can you tell me what discussions you've had with the Minister for Education about financial support for those who can deliver the new childcare qualification in non-maintained nursery settings through the medium of Welsh, particularly as those both seeking and...
Suzy Davies: ...half a GCSE for Welsh language. You know, we've been through a slightly torrid time on deciding whether we should retain the Welsh Language Commissioner, for example. The early versions of Welsh in education statutory plans—you know, there were some question marks about those, not least because, of course, there was no statutory underpinning for anything in those WESPs to actually be...
Suzy Davies: ...to see the reports you referred to, but also I thought the idea itself has a lot of merit in it. I appreciate what you said about the English system; what I would say is that bit of it—it's work, education or training, and perhaps where there's always space for a little bit more innovation is to look at what training actually looks like. The point you made about—was she called...
Suzy Davies: ...to kick down barriers that get in the way of young people building their best future and, in a nutshell, this grant would replace any carer’s allowance lost to young people in full-time post-16 education or training. I know there are other support mechanisms, university and hardship funds, the adult dependent grant for older carers, but there's nothing that a young adult carer could have...
Suzy Davies: I had a look at the 2013 guidelines in preparation for this debate, and what I read reminded me, actually, quite a lot of old-fashioned school dinners, which were meat and veg, and custard as your pudding. Obviously, nothing in the olden days, if you can put it that way, to do with vegetarianism or veganism—they hadn't been invented then. There was probably a lot more salt in those days as...
