Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 28 September 2016.
I recognise this as a real, real issue for our potential next generation of school leaders, and there is a number of things that we need to do: we need to ensure that individual local education authorities are providing support mechanisms for those people to make the next step; and we need to work with our consortia to ensure that, in taking the step into being a headteacher, people will be supported in the first few months and years of taking on that particular role. The Member will be aware that, prior to the summer, I made an announcement regarding the setting up of a leadership academy in Wales, which will be specifically there to support, in the first instance, headteachers. Progress is going well and I hope to be able to make further announcements about the formation of that later on this autumn term. We’re also looking at the development of the role of school managers, so allowing headteachers to concentrate on curriculum development and educational matters and giving some of the paperwork associated with managing what are often large institutions to professional school managers. Officials and I are also looking at future options for reform of the qualifications that will be needed to become a headteacher, because we do know that there are some issues, especially given changes across the border, which are potentially narrowing our pool of potential headteachers, and we’re looking at options for change at this moment.