Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 2 November 2016.
I don’t see it to be my job or, indeed, the job of Welsh Government to dictate to individual communities the nature of the schools within those communities. I think local education authorities are best placed to make a judgment, in consultation with parents, teachers, pupils and their local populations about the types of schools that best fit with them. We know that some of our best performing schools are 11-16 schools. We know that other schools that have sixth forms also perform well. There is not one size that fits all, even in a small nation, and I think it is an important principle that Welsh Government sets the expectations we have for all schools, which is excellence for all pupils and driving up standards, but, as for the nature of individual schools, that is best left to local populations to decide what fits their communities best, and I do not want to dictate to those communities from the centre.