Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 2:28 pm on 11 January 2017.
Thank you for that question. No assessment has been carried out since I took over this job, although there has been an independent report and some research done on restructuring the school week—for instance, having a four-day school week, allowing for one day at the end of the week to be for teacher preparation and training purposes—but nothing has been done to look at the overall academic year. I absolutely recognise this principle that, for some children, that long summer break does lead to the concept, as I said earlier, of learning loss, and that’s why these food and fun clubs will not just focus on the issue of holiday hunger, but actually look to ensure that they—and the pilots suggest that they have been successful in doing so—address that concept of learning loss, especially with regard to literacy, numeracy and oracy. One headteacher spoke to me recently and said that if it wasn’t for the fact that her high school remained open during the summer, many of those young people would not have an adult to talk to for most of the day and their oracy levels dropped considerably. So, we know that this is an issue. This policy intervention is hoping to successfully attack and solve a number of problems.