Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 2:20 pm on 2 November 2016.
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.