The next item on our agenda is the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education on ‘Successful Futures: An Update on Digital’. I call on the Cabinet Secretary to make her statement—Kirsty Williams.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. As I have said before in this Chamber, education reform is our national mission, and I am determined to ensure that our young people have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently published a report on our reforms, acknowledging the widespread commitment to improving teaching and learning in Wales’s schools. One of the key areas highlighted in the report as having made ‘good progress’ has been at the vanguard of our reforms—the development of our learners’ digital skills. From the outset, we have been clear that being digitally competent is one of the fundamental pillars of a modern education. That is why digital competence was identified as the third cross-curricular responsibility, alongside literacy and numeracy, and why we fast-tracked the supporting framework, which was made available in September 2016. The digital competence framework—the DCF—developed by leading-edge digital pioneer schools, regional consortia and Estyn, embeds digital skills and knowledge across pupils’ learning experiences as they progress through school, and will see teachers increasingly apply relevant digital skills in their lessons.

Since its launch there have been a number of developments to support teachers to weave digital skills into their teaching. A curriculum mapping tool was published last term to help schools plot their journey through the DCF, and an updated professional learning needs tool on Hwb helps identify teachers’ skills needs and the most appropriate development opportunities for the workforce.

Our digital pioneers are now creating classroom tasks for schools featuring innovative and practical ideas on how to use the DCF as part of their daily practice, and a new professional learning approach will be available from the autumn term—again, developed by teachers, for teachers.

But, of course, support for digital did not simply start with the DCF. Through the Learning in Digital Wales programme, significant progress has been made in a number of key areas. For example, since the launch of Hwb, around three quarters of schools are counted as actively engaged in using that platform, and I’m pleased to report that usage is increasing. In March, Hwb received over 3.2 million page views and averaged over 28,000 logins each day, which has significantly exceeded the original expectations for the project. These figures confirm that Hwb is now a staple resource in Welsh classrooms. However, we are constantly looking to innovate and to improve the platform. Therefore, I’m pleased to announce a series of updates and exciting new developments to ensure that Hwb continues to meet stakeholders’ needs and keeps pace with the relevant digital advances.

A new user interface will further enhance teachers’ and learners’ experience of Hwb, and will give quicker access to the tools and functions that are most commonly used, all developed following feedback from teachers and the regional education consortia. Looking ahead, and considering future requirements, we know that demand for broadband speed in schools will continue to increase. It is simply unacceptable for a school to be at a significant disadvantage due to poor internet speeds. Ensuring that every school, no matter where they are based, has access to superfast broadband remains a priority of mine, which is why, last September, I announced a further investment of £5 million to address this issue. Final scoping for this work has been completed, and 341 schools across Wales will be eligible to benefit from this investment, which includes provision of 100 Mbps to every special school in Wales. Orders for the new services have started to be placed, with the first delivery of the new circuits expected early in the academic year 2017-18. In addition to this, my officials will continue to identify where additional improvements can be made to network resilience and centralised services, such as web filtering, to ensure that schools in Wales have the best access to ICT services possible.

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

But my ambition for learners does not stop here. I want our learners to go further than just using the tools and infrastructure that we have made available. I want them to move from being users of technology to being creative authors. Learners’ ability to write code is a key aspect of that ambition and is far broader than just using technology. It is about problem solving, being creative, and doing things in a different and fun way. Being able to code cuts across so many subject areas and so many exciting careers, and has the ability to open up new opportunities for young people and teachers. Next week, Deputy Presiding Officer, I will be announcing plans for how we are going further to support our learners to develop coding skills in and around the classroom. I will be setting out what Welsh Government will be doing, working with the regional education consortia, universities, businesses, and the third sector to expand the network of code clubs in every part of Wales. The approach will focus on support for teachers, closer engagement between schools and creative partners, and a stronger role on parental engagement.

