Siân Gwenllian: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. One of the issues that is of concern to the majority of teachers is the workload that they are having to deal with in addition to the work that they are trained to do, namely to educate and to lead. According to some, the additional burden, the daily bureaucracy, has got worse over the past five years. What's your response to that claim?
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you for the statement and the update. In discussing twenty-first century schools, you continue to use this concept of a building to describe a school. New buildings, well designed, can contribute towards creating an environment that encourages creativity and learning, and I myself am familiar with a number of brand-new school buildings in Arfon that have been warmly welcomed and have...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you for that. I would be grateful if you could confirm today that it's the responsibility of Fortem Energy Services to work to resolve this problem, or these problems, truth be told. The owners of homes should only use the guarantee as a final step if Fortem and the Welsh Government can't resolve these problems in a satisfactory manner and within a reasonable timetable. Will you just...
Siân Gwenllian: 10. Will the Minister provide an update on the Arbed scheme in Arfon? OQ56387
Siân Gwenllian: Plaid Cymru supports the direction that the new education curriculum takes us in. The young people of Wales have wanted to learn skills appropriate for life and modern workplaces for some time. We also believe in empowering teachers and giving them the freedom to teach creatively. The emphasis on the development and progress of the individual is also to be warmly welcomed. Enabling every...
Siân Gwenllian: I fear that the motion and the Conservative amendment take certain issues for granted without evidence to support them. There are a number of large schools in my constituency providing excellent education to the pupils. There are also many small schools in my constituency providing excellent education to their pupils. It's also true to say that the size of a school can have a negative or a...
Siân Gwenllian: I move.
Siân Gwenllian: I move.
Siân Gwenllian: Move.
Siân Gwenllian: Yes, please.
Siân Gwenllian: We as a group agree with the Government that religion, values and ethics should be on the face of the Bill as a mandatory element in order to help to create an inclusive society that respects all views, cultures and religions. We will therefore not be supporting Darren Millar's amendments, which would undermine that, and neither will we be supporting Suzy Davies's group 8 amendments. This is...
Siân Gwenllian: Move.
Siân Gwenllian: It is. Move.
Siân Gwenllian: It is.
Siân Gwenllian: Our amendments in group 5 relate to the teaching of Welsh in our schools, and passing them would provide far more detail, and would provide consistency and an assurance that every child will have an equal opportunity to acquire our nation's language. The Welsh Government is committed to establishing a single continuum for the teaching of Welsh and to scrapping Welsh as a second language, and...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much, Llywydd. Amendment 44 does what you claim it does not do. Amendment 44 reads like this: 'The What Matters Code must set out how an understanding of the key historical events of Wales and the world, including— '(a) Black and People of Colour History, '(b) Black, Asian and minority ethnic experiences and contributions, and '(c) the histories of racism and diversity, 'will...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much, Llywydd, and thank you for the opportunity to open the debate on group 4. Supporting amendment 43 would add the sentence 'The History of Wales in all of its diversity, including Black and People of Colour History' to the list of mandatory elements within the areas of learning and experience. It would be in addition to what we've just been discussing, namely relationship...
Siân Gwenllian: Plaid Cymru is also fully supportive of making relationships and sexuality education statutory. We support the Government fully on this issue, and I too would wish to praise the Minister for her commitment to this area. And here we are today, seeing the Welsh Parliament at its best, being progressive, working together, being robust on a crucially important issue. We also support adding...
Siân Gwenllian: The reality is that Wales provides fewer cooked free school meals to its children at the moment than any other nation within the UK. In Scotland and England, every child of school age, in the first three years of their education, is in receipt of free school meals, whatever the family income. In Northern Ireland, the earnings threshold for those in receipt of universal credit is set far...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As a matter of principle, every child should receive free school meals. To get to that point, we need planning and to do so in a phased way. The first step is to start to include the 70,000 children living below the poverty line in Wales, and that is what our motion puts forward today. They are missing out at the moment, mainly because their parents are in...
