Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 11 January 2017.
John, you will be aware—because we have discussed this previously—that our twenty-first century schools programme will only gain a sign-off by Welsh Ministers if there is a significant community element in all of those proposals that are brought forward. We know, from looking at the evaluation of the pupil deprivation grant, that with schools that use that grant effectively, much of that grant is used on building strong relationships between families and the school to get buy-in into their children’s education. On the announcement that we have made with regard to food and fun clubs in the summer, one of the most successful elements of those clubs is that, on the final day, parents come into the food and fun club to participate in the lunch and activities in the afternoon, again to bind parents into those programmes. So, we are working as a Welsh Government on a number of fronts—both on the physicality of the building of the school, as well as the ethos of what goes on in those buildings—to build strong relationships between parents and schools, because we know that that is when children do best. They don’t even have to go to school to be a focus for Welsh Government. We have spent considerable resource last year, and we will do so again this year, on developing resources for parents to help their children get ready for life in school, and what they can do as parents to make the transition from home into school as successful as it can be. So, we will continue to work on a number of programmes to support families to support their children be the best that they can be in school.