I’d like to finish this update by fulfilling another of the OECD’s recommendations for education in Wales, and that is being better at celebrating our successes. Our approach was recently described by Microsoft as ‘world leading’, and that we are ‘leading the charge’ by threading digital competence throughout the curriculum. Next week, I will be speaking to 350 teachers at the national digital learning event and awards to continue to celebrate the current best practice in our schools. This is an ambitious, exciting, and innovative agenda, where we can be proud that Wales is leading the way for our teachers and for our learners.

Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for her statement and for an advance copy of the statement, which was distributed earlier on today? I want to welcome the announcement of the additional £5 million today in order to improve broadband speeds at our schools. We know that it’s only as recently as this year—earlier this year—that some schools have actually had a broadband connection at all, which I think we all agree is completely unacceptable. We clearly need now to make sure that we are absolutely at the vanguard of taking advantage of the opportunities that broadband and superfast broadband access actually provide. My party certainly recognises the importance of ensuring that our children and young people are digitally equipped for the twenty-first century, and that's one of the reasons why we brought forward a debate just a few weeks ago on things like internet safety—and, of course, the importance of coding is something that we've raised in the past, too. So, I'm very pleased that some important progress is being made on those matters, and I was particularly pleased to hear you make reference to having appropriate web filters in place in our schools as well.

I think that it is absolutely right to celebrate success, and I also want to congratulate the Welsh Government on the establishment of Hwb, and it's nice to see that it's getting some attention internationally. Unfortunately, as we all know, we've had too much international attention for our lacklustre performance in recent years, so it's nice, actually, to be leading on something, and I think that this is something that we can really continue to trumpet in the future.

I think it is concerning that we've still got a quarter of our schools—one in four—not accessing the Hwb on a regular basis. You made reference to the fact that 75 per cent of our schools actually are. That still means we've got a quarter that aren't making use of the wonderful resource that is there, available to them. I wonder, Cabinet Secretary, what work you’re going to be doing to encourage them to take advantage of it, because we know that many schools are finding that they’re having a much richer experience in terms of being able to use those online resources and to bring them and introduce them into the classroom.

Can I also ask you—? In terms of the higher broadband speeds, of course they’re important, but it's also important that we've got an IT infrastructure that can take advantage of that. I've been in to many schools that are using sometimes quite old equipment that might be in need of an upgrade, and I wonder what work you are going to be doing with local authorities to make sure that there’s proper investment in the IT infrastructures in our schools, to make sure that it's up to scratch and that the higher speed broadband services are actually going to be worthwhile, being used on some of that older equipment. Can you also tell us what you're doing to ensure that those pupils, particularly those who are digitally disadvantaged by not having a broadband connection in their own home, don't fall behind in this digital revolution that we’re having in our schools? Because, obviously, if a child, if a learner, goes home and they're not able to do their homework online in the same way as other children, or to continue to develop those skills that they've been learning in the classroom, then I think it's important that we try to have a strategy to overcome that, and I wonder what thoughts the Cabinet Secretary has on how we can do that in a successful way and what discussions she might have had with the Minister for science and technology about the Superfast Cymru roll-out? I note that there is a statement on the roll-out of Superfast Cymru this afternoon.

Can you also tell us when you're going to publish the action plan in terms of the internet safety action plan that was referred to a few weeks ago in the Chamber, when you made an important announcement that you were going to develop that? Because, obviously, these things go hand in hand. If we're going to have more access to the internet, then we've got to make sure that that is absolutely safe access and that any guidelines for its use are developed alongside this rapidly developing arena, particularly for children and young people who might be vulnerable when using the IT systems.

And, just finally, can you assure us that you will be keeping us up to date on these developments? As I say, I think it is exciting. It's nice to know that we’re at the top of the tree as far as this issue is concerned, and that we're getting some international plaudits, but we also need to make sure that we're constantly and regularly informed about progress so that we can ensure that Wales continues to have that lead position, not just within the UK, but around the world. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Darren, for your comments and your questions. As I said in my statement, equity of access to these facilities is very important to me, and you are right to say that, until recently, some schools were not in a position to access the DCF and do the kind of work they wanted to do in digital terms because of a lack of infrastructure. The previous Government had made a commitment to minimum speeds for schools and, unfortunately, on coming into office, I found that there were a number of schools that were not reaching that target. I'm very pleased to say that all schools are reaching the minimum target now. Those problems have been sorted out, and all schools are now at a minimum.

The £5 million—and I should be clear; it’s not an announcement today, it’s money that I’ve announced previously, and I’m reporting back to the Assembly today on the usage of that £5 million, for clarity’s sake. The £5 million investment will be able to further enhance facilities for 341 schools. Those decisions have been made in collaboration with local authorities around capacity they know is problematical, growth in demand and where they feel that there are particular pinch points, and, importantly for me, to improve capacity in our special schools. Under the previous target, special schools were given the same minimum speeds as primary schools. That was done usually on the basis of their rolls being smaller than a secondary school, but of course our special schools often have secondary-age pupils in them, and it seems to me only fair that they have access to what they would have if they were in mainstream secondary school, and also because of the very innovative way many of our special schools use digital technology to access learning opportunities for many of their learners. So, I’m particularly pleased that we’ve been able to address that in the investment.

Darren, you’re also correct that the gubbins outside the school is one thing, but if we haven’t got a proper infrastructure within the school, then this investment will not reach its full potential. Sometimes when I visit schools, people complain to me about a lack of broadband, but actually it’s connectivity issues within the school building itself that are the cause of the problem. So, we will continue to work with local authorities to look at local networks, the capacity of Wi-Fi within an individual school building, and also, crucially, support from the centre—our councils—to schools in the use of their ICT. We will need them to continue to do that.

We also need to challenge some behaviours. You talked about web filters and protecting children, but sometimes web filters can be used in a way that actually confines what we can do with ICT. I’m aware of one particular local authority in Wales where the web filter does not allow Skyping. So, in one county we can have schoolchildren Skyping with an Antarctic explorer, literally down in the south pole, and they can have that conversation with that explorer, but in another authority, because of issues around web filters, they cannot use Skype. So, we need to address those kinds of issues that are confining our ability to use this technology.

You said about literacy disadvantage. I am aware that some schools use their pupil deprivation grant to address some of this. In fact, in Bryn Elian, where you and I went to visit, you will be aware that that school sends Raspberry Pis home with children so that actually they can do their work in their home environment. So, for those children whose parents perhaps haven’t got those resources, the school makes an effort to ensure that that isn’t the case. That’s a really good example of good practice in your constituency that I would commend. As you will be aware and as you referred to, my colleague will make a statement later on roll-out of superfast broadband, and I’m particularly keen that nobody is disadvantaged. Many of these children have to go home at the end of the school day because of school transport issues, and if they’re in a community that doesn’t have access to this technology, they are indeed at a disadvantage. There isn’t a day goes by when my daughters don’t come from school and their homework demands of them some research on the internet.

With regards to safety, Hwb has many resources with regard to internet safety, and we continue to work very closely in ensuring that our children have the skills, the knowledge and the wherewithal to keep themselves safe online. I will be publishing that report as quickly as possible. I am keen to do that in a timely fashion.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. May I also welcome your statement this afternoon and welcome, once again, that digital competence is a cross—curricular aspect and a central part of education planning by this Government? Plaid Cymru, of course, in the past has called for digital literacy to be placed on an equal footing with numeracy and literacy, and clearly we therefore welcome every move in that direction.

May I also bear witness, as a parent, to the success of Hwb? Certainly, in our house, the children are far more willing to go and do their work on Hwb rather than getting to grips with their books. One would recognise that we need both, of course, but certainly its contribution is very great, and one to be welcomed, and once that can be built on further, as the Cabinet Secretary has already suggested.

As we’ve heard, getting broadband to more schools is one thing, of course. Ensuring that the infrastructure is in place is another thing. But, of course, what is also needed is to ensure that the hardware is available, because I know of one school, for example, where if more than two pupils are using an iPad at the same time, then the whole system will crash. But in having broadband in place, then you need 20 pupils all using iPads, but the school doesn’t have 20 iPads. Therefore, we need capital investment in buying equipment to take full advantage of that new infrastructure that will be put in place.

In a climate where school budgets are reducing, I know of another school, for example, where they need to spend £5,000 to £7,000 on purchasing equipment if they are going to go into an agreement with another provider for IT services. That can be difficult. So, I don’t know what consideration the Cabinet Secretary has given to possibly creating some sort of fund or providing some practical support to the schools who will need to take full advantage of the broadband capacity that will be available to them, in order to ensure that their pupils get the maximum benefit from that investment.

I have also heard the point about the fact that some people don’t have access to the internet, but there are others who have access to the internet at home but it’s not good enough. I am one of them. My children have often started to work on Hwb but have failed to complete their work because the broadband provision isn’t sufficient to maintain their session. So, that question remains. You refer in your statement to parental engagement. Well, the engagement that I get with Hwb is one of complete frustration when the system doesn’t work because of those problems. We may hear more about that in a later statement.

I don’t need to remind you, but a workforce survey by the Education Workforce Council recently found that ICT and digital skills was one of the areas where the workforce was saying that they feel that they need far more training—46 per cent, I think, said that they felt that they needed enhanced training in this area.

Now, you did refer to opportunities that are to be announced next week, perhaps, but I would like to know what arrangements are in place to ensure that this potential is fully delivered, because time for training is the issue that I’ve raised with you in the past. It’s difficult to see—if we are to make full use of the opportunities before us, then we must ensure that the workforce has the necessary skills, particularly when we’re talking about the development of coding, and more activities around that, which require a higher level of skill in this particular area.

Thank you, Llyr, for your support for the importance of digital competency and recognising that if we are to give our children the very best opportunities to compete in the global market place, being digitally competent is absolutely crucial to them. With regard to Hwb—and apologies for not answering Darren Millar’s question in the first session—it is very encouraging to see the increasing usage of Hwb, and a recognition of the value the resources that are available on Hwb can play.

I’m also very pleased to engage with a wide number of stakeholders who also see value in working on educational resources that, as long as they’re bilingual and we have checked them, we are happy to host. So, for instance, I recently took part in an event with the fire services of Wales—they are sharing their resources on Hwb. The National Farmers’ Union Wales have shared their resources on Hwb, and I know that, for instance, this summer, in the Royal Welsh Show, Hybu Cig Cymru will be launching some educational resources that we hope to be able to host on Hwb. So, it’s great to see not only schools engaging, but a wide range of organisations throughout Wales that see this as a valuable way of engaging with schoolchildren.

But, you’re right; we need to identify which schools are not engaging with Hwb and understand the reasons why that is and what we’re going to do to address those barriers. Are there barriers around infrastructure? I hope that the investment that we’re making means that that no longer becomes an issue in terms of superfast broadband and adequate broadband speeds to the schools themselves.

I’ve not been made aware that hardware is a particular issue, but undoubtedly I’m aware that parents and PTAs and friends of schools are often working really, really hard in this area to make those resources available for our young people, and I will keep under review whether this is a barrier to schools using our particular platforms. In-school infrastructure can be a problem and, as I said to Darren Millar, we’re working with local authorities to try and address that. Broadband connections at the home is not my job. My job is to get the broadband connections to the school. We’ve got everybody up to the minimum speed. We’re improving that with 341 schools. But I’m sure Julie James later on will explain very clearly how the Government intends to make sure that broadband connections for home usage are what we would all want them to be.

Professional learning is absolutely key and we need to work on this on a number of levels. You will be aware, as I mentioned in my statement, that the first thing we need to do is to be able to assess what the professional learning needs are. That’s why the Hwb self-assessment tool, which has now been renamed the DCF professional learning needs tool, is being developed by our pioneer schools. The updated version is now available. It’s got new functionality attached to it. That supports teachers in assessing their skills and their confidence. It supports DCF co-ordinators in schools to identify professional learning needs within their own individual school and it’s there to assist and develop professional support for staff. It also allows local education authorities and consortia to identify what the learning needs are in their particular area so they can adapt their professional learning programmes and what’s available to meet those needs.

So, identifying the need is one thing and then we need to look at what those offers are. And those offers are many and varied. So, for instance, I recently launched Barefoot resources on Hwb at Cadoxton Primary School in Barry. Barefoot resources have teach-yourself material specifically for staff. Yesterday, I was in a school in Llandough with the Cabinet Secretary for health, and the teachers there said that they’ve had great enjoyment learning side-by-side with their pupils and actually, getting pupils to explain to them not only increased their skills but that’s a great way of testing learning. If a pupil can explain to you what is going on, that’s a really great way of knowing that learning is being embedded as well as developing other skills. But we need a national approach and that is being developed. Welsh Government previously has funded a number of posts to train teachers in the use of Hwb. And, as I said, the ongoing professional learning needs of our staff will be absolutely crucial in delivering this agenda.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. I certainly welcome your statement about the future investment in coding. I think that’s very encouraging and I do hope, given the opportunities there are from coding, that the announcement is of a sufficient scale to be able to take advantage of those opportunities. I also acknowledge your remarks about the DCF and Hwb being hailed across the world and we should congratulate all those involved in those projects to get that kind of recognition. But, of course, we should be cautious. We’re not short of our strategies being recognised across the world as being innovative, but we know that the implementation of them is the tricky bit. And we should be worried about Estyn’s comments in the last chief inspector’s annual report about the level of digital excellence in schools across Wales. Though, of course, that does raise the question of whether or not Estyn are best placed to make those judgments. Would Estyn recognise good practice in digital learning and do they have the skills and capacity to be able to be in a position to make assessments of that? I ask the Cabinet Secretary to say something about that.

My primary question though, Cabinet Secretary, is about the need for leadership in this area and the need for headteachers and school leadership teams to see digital learning just as important as numeracy and literacy and what the Government is doing to ensure that the new national academy for educational leadership instils digital leadership amongst future heads on an equal basis.

Thank you very much, Lee, for that. As you said, implementation is everything and the document in itself will not get us there. I think what is absolutely clear is that, in ensuring successful implementation, we need a number of factors. We need individual teachers who feel confident and skilled in the use of the DCF, and I outlined to Llyr some of the proactive ways in which we are making those professional learning opportunities available to existing teachers. We need to make sure that, in our initial teacher education, training our new generation of teachers, when they are looking at issues of pedagogy around literacy and numeracy, this will form part of our new ITE offer so that teachers coming out of our institutes of higher education already have these skills and feel confident and knowledgeable about how digital literacy can work through all of their lessons.

Leadership, as always in all aspects of school improvement and raising standards in our schools, is absolutely clear. Programmes that will be delivered by the leadership academy are currently being developed, but given the importance of digital competency alongside numeracy and literacy, as the three underpinning themes of our educational reform journey, one would expect and, indeed, require the ability of school leaders to demonstrate their commitment and their competency in this particular field.

With regard to assessment and who is best to judge what goes on in our schools, I think, like any organisation as new technology develops, an organisation has to test itself as to whether it has the right approaches to be making judgments on others. As you’ll be aware, Estyn are already reviewing and have made adaptations to their current schools inspection framework. They’re currently developing a new framework for how they inspect individual local education authorities, but I’m sure Estyn would be the first to say that their overall approach to how Estyn can contribute to school improvement, and its role in our national mission of education improvement, will have to be looked at at some stage.

Thank you. And finally, Michelle Brown.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. I welcome your commitment to the objective of ensuring that all pupils in Wales are digitally competent by the time they leave school. In modern workplaces, there are few jobs that don’t require at least some level of competence with digital technology, and few areas of life where it does not now not extend. I’m therefore pleased that such skills are part and parcel of the curriculum. I also welcome the Welsh Government’s efforts to educate pupils about cyber-bullying through the digital competence framework.

The introduction of a curriculum mapping tool and updated professional needs tools is welcome, and from what you tell us about take-up of the new online resources, it would appear that teachers and pupils find them useful. I welcome your efforts as well to assist and support teachers in developing their teaching to keep up to date in a fast-changing environment. You state that a new professional learning approach will be available from the autumn term. This concept sounds interesting, but you haven’t provided any information in your statement about what this might entail, and what the new approach is likely to look like. So, please would you provide some further information on this?

The uptake of Hwb by users would indicate that the resources are at least popular, and I welcome that Hwb’s ongoing development is off the back of feedback from teachers and regional educational consortia. I am pleased at the Cabinet Secretary’s efforts to include such stakeholders in the development of online resources, but it also makes me wonder why parents are not accorded the same privilege, to have their views properly canvassed and taken into account in reports into the quality of schools, in the same way that teachers and regional consortia’s views are being canvassed and considered about the quality of online resources.

Greater reliance on online tools and IT in the classroom will, of course, lead to an increased demand on school broadband, and I agree with you that it’s unacceptable for a school to be at a disadvantage due to poor internet speed. I therefore welcome the additional funds that the Cabinet Secretary has set aside for the improvement of broadband in schools. However, can the Cabinet Secretary please set out what the eligibility criteria are for investment from that fund for school broadband, and on what grounds would a school be denied that funding? What provisions are there in place for a school denied funding for improvement to their broadband to appeal the refusal of funding?

I note the Cabinet Secretary’s comments about the development of coding skills in schools. In principle, teaching pupils the basic skills that will enable them to take up technological jobs is welcome. Teaching those skills in an effort to better equip school leavers for the world of employment and to stimulate interest in studying coding and data security, et cetera, is essential if we’re going to produce our own IT specialists, rather than effectively outsourcing such training and education to other countries. I am therefore looking forward to hearing your statement on the development of coding skills next week. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Michelle, for the comments and the questions. I think what is absolutely crucial is that we enable our children to have the knowledge of how they can stay safe online, how they can use technology in everyday life, but also, crucially, as you said at the end, that their knowledge goes beyond that and they actually understand the workings of how that technology is being put together and take advantage of the significant employment opportunities that will exist in having coding skills.

I don’t want to prejudge what I will say next week about the Government’s strategy on coding, but to be clear, it’s my ambition that more children should have access to those skills and to those opportunities, and that goes beyond children. I’m working very closely with my Cabinet colleague for skills to see how those skills can be rolled out to adult learners, and how people, perhaps who are not currently in the workplace, can acquire those skills. They are skills that mean that logistical disadvantage, i.e. you’re stuck in a community with low transport links to be able to get to a big city, if the superfast broadband infrastructure is good enough, you can do that from your home. If you have caring responsibilities and you can’t work away from home, you can code and work for a company successfully in your own home. So, actually, this goes beyond coding simply for younger people, it is about using these skills to be able to empower the Welsh workforce as a whole.

With regard to criteria, for the 341 schools that have been supported by this £5 million, those conversations have been had with individual local authorities that have identified schools that have significant problems in increasing their broadband speeds, whose rolls, perhaps, are increasing because of the merger of schools or the closure of schools, and a re-establishment of a different pattern within the school means it might struggle, as well as identifying resources for our special schools, which, as I outlined, originally had lower speeds set for them and we wanted to address that because of the individual specific needs that special schools have regarding this type of technology. We will constantly keep under review the adequacy of the infrastructure that is available.

With regard to coding, as I said, that’s really important and parents are an important part of this whole discussion; this isn’t about excluding parents from this discussion. Many schools, I know, work very closely with their parental communities to share good practice, to share, for instance, internet safety advice, to be able to give after-school opportunities for parents to come in and understand what they can do simply at home with filters, et cetera, to keep their children safe online. So, this is not about excluding parents from this; actually, we want to increase parental engagement and understanding of how these resources can greatly aid their children’s academic and educational attainment.

Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary.