Kirsty Williams: ...scheme, a scheme that recognised the need to support and develop the potential of all our young people, and to give them the opportunity to experience a broad range of opportunities beyond formal education—indeed, I would argue, an ethos that underpins our new curriculum here in Wales. Perhaps some of us were lucky enough to undertake the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, although I do have to...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Could I thank colleagues for their comments and acknowledge the work that Alun Davies did on the ALN Bill when he was serving as my deputy in the education department? I'm very grateful for that and I know his own personal commitment to this agenda. Suzy and Siân Gwenllian raised a number of issues. Can I just try and respond, as briefly as I can,...
Kirsty Williams: ...introduced ambitious new legislation that paved the way for a pioneering system for supporting children and young people with additional learning needs, namely the Additional Learning Needs and Educational Tribunal (Wales) Bill, which became an Act in 2018. The Act represented the first step in the ALN transformation programme and the first step towards achieving a long-standing commitment...
Kirsty Williams: ...that people are not discouraged from seeking help. I can't comment, because I don't know the full details of the case, but what we also have to recognise is that whilst we can realistically expect schools to manage a certain amount within the school setting, sometimes a family or a child may need help above and beyond the competencies that could be expected within school, and that's where...
Kirsty Williams: ...are well acquainted with, if nothing else, the simple biological changes that our young people go through during adolescence and how we need to be mindful of that in our approaches in the secondary school system. And I, certainly, sitting on the task and finish group, learned a lot and, indeed, have adjusted my own parenting style at home with that deeper understanding. Of course, the...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Siân, for those points. Whilst I in no way disagree with the importance of nutrition for children and the important role that that plays in their education, I think it is just a little naive to think that, and that alone, can tackle the challenges of promoting good well-being and mental health in our schools. Can I say, one of the things that we do know that causes a great deal of...
Kirsty Williams: ...arm of its own, but crucially, when face-to-face inspections are ready to go again and are reintroduced at the appropriate time, the new inspection framework from Estyn itself will look at how schools are addressing issues around well-being so that there is an added incentive, if you like, for the schools to actively engage in the framework, because that is one way in which they will be...
Kirsty Williams: ..., the impact of furlough or job losses on the adults around them, the separation from their wider family and friendship circles, and the impact on their normal routine, just being able to attend school—it will have all been very, very daunting. However, if there is one positive that we can take from the last year, let it be the issue of well-being, in particular that of children and...
Kirsty Williams: Supply teachers in Wales can be employed either directly via local authorities or schools, or via commercial supply agencies. Headteachers and governing bodies are responsible for all staffing decisions and for ensuring that they have an effective workforce in place under the Staffing of Maintained Schools (Wales) Regulations 2006.
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Angela. Whilst inspection activities have been suspended during the pandemic, I want to reassure you, and indeed other Members, that Estyn continue to engage with schools that were previously identified as needing an additional level of support. Clearly, that has been done remotely and has been done in a sympathetic way, recognising the conditions under which those schools are...
Kirsty Williams: .... Welsh Government has so far provided Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire local authorities with £1,649,000 to recruit, recover and raise standards, supporting learners at crucial stages in their education. I recently announced an additional £72 million to support learners, taking our total support for learning—I was going to use the word 'recovery', but after what I've just said, that...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you, Delyth. I think you have hit upon one of the aspects of the interruption to education that has really impacted upon children and young people, and that is a sense of isolation and the inability to spend time with their friends. And that's why schools the length and breadth of Wales have been focusing on that when they have seen the foundation phase return. And, indeed, that...
Kirsty Williams: Thank you very much, Lynne. I, too, am absolutely delighted that the framework has now been published and will be there to support schools in this really, really important aspect of their work, because if we think about the interruption to education that we have all witnessed and our children and young people have experienced, we're not going to be able to move forward from that unless we...
Kirsty Williams: On 15 March, we published our framework on embedding a whole-school approach to emotional and mental well-being. It places well-being at the heart of learning and, together with funding of £2.8 million to deliver well-being support to learners in the current year, to ensure that their return to education is all that it should be.
Kirsty Williams: Rhianon, you're right—the twenty-first century schools and colleges programme is a partnership approach and we would not have been able to realise the ambition of the programme without the close collaboration and working that we have with local education authorities. As we discussed at length yesterday, there is a multibillion-pound pot of money within Welsh Government to look to work with...
Kirsty Williams: ...does indeed provide a level of assurance that individuals will be treated fairly. And we have come to an agreement with the Welsh Local Government Association to once again communicate with their schools and make it very clear to the schools in their local authorities that schools should only be using those agencies that appear on the framework. I will give a commitment, Paul, that I will...
Kirsty Williams: Caerphilly received over £56 million during first wave of twenty-first century schools and colleges programme funding, and, of this, £28 million was spent in the Islwyn constituency. A further £110 million is planned for the second funding wave, and we are working with Caerphilly to make their plans a reality.
Kirsty Williams: ...Pembrokeshire and, indeed, across Wales during the pandemic. This support includes a tailored package of well-being and mental health support, and additional funding to create capacity within the school workforce.
Kirsty Williams: ...the class of 1999, they are worth that much more. Can I assure the Member that there is flexibility? Where learners have a specific barrier to wearing a face mask, then that should be recognised by schools. That might be in the case of neurodiverse learners or where learners have a communication difficulty. We have provided advice to schools on the appropriate specification of clear face...
Kirsty Williams: I'm not aware that we're asking children to wear masks in an unsupervised situation at all. Children are supervised on school transport and when they're in classrooms they are supervised. The advise that we're giving is that when social distancing cannot be maintained, then masks should be worn because that offers a level of protection, as I said, to both staff and learners. There are times...
