7. Will the Minister make a statement on the ending of the Schools Challenge Cymru programme? OAQ(5)0037(EDU)

Thank you Vikki. Presiding Officer, I understand that you’ve given permission for questions 7 and 10—

Cabinet Secretary, there’s not sufficient time to group the questions, so question 7 will be taken on its own.

Apologies. Vikki, Schools Challenge Cymru is a temporary intervention to accelerate improvement in our most challenged schools. The programme’s central funding ends in 2016-17. However, I will reflect on verified GCSE results and evaluation findings to embed lessons learned and inform deployment of the £100 million pledge to raise school standards.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. I recently visited Pontypridd High School in my constituency and had a useful discussion with the headteacher on how Schools Challenge Cymru was helping them to drive up standards. For example, 2016 marked their best ever performance in terms of GCSE results. Having taught myself in a Schools Challenge Cymru school, which last year was the second best improved school within the Schools Challenge Cymru cohort, I know also of the positive benefits that the programme has brought in terms of staff morale and student morale too. Schools Challenge Cymru is benefitting participant schools, there’s no doubt about that, and I’m keen that any progress is not lost. What lessons can the Welsh Government take from the programme so we can further build on progress made and share best practice more widely within the education system in Wales?

Thank you. Like you, Vikki, I would like to congratulate Pontypridd High School on their reported improvements. I’m committed to building, as I said, on the progress made in Pathways to Success schools, ensuring that the lessons are learnt about how we can share that across the wider school system. We’re working closely with local authorities and the regional consortia to ensure that exit plans for all schools are robust and in place and that we take a holistic approach, so that the successes that you’ve seen in those schools that you have visited continue, and that best practice can be shared as part of our commitment to a self-improving schools system.

As the Member for Cynon Valley has just said, this programme is making a difference in some schools in Wales, including Milford Haven comprehensive school in my own constituency, but I appreciate that results seem to be patchy across Wales. However, given that the programme will now end just three years after its establishment, is the Cabinet Secretary satisfied that a programme like this has been given the necessary time to actually prove itself?

Thank you, Paul. Again, I’d like to congratulate the success of the school that you’ve mentioned. You have also recognised that those successes have not been universal in all schools that have taken part in the programme. Unfortunately, in some cases, we’ve seen some schools fall backwards, which is very concerning.

Let’s be clear, when the Schools Challenge Cymru programme was started, it was a two-year commitment and a two-year programme—that’s how it was launched. My predecessor, Huw Lewis, decided to extend the programme for an additional year, but it was made quite clear that it was a time-limited programme. What’s really important is that we learn from what has worked in those individual schools and that we spread that best practice to all schools in Wales, remembering that only 39 schools in Wales were part of the programme. There are positive lessons to be learnt, and we are carrying out a detailed evaluation of the programme so that we are aware of what has worked and that we can replicate that.

Coleg Cymunedol y Dderwen in my constituency in Ynysawdre was put under Schools Challenge Cymru in 2015. In a remarkably short time, under a new executive headteacher, Nick Brain, with strong leadership right throughout the school, not only with Nick, but throughout the school now, under Schools Challenge Cymru, this year it had a record-breaking year of GCSE results: 93 per cent of students achieving at least five GCSE grades A* to C—34 per cent higher than the year previously; 56 per cent of students achieving the gold standard of at least five GCSE grades A* to C; and, in short, the best results achieved in the short history of Coleg Cymunedol y Dderwen or its two predecessor schools of Ogmore and Ynysawdre comprehensives. So, to echo the comments of my colleagues who’ve spoken previously, Vikki and Paul, how do we build on that success to make sure that that is now continued long into the future, so that all of my pupils, no matter where they live, no matter what background they come from, have the very best opportunity in life?

Once again, could I congratulate the immense hard work that has gone on in that new school for the improvements that they have seen? It is a testament to the dedication of the staff and the commitment of pupils and parents, and Nick Brain is to be congratulated. Huw, you have touched on the very central point of how we can drive educational change in this country and that is outstanding leadership. We know that that can be one of the biggest drivers for educational change, regardless of whether a school finds itself in a specific programme, or outside of a programme. I’m committed to developing the leadership capacity of Wales’s headteachers and the next generation of school leaders, and I’ll be making further announcements of my leadership academy and funding around that later on this month.

I must say I’m very disappointed that Schools Challenge Cymru has come to an end and I would have much preferred to see it recalibrated rather than abandoned. There is an evidence base that we can draw upon from Manchester and London of where it has succeeded and I do think it’s important the Cabinet Secretary does prioritise investment in schools, where there is evidence to justify that.

In terms of learning the lessons, from my understanding of Schools Challenge Cymru, a key part was the word ‘challenge’ and the use of a peer group to put a school under support and scrutiny. So, how can that be captured in an all-Wales programme, and how can the Secretary ensure that that isn’t watered down?

Thank you very much. The Member should not be surprised that the programme has come to an end, because as I stated at the very beginning, the programme was never intended to be anything but a shorter-term intervention for the period of three years, and we have now come to the end of the three years. We’re carrying out a detailed evaluation into the aspects of the programme that have indeed, in some schools, delivered tremendous results and change. We want to work on that. You say, ‘What can we do around the issue of challenge?’ Well, the regional consortia and the challenge advisers who are employed by the regional consortia—that is exactly the role that they have within the consortia, and we’re working very closely with the Schools Challenge Cymru schools and the regional consortia to ensure that the progress that they have made does not slip back, and that we can learn the lessons of what has worked and avoid the pitfalls of parts of the programme that have not been as successful as, I’m sure, you or I would like.

And finally, David Melding.

Minister, I think you’ve heard from everyone that underperforming schools are turned round by leadership and expectations. We should expect our youngsters, regardless of their social background, to achieve really good GCSE results, and then many of them ought to have a tutor immediately as they enter their A-levels who takes them through the process of applying for the top universities—that’s how we get success.

Can I thank you, David? You’re absolutely right. Leadership, in all its forms, from the head of an individual institution to the middle-tier management to the individual subject leaders within the school—leadership at all levels in our schools is absolutely crucial, and that’s why we will set up the leadership academy—details of which I will announce later on this month.

We have to have high expectations of our children. I’m afraid, in the past, we’ve written too many children off. We have let their postcode or the size of their parents’ bank account be a determinant of what we expect of those children. That’s why this Government prioritises spending on children from our poorer backgrounds, via the pupil deprivation grant, and our Seren programme is designed to ensure that our highest performers, regardless of their background, have the help and support that they need to make applications and be successful in obtaining places at Oxford, Cambridge and other Russell Group universities, and the Seren programme is delivering great success for us.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary.