Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 2 November 2016.
Cabinet Secretary, in your predecessor’s written statement on 28 January this year, Huw Lewis said that the system is not about labelling or creating crude league tables. He also said that any school performing below agreed performance of free school meals would be awarded yellow at best. I can see the rationale behind this, particularly in areas of high free school meals uptake, but it does mean that some schools performing very well in other areas have been marked down. Is this still an absolute rule? Are you keeping this model under review? How are you achieving that very difficult balance between labelling, which is a necessary part of this with that colour scheme, and making sure that schools are treated fairly?