Vikki Howells: Thank you, Minister. I've got two questions today. My first is about initial teacher training. I think it's really important that trainee teachers are allocated a mix of school placements, so that they're able to gain experience in working with pupils from more disadvantaged backgrounds. And this is to build their skills and their expertise, but also, crucially, to build a passion for what is...
Vikki Howells: Thank you, Minister, for your statement. There are a couple of things that I'd like to pick up on. Firstly, it was really good to welcome you to Perthcelyn Community Primary School in Mountain Ash a few weeks ago. The school has received just over £66,000 in Welsh Government funding this year for a variety of external improvements. Ensuring the development of sustainable and welcoming...
Vikki Howells: ...to see that, above and beyond the commitments in the last spending review, the budget contains a commitment to provide an additional £227 million for Welsh councils. This includes funding for schools and social care, which, of course, are the biggest areas of spending for our partners in local government. Not least of all is the direct attempt to challenge some of the issues around...
Vikki Howells: ...and other Members for tabling this motion today and giving us the chance to discuss what is a very important issue: how we support our young people so that they can get the most out of their education. It follows on very naturally from last week's debate on the Children, Young People and Education Committee's report into pupil absence, and of course it's very timely when we are all aware...
Vikki Howells: ...witnesses for what I think is a very robust piece of work. For my contribution, I'll be focusing on a couple of the key recommendations. Firstly, recommendation 1 around promoting the importance of school attendance. We all know that it's important that children and young people attend school, and it's key that we get that positive message out there, especially after all the disruption and...
Vikki Howells: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Thank you, Minister, for your statement. I agree with your comments about the purpose of evaluation, improvement and accountability within the education process. They're all important procedures so that schools can improve their offer to and their outcomes for learners. I want to focus on your comments around national monitoring and sampling. As a former secondary...
Vikki Howells: ...is key to what we all want to achieve in terms of putting in place a transformative public transport network that is fit for purpose. That network must enable Welsh citizens to travel for work and education, leisure and pleasure. I look forward to the Welsh Government releasing information on its planned national transport survey in due course. I also look forward to hearing what...
Vikki Howells: Minister, it was a pleasure to join you fairly recently at the brand new Hirwaun primary school in my constituency, built under the twenty-first century schools programme, with £10.2 million of funding from Welsh Government and RCT council. I think it was probably one of the last schools to be built under that iteration of the plan that we're discussing now. The benefits of that project's...
Vikki Howells: ...how important it is that, despite personal loss, Leeanne has led this campaign so other families do not suffer. Turning to the next steps, I'm pleased to see recommendations 3 and 6 in particular. Education and awareness of the danger that bodies of water pose are critical to prevent loss of life. It is right that we try and impress this lesson on our children and young people from an...
Vikki Howells: Minister, I mentioned, during First Minister's questions yesterday, my recent visit to Capcoch Primary School in Abercwmboi to see the work they do to tackle child poverty, which has been praised by Estyn. Their interventions include things like a clothes exchange, a foodbank and an inclusive approach to school trips, which are all the more vital when we are facing increasing pressures on...
Vikki Howells: Trefnydd, last week I visited Capcoch Primary School in Abercwmboi to see the wonderful and truly heart-warming work that the school does to try and combat the effects of child poverty. The school's proactive interventions, including a clothes exchange, a foodbank and its approach to things like school trips, have been praised by Estyn. The Resolution Foundation estimates that relative child...
Vikki Howells: Thank you, Trefnydd. The Valleys Regional Park delivers a range of positive interventions, promoting health and well-being, offering adult education opportunities, protecting the environment, and enhancing the tourist offer in the Valleys, thereby boosting our local economies. Discovery gateways like the Dare Valley County Park mean that our Valleys communities can access these literally on...
Vikki Howells: ...to the issue of tackling child poverty. I note in contrast the actions of the Welsh Government, which the children’s commissioner has welcomed. Policies such as the roll-out of universal free school meals, the provision of free school breakfasts, an expanded childcare offer, Flying Start and an enhanced PDG access grant to help with the cost of the school day all make a real difference....
Vikki Howells: Diolch, Trefnydd. Child poverty is an issue of great concern to me, and today I sponsored an event held by the National Education Union and the Child Poverty Action Group, who've been working together to highlight the impact of poverty on education. The Welsh Government's roll-out of free school meals to all primary pupils is welcomed by families across the Cynon valley and across Wales, as...
Vikki Howells: Thank you, Minister, for your statement today. I'm proud of the record of achievement that my local authority has for delivering Welsh-medium education in Cynon Valley and the ways in which they've taken advantage of Welsh Government funding to increase provision, with, for example, a £12.5 million expansion of Ysgol Gyfun Rhydywaun currently under way, and the new £4 million purpose-built...
Vikki Howells: ...in Cynon Valley Museum last weekend. Perhaps the highlight will be the 400-strong choir who will perform in Library Square, drawn together from the local area and recreating the Côr Mawr. Local schools will also be integral to the event, ensuring that the memory of Caradog lives on and Aberdare lives up to its reputation as tref y gân, the town of song.
Vikki Howells: Minister, thank you for your statement here today. It was a real pleasure to accompany you last week on a visit to Pontypridd High School in my constituency to showcase the brilliant work that the school has been doing in conjunction with the Moondance Cancer Initiative, raising awareness of bowel cancer using a multipronged approach running through many different subject areas in the...
Vikki Howells: Thank you for your statement, Minister. I think there is certainly a lot to welcome in this new approach. I appreciate the need for transparency and openness, but when our schools, our learners and our communities are so varied, with widely different challenges, there were elements of the old system of categorization that could be somewhat reductive, and that was something that I saw and...
Vikki Howells: First Minister, Rhigos Primary School in my constituency is celebrating after recently being awarded the title of best breakfast club in Wales. We've been providing free breakfasts for children in Wales for just under 20 years now, improving not just their health but also their concentration levels. And of course, the benefits of that universal access to good nutrition is set to be...
Vikki Howells: ...for our growing network of meithrins. Can I ask whether you've considered a similar scheme in order to attract Welsh speakers into the key role of teaching assistants for our Welsh-medium schools? Secondly, turning to the issue of ALN provision, Rhondda Cynon Taf council recently announced the opening of its first Welsh-medium discrete additional learning needs class. This is a really...
